The SS United States has a new address: 180 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico, where divers already go. New video from the Research Vessel Explorer of Cape May, New Jersey, shows the 990-foot ocean liner, longer than the Titanic, sitting upright on the seafloor about 25 miles southwest of Destin, Florida, after its controlled sinking Wednesday evening, WPVI reports. Wreck diver Rustin Cassway, among the first to explore the site, described the preparation as “very well executed”, noting that the ship had been carefully cleaned before being scuttled to become the world’s largest artificial reef. Another diver captured video from inside the ship.
The $13.5 million Okaloosa County project aims to attract divers, fishermen and marine life. Cassway says the fish are already moving around the ship’s upper deck, which is just 60 feet below the surface, within reach of recreational divers. “It’s a new life, and there’s a lot of incredible, incredible life in the Gulf,” he says.
- The liner crossed the Atlantic more than 800 times after making its maiden voyage in 1952. It remained docked on the Delaware River in Philadelphia for nearly 30 years as conservationists fought to save it. The original smokestacks will be part of a museum that Okaloosa County is building to honor the ocean liner’s history, Fox 13 reports.
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