SS United States at Pier 4 at Modern American Recycling Services on Mobile River, downtown. She leaves our bay on Monday, Nov 9.
The fastest ocean liner ever built leaves the Port of Mobile on Monday, November 9, bound for the bottom of the Gulf. It's the last time anyone on the Lower Alabama coast sees her above the waterline. Be on the water when she goes.
In July 1952, the SS United States left New York on her maiden voyage and crossed the Atlantic in three days, ten hours and forty minutes. She averaged 36 knots — just over 41 miles an hour — and beat the Queen Mary's best time by ten hours. Seventy-four years later, no ocean liner has done it faster.
On Monday, she leaves Mobile at the end of a towline.
She's been tied up on the Mobile River since March 2025, when tugs brought her in from Philadelphia after nearly three decades at Pier 82. For the last nineteen months, crews have stripped her down to the steel — all 128 fuel and lubricant tanks emptied and cleaned, wiring and flaking paint pulled from all twelve decks, the funnels, radar mast and propeller set aside for a museum. Now she's ready for the one job she has left.
On Thursday, November 12, Okaloosa County will sink her about 22 nautical miles southwest of Destin-Fort Walton Beach — 32 nautical miles southeast of Pensacola — and the 990-foot hull becomes the largest artificial reef in the world. She'll sit upright with about 180 feet of water to the bottom and about 55 feet over her top deck. That puts the superstructure in reach of recreational divers, the deep decks in reach of technical divers, and a whole lot of new steel in front of grouper, snapper, mackerel and tuna. Researchers from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Woods Hole and LSU will track how the reef comes to life.
She was built to cross oceans. Now she'll hold fish.
Why Monday Matters
When she came into Mobile Bay in March 2025, people were parked at the east end of Dauphin Island before sunrise just to catch a glimpse. Monday is the reverse trip, and it's the last one. She'll come down the Mobile River, out the ship channel, down the length of the Bay and out the pass between Fort Morgan and Dauphin Island.
A 990-foot hull with no power of her own and tugs on every side doesn't hurry. You'll have time to get out there. I'll be on the Bay Monday to see her off.
And you'll see her the way she was meant to be seen. From the road, she's a rusted wall behind a fence on South Royal Street. From the water, she's a ship.
Before You Shove Off
The Coast Guard has rules for this one, and they're enforcing them.
When. Monday, November 9 is the Coast Guard's anticipated departure, subject to weather. No hour has been published. Monitor VHF Channel 16 for Broadcast Notices to Mariners and check Okaloosa County's SS United States page before you leave the dock.
Where she starts. Pier 4 at Modern American Recycling Services on the Mobile River, downtown. Until she goes, you can see her from the street at 601 South Royal Street.
The safety zone. The Coast Guard will enforce a 100-yard moving safety zone around the ship and every vessel working the tow, from the pier all the way into the Gulf. Nobody enters without permission from the Captain of the Port, and penalties run up to $117,608. Treat 100 yards as the minimum, not the target.
The channel. The ship channel is narrow, and the Bay on either side of it gets skinny fast. Hold outside the channel, know your draft, and remember the commercial traffic isn't stopping for sightseers.
The crowd. The tow won't throw much wake. The spectator fleet will. Keep your bow into it and give everybody room.
The weather. It's November. A north wind can stack a chop on the Bay in an hour and blow the water out of the shallows by afternoon. Check the forecast, wear the life jackets, and tell somebody ashore where you're going and when you'll be back.
Questions. Coast Guard Sector Mobile Command Center: (251) 266-5888 or VHF Channel 16.
No Boat? Ride Along.
Perdido Queen Cruises is running a Departure Tour on Monday, November 9 at 7:30 AM — narrated, fully enclosed and climate-controlled, with a front-row look at the tow. Book at perdidoqueen.com or call (251) 948-6611.
Caribe Marina & Watersports in Orange Beach is taking the Outcast offshore on Thursday, November 12 to watch the sinking itself — trolling to and from the site, 8–10 hours, $150 per person. Bring your own food and drinks. Call (251) 980-8410.
From land, the best seats are the east end of Dauphin Island near Fort Gaines, and Fort Morgan on our side of the pass. Skip Battleship Memorial Park — trees and buildings block the view of the channel. The USS Alabama is staying right where she is.
The Sinking: Thursday, November 12
Deployment begins at 10 AM, weather permitting, at 30° 07.148' N, 86° 46.755' W.
Running offshore to watch? The Coast Guard wants every vessel not working the operation at least one nautical mile off until she's on the bottom. Boats that crowd it can be boarded and fined. Bring binoculars.
Sendoff ceremony: Wednesday, November 11 — Veterans Day — at 1:30 PM at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Convention Center.
Watch party: AJ's Seafood & Oyster Bar in Destin, starting at 9 AM Thursday, with a live feed from the site on the outdoor screen.
Livestream: the viewing link will post at TheSSUS.com before deployment.
The SS United States Conservancy is building a land-based museum in Destin-Fort Walton Beach around her funnels and artifacts. And Destin-Fort Walton Beach keeps an interactive map of its artificial reefs — come spring, she'll be the biggest pin on it.
Next Up the Channel: The Big E
Her berth won't sit empty long. On Monday, November 2, tugs pulled the former USS Enterprise away from Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia and pointed her toward Mobile on her final voyage. CVN 65 was the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier — 1,123 feet long, commissioned in 1961, on station for the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, with more than a million nautical miles under her keel before her last deployment ended in 2012. Her eight reactors have been defueled. She isn't headed for the bottom of the Gulf. Under a $418.5 million Navy contract, NorthStar Maritime Dismantlement Services and Modern American Recycling Services — the same outfit that spent nineteen months readying the SS United States — will take her apart in the Port of Mobile, about 35,000 tons of steel, with the work set to finish by September 2030. She's expected to come up the Bay before Thanksgiving. No date yet. We'll tell you when there is one.
One great ship leaves the Bay. Another one comes in.
One Caveat
On Tuesday, the SS United States Preservation Foundation filed suit in federal court in the Northern District of Florida, asking for an emergency order to stop the sinking. As of Thursday, Okaloosa County says the schedule holds. Between the courts and the weather, dates can move. Check before you go.
She spent seventeen years carrying presidents, movie stars and even the Mona Lisa across the North Atlantic. She spent the next fifty-seven waiting on somebody to decide what she'd become. Monday, she leaves the Bay for the last time.
Go see her off. Next time, you'll need a dive tank.