Chasing The SS UNITED STATES!

[@chrisjeffries2322]

Thank you for sharing your video with all her fans around the world. 💋

[@midshipcinema]

Thanks, Chris! I hope to share much more of her in the future. :)

[@BAmamiya1999]

This is amazing. I’ve never thought I would see more footage of when she first arrived here in Philly.

[@midshipcinema]

Thanks so much! Glad you watched. :)

[@tylermcintyre1454]

Tyler Mac wait is that the ship

[@user-oo3uj5ku9r]

Thank you so much!

[@midshipcinema]

Thank you.

[@richatom71]

As always .Just wonderful .

[@midshipcinema]

Very kind of you, thank you! :)

[@jst7714]

An excellent video! I count myself to be among the lucky ones to have been aboard the Big U for a tour, that one year anniversary being tomorrow no less.

[@arg0810]

Great video Peter! Thanks for posting it.

[@midshipcinema]

My pleasure, thank you!

[@skeeterstix]

Amazing! AND under the bridge! THANK YOU for posting!!!

[@midshipcinema]

Thank you so much! Yes, I almost dropped the camera when he dipped under the span. :)

[@tylermcintyre1454]

Tyler Mac yeah we have too go on it and sail too Boston and France

[@gregmerritt4278]

Just fantastic peter. Job well done. Incredible footage of the Big U

[@midshipcinema]

Thanks so much, Greg! :)

[@michaelwasiljov8633]

Great video. I was lucky enough to get a tour of her in 1999.

[@midshipcinema]

Thank you for watching and posting. I paid my second visit to her in 1998 and then again in 2014. Still hope to get back aboard at some point.

[@markhooper1352]

This is priceless Peter, another thoroughly enjoyable and precious video! She looks so beautiful because of her exquisite design, so much so we can overlook the surface decay and appreciate her for exactly what she is and what she represents. She is a magnificent lady who only gets better with age. What a magnificent sight from the air! I think I would have been in tears. I do hope to finally get to Phily some day in my retirement to enjoy whatever glimpses I can afford. Perhaps a kind longshorman/woman will bless my visit as with yours way back in 1996.❤

[@midshipcinema]

Thank you, Mark. So sorry for my late reply here. Somehow I missed your post until now. I share your admiration for the SSUS's beautiful lines and hope she has a future. Well, I wish all of us a kindly longshoreperson in our future ship pursuits. :)

[@S_C_C_R]

@@midshipcinemathis aged well

[@MrCarsdude]

this is amazing! i love this ship, i wish someone would make a 1/200 scale kit of her!

[@midshipcinema]

Thank you. :)

[@geodot595]

a revelle model was issued, i built it in 1968! looking at it right now.

[@midshipcinema]

I built mine a few years later. :)@@geodot595

[@bramVDL97]

Seeing a new video titled 'floating paradise found', always makes my day! Thanks for sharing your incredible footage.

[@midshipcinema]

Thanks so much and apologies! I've just discovered a lost string of posts here. :)

[@GalacticTE]

As a fellow ship/cruise enthusiast I love your channel Peter. Your videos are so entertaining & very informative. Thank you so much!

[@midshipcinema]

Thank you so much, Lonestarindie. My apologies for not seeing your post until now. :)

[@j.j.1064]

Hi Peter, I was just watching a vintage English TV series called Jeeves and Wooster by P G Wodhouse and there in a clip is this ship coming out of New York Harbour. It's called "bridegroom wanted" I think it was shot on the ship itself perhaps. Season 4 episode 2 and it's 37.54 time frame. I'm wondering where it was from? Tootle ooh!!

[@midshipcinema]

Thank you. I'll have to keep an eye out for that. :)

[@geodot595]

1:38 was at ny worlds fair in 65 then visited ny harbor where big u and QE1 were berthed side by side. i was hooked. boarded both several times in later years and was at the auction in 84. forgot the ny fair. been chasing liners ever since.

[@midshipcinema]

Incredible memory to have seen them both together. :)

[@mrslinarcos]

Excellent footage of BIG U. You got what you could and the pilot was very accommodating. This video 📸 was worth the wait. Thank you Peter.

[@midshipcinema]

Thanks so much, Deborah! :)

[@mrslinarcos]

@@midshipcinema you're always welcome 🤗🤗

[@fhwolthuis]

Great footage, this is unique! Thank you, Peter 😀👍

[@midshipcinema]

Thank you, Frank! :)

[@ronjones1077]

Thank you for these images from the past and documentation for the future.

[@midshipcinema]

Thank you, Ron. :)

[@PRR5406]

I'm sure there must be a business model to make her a transatlantic money maker once more. Liner travel in the luxury old style has to appeal to significant numbers of people.

[@fiberclassics97]

Not a chance unfortunately.

[@HarrisonAJ1944]

I so totally agree with you. The SS United States still has her engines I believe. I know she is gutted. But wouldn’t it be amazing to turn the ship into an operational museum ship. The only one in the world that could sale across the Atlantic. There is no other operational vintage ocean liner that is still seaworthy and operational. There are some very very wealthy people on this planet. I know it would be a vast amount of money to completely restore her, but I believe nothing is impossible, with the right determination and the funding and the right people to navigate this project, she could be sailing the seas again. I think people would be flocking to travel on her. She would be booked up for years in advance.

[@tylermcintyre1454]

Tyler Mac she is fast

[@gregmerritt4278]

Cant wait to see the video peter. The Big U is close to my home and heart

[@midshipcinema]

Me, too, Greg! Heart, that is. Hope you enjoy. :)

[@gregmerritt4278]

@@midshipcinema thank you. I will

[@tracya4087]

hiya peter, thank you so much for this , from nick and tracy in snowy wigan , lancashire

[@midshipcinema]

Hope you enjoy it! :)

[@tracya4087]

i will @@midshipcinema

[@thechosenone9965]

Can't wait!

[@midshipcinema]

Thanks in advance. :)

[@phillyskyguy9535]

Your opening shots are from my hometown, I know it vividly. So cool to see the ship at the port before I was born, thank you for capturing this history

[@midshipcinema]

Awww, thank you. Appreciate your watching and sharing here.

[@darploin5071]

Well you were that Tour guide then I liked a lot when I was 14 And I think we have spoke a little bit back then I was a little 14-year-old kid who really wanted to get a bunch of stuff at the auction so yes you and I probably have met in the past I'm in my 50s now that was a long time ago I remember all the time coming to Norfolk Virginia and I was passing by NIT marine terminal and see in the United States Moored up to it all the time until the auction

[@midshipcinema]

That would be very cool if it was me. I do recall the weather was terrible for most of the few days I was there and I was very unfamiliar with Norfolk. Hope you did well at the auction. :)

[@darploin5071]

@@midshipcinema About 1 year later I acquired the flare gun from the SS United States and my friends and I were out at the Powhatan housing complex for old dominion university And we fired the flare gun off the pier at the housing complex and my friends and I did get in some trouble because the coast guard thought a ship went down and they brought out helicopters and their vessels looking for a ship in desress Let's say my friends and I were grounded for a month for that incident but hindsight being 20 my dad should have never let me acquire the flair gun

[@kitt2000car]

Peter do you know if there is any truth to the rumors on KZbin. That the conservancy is no longer paying the docking fees on the ship. And the dock owner is on the verge of seizing her for non-payment.

[@fiberclassics97]

This is directly from their website ... The release of a redevelopment plan comes at a time when the SS United States is in peril. The ship faces possible eviction from her current pier in Philadelphia. The vessel’s landlord doubled the Conservancy’s rent without notice during the coronavirus pandemic, placing significant financial strain on the organization. The Conservancy is presently in litigation on the matter, with a trial date slated for January.

[@kitt2000car]

And the soap opera continues. I guess there is no rent controls on docking fees. @@fiberclassics97

[@ludwigsamereier8204]

As a STATES plank owner I´m delighted about the possible prospect of her being permanently moored in New York Harbor. Imagine this sight next to the INTREPID. Please cross your fingers this idea materializes.

[@midshipcinema]

All digits crossed.

[@frederickrueckert850]

No grey hair!! :). I've got her on video at the coal dock on utube land.

[@midshipcinema]

LOL, well, there was some back then too!

[@tylermcintyre1454]

Tyler Mac what are you talking about

[@MarkWick]

Thank you for this. I last saw her as my family and I disembarked from our voyage from Scotland to the U.S. om May of 1958. That was my second of four voyages across the Atlantic. The other three ships I sailed on are long gone, I still have some hope she will not soon join them in existing only in memory and photos and videos.

[@midshipcinema]

Thank you so much for posting. What were the other three ships?

[@MarkWick]

@@midshipcinema the Captain Cook in 1955 and the Empress of Britain in 1962. After some modifications, she later became the first Carnival Cruise cruise liner. I also have a photo Dad took of the Empress of Britain while she was still under construction at a pier on the River Clyde.

[@midshipcinema]

@@MarkWick Fantastic! When the former EOB was scrapped in India, I rescued many of her fittings, including her builder's plate and CARNIVALE bell, etched glass panels and marquetry paneling. Some of those items can be seen on board the new CARNIVAL CELEBRATION in the Golden Jubilee Bar. Thank you for sharing. :)

[@MarkWick]

@@midshipcinema I still have two decks of cards in their box, from that voyage. I also have numerous items from the Queen Mary, on which my grandmother sailed in 1956 or 57. Those items include a dinner menu and deck plans showing all the decks and cabins.

[@ManWhoLovesTheMary]

Love seeing her with her paint not quite as chipped as it has become. And right under the bridge!! And what a "retro" aerial. I've never been on a helicopter now that I think about it!

[@frederickrueckert850]

Wow 1996 I believe parked under the bridge waiting to go to the coal dock slip

[@midshipcinema]

Yes, under the Walt Whitman Bridge. :)

[@frederickrueckert850]

​@@midshipcinema We'll see how the most recent New York plan pans out

[@MrCBG]

Even in this sad state, she’s still such a beauty!

[@midshipcinema]

Agreed! :)

[@ChrisFrameOfficial]

Sounds exciting

[@midshipcinema]

Hope you enjoy, Chris. It was with my standard video camera, so quality isn't fantastic but I did get to capture her from a helicopter decades before drones took over. :)

[@peterfitz7157]

Great footage peter , I thought I was mad taking those small boats around eleusis bay in greece to photograph the lay ups , but a helicopter ….. I’m sure I would have got arrested by the Greek authorities, love to see the United States in the flesh , maybe one day ….best regards to you peter , your friend peter j.Fitzpatrick

[@midshipcinema]

Thank you, Peter. Just found your kind post now. :)

[@stamps45]

Goodbye , Beautiful Ship ! : (

[@dianerandise6612]

What a shame! Anyone with the means to really do something to help her just doesn’t care. Very sad. She is a national treasure and should be treated as such! Instead of send all our tax dollars abroad to other countries our government should be sending some of that money right here. For damn sake can’t they even give her a fresh coat of paint???? At least they can do that without breaking the bank!!! SMH absolutely disgraceful 😢

[@midshipcinema]

The unfortunate thing about painting her is that the lead based paint needs to be scraped off first and that can only be done in a proper setting. Agreed with the sadness of it all.

[@wowitskevin]

Being sunk as a reef now... guess we got something in-between a hotel and a scrapper's torch :( At least she will technically continue to exist. I hear she's now being towed to Mobile to prepare for scuttling, which is my neck of the woods, so maybe I'll get a chance to catch a glimpse of her before her final plunge to the bottom.

[@midshipcinema]

Yes, looks to be the case. The Mobile thing is a disappointment for many of us who wanted to see her return to her origins one last time.

[@a.d.ggaming1877]

Watching today knowing her next chapter is written

[@midshipcinema]

Painful but thank you for watching. :)

[@davidlambert3892]

I wonder if money would be better spent building a new version of the ship.

[@stevenwolff6866]

Once her interior fittings were removed the ship essentially died. The Queen Mary avoided that fate that's why she's still around as a hotel. The best fate for her now would be to sink her as an artificial reef. Divers could visit her. That's her hope of avoiding the scrapyard

[@midshipcinema]

I appreciate your opinion but disagree. She never could have been preserved with her original interiors, which were filled with asbestos. They had to be removed, especially the Tourist and Cabin Class areas, to make her viable in any sense, static or still mobile. The MARY was and is filled with gorgeous artworks, rich woodwork, etched glass, etc. whereas UNITED STATES was very modern, sleek and clean with comparably easy to replicate interiors where desired. You basically need drywall, melamine and brushed steel to recreate her. Very different ships. I do agree that reefing will be better than scrap but really dislike either option. Thank you for taking the time to post.

[@stevenwolff6866]

@@midshipcinema I hope you're right & I'm wrong. I always thought the interiors could have been removed & stored. Then the asbestos removed & then the reinstallation of the original interiors. If that wasn't possible at all then you have the inevitable result. Imo I was hoping that NCL would install modern interiors with balconies etc like the SS Norway which I had the pleasure of sailing on in 1993. But we can always pray for a last minute miracle/savior can't we?

[@MrSubidu]

💙

[@DM-iw2qt]

Praying the win a big lottery to save her or asking. For a miracle the ship should be saved. The items taken off her should be returned. The business charging. Docking fees over charging is causing the loss of the ship. Crooked one sided judges are not helping

[@SeaTravelr123]

Very poignant while her fate hangs in the balance

[@Thunder_6278]

Just scrap it, too small to make it profitable.