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Originally posted by mike sa:
A "National Icon".

Well for that to be true the average man in the street would need to recognise as such. I bet if you asked "Joe Soap" to name the top 10 national icons he would be more likely to say Brittany Spears than the Big U. In fact I would bet that in any proper survey Big U would not be in the top 50.

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So true. And if even one tiny percentage of those surveyed even thought to name a ship, it would probably be "Oasis of the Seas" or something!

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Originally posted by mike sa:
p of rust that a few shipnuts want to spend billions on at a time there is record unemployment etc. A lost cause.........

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Mike, It is a billion dollars for any of the European shipyards to make her a cruiseship again along the lines of Onno's and my rehab ideas.

As a stationary attraction, only a few of the upper decks need to be fitted out. The BigU is not just another old liner. The Sea Breeze or the old Statendam? They were not all that interesting or ground breaking ships.

If the ship were to be refitted in the USA, wether Philadelphia of Norfolk Virginia, Brooklyn Navy Yard it would create jobs that are sorely needed in the region. If it ends up in New York as an attraction accross from the Javitz Center or Philly's Penns Landing, again a job making enterprise. Most museums do not make money, however their cultural benefit is necessary and rely on government and private donations.

I do not see the BigU as being any different, nor the USS Olympia, USS New Jersey and Intrepid; all pre WWII ships that are restored. USS New Jersey offers catering and been to a few events on her.

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Originally posted by desirod7:

I do not see the BigU as being any different, nor the USS Olympia, USS New Jersey and Intrepid; all pre WWII ships that are restored. USS New Jersey offers catering and been to a few events on her.

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Originally posted by timb:
Intersting choice of ships as I am sure you are aware the Olympia folks are trying to give her back to the navy because they can't aford the repairs to keep her shinny side up. She is a much smaller ship of greater historic significance as well IMO

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Seems like her days are numbered as well. It's a shame a seaport museum like NY or Baltimore couldn't step in to save her and add OLYMPIA to their roster of ships.

CS Monitor

The only succes so far is the SS Rotterdam but it's too early to tell if it will be sufficient in the long run.

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Originally posted by Cunardcoll:
Let's face it , the USA are very good at talk but they never do something... Jochen

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The US probably has more notable ships saved as museums and attractions than any other country in the world.

It would be great if another seaport museum could pick up the OLYMPIA, maybe Baltimore, NY, or SF. Scrapping or sinking her would be a real shame being that she is the world's oldest steel warship still afloat as well as her significant historical background.

This interesting quote from the CS Monitor:

“But I suspect that finding the money isn’t the ultimate problem, even in these days of shrunken wallets.

The ultimate problem is that we can’t find the shame.

So if, this fall, the Olympia takes her final voyage down the Delaware, I hope she takes with her all the memories of Dewey and Gridley that are left (and there probably aren’t too many, courtesy of the inept priorities of our school systems), all the memories of The Unknown Soldier and the War he died in, and all the memories of the Stars and Stripes, flung out to a stiff Pacific breeze in the days when the nation felt young and self-confidence pumped through every vein. 

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Originally posted by Cunard Fan:
While I understand that saving every old ocean liner is not logical, I think with this particular ship she should be saved. The SSUS is, in my opinion, on a higher level then other ships for her history and the fact that she is still our nations flag ship (unless you actually want to consider the PoA our flagship ). We spend billions of dollars every year preseving our historic artifacts even though with a lot of it no one knows about it or even cares about it. More people care about the Big U then a lot of the stuff we spend millions of dollars preserving every year.

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I not agree with you, what historic facts beside she was the fastest. And the biggest build in the USA. I believe here smaller fleet mate America have more history then the somehow bland United States. I cannot believe that here history was that special. Interesting passengers where quite disappointed after sailing with here. To metallic and to spartan compared with the other flagships build in the 10 year period 1953/1963. Passengers quickly returned to the other liners such as America. Then added the problems USL faced with there crew lot of strikes in the 1960's, the competition of the Jet. All facts that US was pulled out of service. And what happened after that was not historic at all.

Smaller less obvious ships have more history of a higher level then the US, and they all gone to the scrap yard. If the US was such a high level historic land mark why not have someone start a saved the US campaign years ago?

At the end I get the feeling she was a not so clever investment by the USL and the US Governemnt.

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Originally posted by Maasdam:
That Wikipedia list focused only on Navy ships. I don't think that list do right on the other historic ships preserved. So it gives an very inadequate look at preserved ships.

Greetings Ben.

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Why is this significant? Since her recent dry dock, she's practically in turn-key condition compared to the SSUS. She's also got that mid-century sexiness the France/Norway had but the SSUS doesn't. Most of all, her nuclear engine (which was designed for public display) is a much stronger hook for the general public than simply being a fast boat you can't see go fast.

You'd think the Savannah would be a stunner-- but if she's in layup, you have to be realistic as to how well this bodes for the SSUS.

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Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:
Don't worry guys, Epic is a one off, NCL's next project might ber to return her back to service as they promised.

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There is talk of a second NCL America ship!

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Originally posted by Cunardcoll:
As I 'm looking closer on that list I 'm missing the complete Collection of Belgian Lightships, the Antwerp Collection, the Rotterdam Maritime Museum Collection and lots of other lightships (there are only 10 on the list) , there is a lifeboat on the list of an era of wich I have seen about 20 still preserved in Europe alone, and Kungsholm is listed as well, however she is far fron being preserved , she 's more likely to end up at a scrapyard very soon.

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Since Wikipedia is interactive and can be edited, I removed KUNGSHOLM per your statement of her status.

[ 10-04-2010: Message edited by: desirod7 ]

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Originally posted by Rex:
I do know for a fact that BIG U was visited by the Coast Guard last week; I work for DHS and found this out from a Coast Guard officer. But he couldn't give any more details, other than they checked her condition.

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It may entirely be possible that an unrelated third party (i.e. someone other then NCL, a ship broker, the Conservancy, Mr. Lenfest, et. al.) filed an environmental complaint.

US ghost fleet ships, when declared obsolete and downgraded to non-retention status, are left to rust away until scrapped. MARAD maintains them just enough to prevent sinking. The most notorious recent example is the Mormac Wave. Her engine room was flooded with Bunker C from rusted tanks, and eventually her hull rusted through and leaked oil downstream into the James River Estuary.