The SS United States is leaving Mobile today on its final voyage, and Fort Morgan is one of the best places to say goodbye.
The 990-foot liner has been docked at Modern American Recycling …
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The SS United States is about to become the world’s largest artificial reef. The ship leaves Mobile today for its sinking site off Florida, and Fort Morgan is one of the best places to say goodbye.
The roughly 1,000-foot liner has been docked at Modern American Recycling Services on the Mobile River since March 2025, where crews prepared it for its new life as a reef. Departure was scheduled for 9 a.m., according to the Alabama Weather Network.
Tugs will take the ship down Mobile Bay and out through the pass between Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines, which puts it within view of the tip of the Fort Morgan peninsula. Expect it to pass around 11 a.m., depending on weather and tow speed.
The ship took the same route in. On March 3, 2025, more than 150 people gathered on the eastern tip of Fort Morgan at sunrise to watch it come through the pass at 7:30 a.m., ending an 1,800-mile tow from Philadelphia. Carole Baxter, who sailed on the ship in the early 1960s, drove nearly 600 miles from Lake Placid, Florida, to see it. She told Gulf Coast Media that boarding it felt “like leaving to go to the moon nowadays.” That story was one of GCM’s 10 most-read stories of 2025.
Okaloosa County plans to begin sinking the ship at 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, about 22 nautical miles southwest of Destin-Fort Walton Beach, weather permitting, according to a county news release. The county will hold a public sendoff ceremony at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11, at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Convention Center. On sinking day, AJ’s Seafood and Oyster Bar in Destin will host a viewing party starting at 9 a.m., showing a live feed from the site. The county says it will post the livestream link at thessus.com beforehand.
A federal judge denied a preservation group’s bid to stop the sinking on Nov. 6, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
If you’re going out on the water, the U.S. Coast Guard has a safety zone covering 100 yards around the tow.
The SS United States broke the transatlantic speed record in 1952.
Today is the last chance to see it in Alabama waters.
