Hello, Voyagers:
Welcome to the first of the Captain’s (b)Logs! (Yeah, you saw what I did there!) In future blogs we’ll look into some of the corners and try to shed more light on the golden age of the trans-Atlantic super liner and its history, but for this first blog we need to look at a real-time crisis that’s playing out in Philadelphia.
As you know from reading the acknowledgements pages for Shadow of the Queen and Queen of Diamonds, there are only two of the grand trans-Atlantic ocean liners in existence. The Queen Mary, serving as a museum ship and floating hotel/conference center at Long Beach, California, and the SS United States, stripped of her interiors, propellers, and her engineering and propulsion machinery frozen in time and sitting at Pier 82 in Philadelphia. The United States belongs to the non-profit SS United States Conservancy, www.ssusc.org, which is working to restore and redevelop the ship as a destination attraction with the help of RXR Realty of New York.
Now here’s where it gets sticky. The landlord for the United States, Penn Warehousing, made an attempt to force the ship from its dock by doubling dockage fees without notice. The Conservancy went to court and won, but with a stiff caveat. The US District Court Senior Judge overseeing the case ruled that the United States must vacate its Philadelphia pier by September 12, 2024.
As you might expect, moving a ship that’s about 1,000 feet long with no onboard propulsion working isn’t going to be an easy task. Besides finding a new home at a pier somewhere on the East Coast or even elsewhere in Philadelphia, the Conservancy has to line up tug boats, do surveys, get insurance, and prepare the space that will become the new home of the ship.
The United States is America’s only super liner, designed and built entirely in the United States. She is the final holder of the Blue Riband for fastest crossing of the Atlantic which she did on her maiden voyage in 1952 in just over three days – wresting it from the Queen Mary!
Please take a moment to read the items below and enjoy your time with the Voyages of the Queen.
Click here to donate and help save America’s Flagship.
Best wishes
Scott Finley
Author and Member, SS United States Conservancy
© 2025 Scott Finley. All rights reserved.