Page 58: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2021)

The Final Word

SS United States

The Maritime Thoroughbred

By Susan Gibbs, President of the SS United States Conservancy here are many hallmarks Gibbs, was an exception. His “Perfect 400 voyages were Presidents, heads of of great civilizations, but Ship” long outlived him and remains state, A-list Hollywood stars too numer- perhaps none so univer- a? oat today, over 50 years after being ous to mention, tourists and immigrants

Tsal as their desire to push decommissioned. to our shores. She had a ? awless ser- the boundaries of human achievement Why? Because there’s no other ship vice career with an on-time percentage through innovation. A key source of like her. of 99.5 percent.

American pride has always been our The SS United States was the largest The ship’s ? ttings re? ected the height ability to dream big. When it comes passenger vessel ever built in America. of mid-century modern art and design. to ships, there is no more powerful ex- With the participation of companies The vessel incorporated a host of tech- ample of this than the SS United States. from all 48 states in the union, her con- nological “? rsts”. She was the ? rst ship “America’s Flagship” was more than a struction was a truly national effort that fully air conditioned in all public spaces symbol of our nation’s post-war strength brought the best and brightest minds to- and staterooms. She was the ? rst ves- and global reach. She remains a singular gether in the days before the jet age. As sel to use microwave ovens and was and unrivaled marine engineering and Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer the ? rst commercial application of tem- design achievement. said in 1952: “This ship is truly First pered glass. Many new products and

Curiously, one writer on the pages Lady of the Seas. No other passenger materials, from paints to ? ooring to fab- of this publication (“Great Ships and ship ever built is so beautiful, so fast, so rics were custom designed to surpass all the Ship Designer’s Curse” by Rik van safe, so useful.” ? reproo? ng standards of her time.

Hemmen) recently felt compelled to Designed as part of a Top Secret Pen- To save weight, the United States claim that the vessel that bears her na- tagon program to build the fastest ship was the ? rst to use an innovative new tion’s name was merely “an emotional on earth, the SS United States could be process to fuse the all-aluminum super- fabrication,” “nothing special” and a converted from luxury ocean liner to structure with a battleship-grade, two- “white elephant.” The writer also took troop transport carrying 14,000 troops inch-thick steel hull. The use of alumi- a gratuitous shot at the ship’s designer over 10,000 miles without refueling. num in her design was unprecedented

William Francis Gibbs, the preeminent The ship’s 240,000 hp engines were the in any structure until the construction of

American naval architect of his time. largest powerplant ever installed in a the original World Trade Center towers.

Such a cavalier dismissal of this his- passenger liner. Her long-classi? ed top Her lifeboats were the ? rst to be made of toric maritime achievement not only speed was generated by tandem four and aluminum and also fully ? reproof. runs contrary to basic facts about the ? ve blade propellers, designed and ? tted The hull’s sleek design was the ? rst to ship’s storied history but does a disser- under tight security to avoid detection be put through aerodynamic testing, and vice to the profound vision of those who by the Soviets. Her high-temperature, her watertight subdivisions were also labored for decades to design the most high-pressure dual engine rooms were unique and set a new standard for safety. advanced vessel built in America up to designed to Navy Standards and were Her rakish hull form generated virtually that point. also Top Secret. Thanks to her innova- no wake, evocative of the sleek racing

Van Hemmen notes that, “with very tive compartmentation, she would have hulls of the clipper ships. few exceptions, in their own lifetime, survived the collision that sunk the RMS On her fabled maiden voyage, she ship designers get to see the disassem- Titanic. Among the SS United States’ smashed the transatlantic speed record bly of most of their creations.” In fact, more than one million passengers on her in both directions using only two-thirds 58 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • January 2021

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