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www.marinelink.com 39 the importance of shipping. We don’t have our own ships. We rely entirely on foreign ships to carry good and passengers to the U.S. Aside from the Jones Act, there is virtually no U.S.- fl agged merchant marine left,” said Anderson. While support- ers also liken the impact of the ship to that of the fi rst space shuttle and other historic treasures, they also acknowledge the diffi culty in try to preserve a piece of history that is three foot- ball fi elds long.

Gibbs and other board members talk about developments encompassing hotels, restaurants, a museum, educational and convention facilities etc. The fact that ship externally remains intact while the interior has been gutted and stripped of its asbestos is a plus for any developer with deep pockets and imagination. And the project is not without precedent. The

S.S. Rotterdam was renovated, returned to her namesake city in Holland and re-opened in 2010 as a combination museum/ hotel and school for vocational training. It has since been sold to a hotel chain. “The United States today is a blank slate; the possibilities are endless,” said Gibbs.

But time is not on their side. According to Norris and Ander- son, efforts to fi nd a project is caught in a Catch-22 of develop- ers who don’t want to commit unless they know where the ship will based. Cities don’t want to provide pier space unless they know developers are committed. And once a site is found, be- fore the ship can be renovated, a decision has to be made from a regulatory aspect as to whether to treat it as a ship or a build- ing. “The sad irony is that an organization that has worked so hard to save this ship is ultimately going to be the one to wind up scrapping her if that happens,” said Norris.

Truth be told, it doesn’t look good for the old girl. But as

William Gibbs would be the fi rst to say, obstacles are just that. It doesn’t mean they can’t be overcome. The S.S. United

States had a spectacular past; who’s to say she won’t surprise the world again, with a spectacular rebirth. As Gibbs would say, “Here’s to the Big Ship.”

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