New York preservationists beg Trump to save SS United States

Driving the news: In a letter sent to the White House this week, the New York Coalition to Save the SS United States says the ship "is on the brink of being lost forever" unless the Trump administration moves quickly to purchase the vessel from Florida's Okaloosa County under "public use" laws.

• The group is also concerned that the county's plan to sink the ship off the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump has renamed the Gulf of America, could "create the next environmental disaster."
• The liner is partly constructed of lightweight aluminum, which "presents unique and untested risks of harm as that metal oxidizes in seawater," the group says.

Context: The ship's former stewards, SS United States Conservancy, had pleaded with former President Biden, Congress and officials in the U.S. Secretary of the Navy to save the ship, but to no avail.

• Okaloosa County acquired the ship for $1 million for an artificial reef.

Zoom in: The New York group says it has been trying to raise money to have the liner transported to Brooklyn, where it hopes to reimagine the ship as a "floating ecosystem" with coworking space and incubators.

• The group has partnered with John Quadrozzi Jr., a New York concrete magnate who owns the Gowanus Bay Terminal. Quadrozzi told the Gothamist he has access to a 1,300-foot space where the ship could be docked.
• The group is led by James Kaplan and Dan McSweeney, co-founder of the SS United States Conservancy.

What they're saying: In their letter to Trump, the New York coalition called the liner an "iconic and irreplaceable testament to American achievement" — a nod to its historic maiden voyage in 1952, when the SS United States became the fastest liner to cross the Atlantic.

• "As we stand at the crossroads of the preservation v. destruction of a monument to American innovation, it is imperative that we acknowledge the gravity of inaction," the group wrote.
• The White House didn't respond to Axios' request for comment.

McSweeney tells Axios the Brooklyn proposal wasn't given enough consideration before its sale, and the ship's current and past stewards "owe it to the community" to give it another look.

• "It may or may not [turn out] differently," he says. "We're not going to know until we try."

The other side: Okaloosa County commissioners received a separate letter from the New York group seeking their cooperation to keep the ship from being reefed, county spokesperson Nick Tomecek tells Axios.

• But Okaloosa County isn't shifting course and "fully intends to deploy the SS United States as the world's largest artificial reef along the Gulf Coast," Tomecek says.
• Before being reefed, Tomecek says the ship will undergo "extensive cleaning," including being stripped of all "non-metal components, oil and harmful chemicals" to ensure it passes regulatory inspections and is "environmentally safe'".

Catch up quick: Okaloosa County paid a $100,000 fine to pier landlord Penn Warehousing after failing to meet a Dec. 12 deadline to relocate the ship.

• The county, which has paid $3,400 in daily docking fees, has been repeatedly delayed from transporting the ship to Mobile, Alabama — first by weather, and later by Coast Guard inquiries.

The latest: The ship was scheduled to leave South Philly this month but that departure was pushed back again after the Coast Guard requested "additional information" about towing equipment and logistics, Tomecek says.

• The county provided those details to the Coast Guard and "will be scheduling another departure date soon."

What's ahead: Once the ship is transferred to Mobile, it'll undergo 8-12 months of preparations before it's sunk.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that John Quadrozzi Jr. is a partner (not leader) of the New York coalition, and updated to say James Kaplan and Dan McSweeney are co-directors.