The United States is today lying stripped bare in Philadelphia,
but with a re-builld on the cards! In her 17 years of
service she was by far the fastest liner ever built and had a number of very advanced
features.
Postcard my dad got on board - I think - of her July 22nd 1959
crossing from Southampton to New York via Le Havre.
The SS United States was designed with military use in mind. For this reason she was
extremely fast for such an enormous ship - over 38 knots - and was easily convertible into
a troop ship for 14000. She beat the Queen Mary's Atlantic crossing by 10! hours and still
holds the Blue Riband today. Unfortunately she became unprofitable with the advent of Jet
travel and was laid up in 1969 after only 17 years service.
She is now the largest abandoned vehicle in the city of Philadelphia but plans may be
afoot to give her a new life.
She is the exact opposite to the Queen Mary in many ways. The QM lies with no
mechanics, but her interiors on the whole intact, the United States is mechanically sounds,
but has been internally completely gutted.
The United States
