High hopes for the rebirth of "Big U": recent purchase of SS United States part of NCL America plans

Cruise Travel, Sept-Oct, 2003 by Theodore W. Scull

Driving south on Interstate 95, where the elevated highway parallels Philadelphia's waterfront south of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, two stately red, white, and blue funnels catch the eye rising above a line of finger piers. Coming closer, the sleek liner looks as if she is about to sail, but I know better. This is the SS United States, and she's been going nowhere fast. In fact, she has not turned a dollar since November 1969, apart from auctions of her furnishings, china, glassware, and tableware. Exiting from the interstate for a closer look, it's a wrenchingly sad sight to behold, the once pride of the U.S. Merchant Marine now a lifeless liner streaked with rust, her paint peeling, her colors bleached out.

But "There's good news tonight," as radio broadcaster Gabriel Heatter used to say around the time the 53,329-gross-register-ton United States made her record-breaking Atlantic crossing in July 1952. Norwegian Cruise Line bought her last April as part of an ambitious plan to begin operating U.S.-flag ships in domestic cruise service. NCL also snapped up the even older 1951-built SS Independence, but this U.S. ship had seen almost continuous trading until the post-9/11 bankruptcy of American Classic Voyages in 2001.

NCL has set up a subsidiary, NCL America, to operate one brand-new U.S.-flag ship and a second existing foreign-flag ship that recent federal legislation allows to be reflagged for Hawaiian inter-island service--without the need to make the long trek to a foreign port--beginning in 2004. The first, the Pride of America, is under construction in Germany using the hulls and parts that had originally been planned for Project America, one of two ships under construction for ACV at a yard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The second, to be named the Pride of Aloha, is currently sailing as the Norwegian Sky.

But why did NCL buy Big U, as the United States was affectionately called, and what's in store for her? NCL is saying very little right now other than there are plans to convert her into a modern cruise vessel, but there is no timetable set. The liner's aficionados, some of whom belong to the SS United States Foundation (www.ssunited states.org), hope that the essence of the ship will be preserved.

When completed in 1952, the United States was designed to be the fastest ship on the Atlantic and averaged 35.59 knots during a record-breaking trans-Atlantic run of three days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes from Ambrose Lightship just east of New York to Bishops Rock just west of Lands End in England--a record for a passenger liner that still stands, in fact she could do 42 knots, and maybe even a bit more if pushed. For 17 years, she reigned supreme in the speed department, and in the time of war, she could be converted into a troopship within 24 hours. At first, her three classes of accommodations were often full, as the U.S. Government topped her up with relocating civilian, diplomatic, and military personnel.

But soaring costs and jet air travel suddenly sent her into a 34-year lay-up, an unprecedented amount of time for any liner to be going nowhere, apart from being towed between Newport News, Virginia (where she was built), nearby Norfolk Istanbul, the Black Sea (where her asbestos was removed), and now Philadelphia.

For NCL to return her to active service Big U's fuel-guzzling geared steam turbines and quadruple screws would have to be replaced by new technology. Her hull and superstructure, if shabby, are sound, but her insides have been pretty much ripped out. All new accommodations will be designed--but within the existing shell? Perhaps not, as her low-slung profile would have to be enlarged to add enough accommodations to make her pay, as NCL did when the company added two decks to the SS Norway (originally the trans-Atlantic liner France).

"We're talking about rebuilding," said NCL president and CEO Colin Veitch, and he emphasized not just a cosmetic refurbishment. NCL will work with U.S. shipyards on the hull, and the interiors will be completed in Europe. According to Veitch, "The SS United States would be a phenomenal addition to our U.S.-flag operation down the road."

NCL must think it is doable, and the line has plans to expand the NCL America reach beyond Hawaii to the East, Gulf, and West coasts of the United States to provide domestic itineraries for regular cruise passengers from Boston to Miami to New Orleans and Seattle to San Diego, tapping into the meeting and convention markets where tax deductions kick in when participants sail aboard a U.S.-flag ship.

NCL has already received a flood of requests for the maiden voyage, but until the line's next news release (www.ncl.com), all we can do is sit back and wait and be thankful that the Big U seems no longer headed to the scrapyard.