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SS United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

United States docked at a Philadelphia pier in September 2009

History

 

Name:United States

Operator:United States Lines

Port of registry:New York City

Route:Transatlantic

Ordered:1949[1]

Builder:Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company[1]

Cost:$79.4 million ($724 million in today's dollars)[1]

Yard number:Hull 488[2]

Laid down:February 8, 1950

Launched:June 23, 1951[3]

Christened:June 23, 1951[3]

Maiden voyage:July 3, 1952

Out of service:November 14, 1969[4]

Identification:

IMO number: 5373476

Callsign KJEH

Nickname(s):"The Big U"[5]

Status:Sold 1978

 

Owner:Various

Acquired:1978

Fate:Laid up in Philadelphia in 1996.[6]

Notes:The United States changed hands multiple times from 1978–1996 for a return to active sea service but no plans came through.[7]

 

Owner:SS United States Conservancy

Acquired:February 1, 2011

Status:Laid up in Philadelphia, bought to be preserved as of February 2011.[8]

General characteristics

Class and type:Ocean Liner

Tonnage:53,330 GT

Displacement:45,400 tons (at design draft); 47,264 tons (at maximum draft)

Length:990 ft (302 m) (overall); 940 ft (287 m) (waterline)

Beam:101.5 ft (30.9 m) maximum

Draft:31.25 ft (9.53 m) (design); 32.33 ft (9.85 m) (maximum)

Depth:75 ft (23 m)

Decks:12

Installed power:240,000 shp (180,000 kW)

Propulsion:

4 × Westinghouse double-reduction geared steam turbines

8 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers operating at 1000 psi (later reduced to 925 psi) and 975°F

4 × shafts

Speed:

32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) (service)

38.32 knots (70.97 km/h; 44.10 mph) (maximum)

Capacity:1,928 passengers

Crew:900

SS United States (Steamship)

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

SS United States is located in Philadelphia SS United States

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LocationPier 82, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Coordinates39°55′4.6″N 75°8′12.8″WCoordinates: 39°55′4.6″N 75°8′12.8″W

ArchitectWilliam Francis Gibbs

NRHP Reference #99000609[9]

Added to NRHPJune 3, 1999

SS United States is a luxury passenger liner built in 1952 for United States Lines. It was designed by American naval architect William Francis Gibbs to capture the trans-Atlantic speed record.

 

Built at a cost of $79.4 million ($724 million in today's dollars)[1] the ship is the largest ocean liner constructed entirely in the US and the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction. Even in her retirement, she retains the Blue Riband, the accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the highest speed.

 

Her construction was subsidized by the US government, since she was designed to allow conversion to a troopship should the need arise.[10] United States operated uninterrupted in transatlantic passenger service until 1969. Since 1996 she has been docked at Pier 82 on the Delaware River in Philadelphia.

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Uploaded on August 3, 2016
Taken on October 10, 2011