The new owners of the historic SS United States will pay a fine of more than $100,000 to a Philadelphia company, according to an agreement over the fate of the towering ocean liner.
Okaloosa County, Florida, will pay the six-figure sum to Penn Warehousing after missing the Dec. 11 deadline to have the ship moved from Philadelphia.
The County bought the ship in October for more than $10 millionsettling a two-year dispute between Penn and the SS United States Conservancy, led by the granddaughter of the massive boat’s designer.
Okaloosa County plans to sink the ship off the coast of Destin, Florida, and then turn it into an artificial reef after it undergoes some preliminary work in Mobile, Alabama. It was agreed that the ship would be removed within 90 days of September 12.
But a seaward one The trip along the East Coast to the Gulf of Mexico was canceled in November when a tropical disturbance formed in the Gulf. A storm disrupted the rescheduled trip in October also.
An attorney for Penn Warehousing said Okaloosa County has requested an invoice and it is expected to be paid Friday.
While the six-figure sum sounds high, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what other owners have spent on the ship: more than $40 million since it was brought to Philadelphia in 1996.
Sources previously told CBS News Philadelphia that the Coast Guard is analyzing whether the ship could make the trip to Alabama and whether the twin smokestacks could clear the bridge, which, according to nautical reference material, has about 150 feet of underwater clearance when the water submerges water status. is located at an average height.
The journey would have to take place at low tide before the boat could pass under the bridge.
