The Final Winner of the Blue Riband

The garage in my childhood home was the unfinished kind.  Sure, it had exterior walls, a floor, and a roof, but no interior walls.  Instead there were exposed studs in front of the lath, which was in front of tar paper, which was in front of the chicken wire of the outside stucco.  At some point horizontal boards were nailed in between the studs here and there to provide convenient shelves.  These “shelves” held an assortment of family relics like old patina door knobs, ancient duplex-headed nails rusted in their boxes, and for some reason used spark plugs that Dad would slip into the little boxes of the new ones.  Other items were stacked on the shoulders of the chimney or stuffed in the spaces between the 2x4’s of the one window frame.

One of those things stuffed between a couple of boards near the window were some drawings that looked like the blueprints of the SS United States.  How, or even why the blueprints of that ship were there escapes me, and they were likely not actual blueprints you might use to build a ship, but more likely more of a floor plan drawing of the ship someone might frame and hang in their den, and then gaze at while holding a cigar in one hand and a brandy snifter in the other.  I know our great-grandfather invented some type or propeller system for ships, but seeing as how we are not gazillionaires, it’s unlikely that the United States or the United States employed them.  I don’t remember a lot of what the drawings looked like, in fact, I only remember the name of the ship, which is why it caught my attention when it showed up in the news this week.

But first some history.

The SS United States was and ocean liner jointly built, in the early 1950’s, by an American shipping company and the U.S. Government.  The government wanted a ship that could be easily converted into a troop or hospital ship in case another big war broke out, so they paid for most of it.  Maybe they got to choose the unimaginative name too.  Perhaps “Ship Built in 1951” was already taken.  Uncle Sam also had specific requirements; more compartmentalization to make it harder to sink, almost zero wood in any of it to lessen the chance of fire, and strong engines and a light weight for speed.  It was more of a cruiser than a cruise ship, and she could move.

Before airliners between the U.S. and Europe replaced them, people took ships, but they still wanted to get there quick.  Don’t forget, even though it was spectacularly elegant, the Titanic was going pretty fast when she traded paint with that iceberg.  There was an award was given to the fastest ship to make the crossing but only going west, something to do with the Gulf Stream.  Going east you could break speed records, but not get so much as a bowling trophy for your  troubles.  It’s complicated.  The United States broke the speed record on her maiden voyage heading east, and was awarded the award, the Blue Riband, when she returned.  She was the last ship to do so, so technically she still holds it.

Over the years since her decommissioning she has traded hands from shipping company to shipping company, has been ported in both Turkey and the Ukraine, and has been proposed to be used as a everything from a floating hotel to an island-hopper in Hawaii.  Currently she sits in Philadelphia Harbor, where, while still looking as proud and regal as a ship named after a democracy can look, she has a death sentence hanging over her.  She is owned by something called SS United States Conservancy.  This group wants to save her but the cost of just keeping her at her current level of disrepair is prohibitive.  Which is why she was in the news this week.  I guess all that Blue Riband money got spent.

The United States didn’t sink tragically in a famous maritime disaster, she wasn’t torpedoed to prompt us into joining our allies in war, she had no movie featuring a couple of flavor-of-the-month teen actors made about her.  She simply did what she was designed to do, and did it better than any ship that came before, or after actually.  She just isn’t famous enough to save.  She will probably end her life as a pile of unrecognizable pieces of steel and aluminum that will be melted down.  I guess I’m just not a fan of throwing something out just because you don’t have a use for it right now, or because it’s been replaced with something newer.  Maybe I’m starting to understand why Dad kept those old spark plugs.     

Photo is the Google Street View of the United States in Philadelphia Harbor.