Big Apple officials are fighting to relocate a historic 1950s-era ocean liner to New York City and restore it as a waterfront icon — but its owner hopes that idea goes down the ship.
Florida’s Okaloosa County, which purchased the vessel last year for $1 million, told The Post it has other plans for the nationally landmarked SS United States, a former ritzy cruise liner — hoping it can be sunk off the Gulf of Mexico for an artificial reefing project next year.
“Okaloosa County is the owner of the ship,” a rep for the county said. “We fully intend to deploy the SS United States as the World’s Largest Artificial Reef.”
New York City Councilwoman Gale Brewer proposed a resolution last year calling on Congress to pass — and President Trump to sign — a law declaring the ship a historic location, reclaim it from its owner and allocate funding for its restoration in Gotham, where it would make trips back and forth to Europe in its heyday.
But even Brewer has acknowledged that if the council were to pass the resolution, the measure would only be symbolic and that it would still be “hard” to convince the Florida ownership to change course.
“I’m not going to sugar-coat anything, but I’d love to see that ship not become a coral reef,” Brewer told The Post, noting that the vessel’s likely fate as a diving attraction in Florida doesn’t do its “complete stature” justice.
The last chance for a City Council vote on the resolution this session is Dec. 18, a rep for Brewer said.
“Letting this iconic vessel slip away would mean losing a huge opportunity to create a great new public space and maritime museum that could educate and inspire New Yorkers about our maritime history for generations,” the pol said, adding the vessel could also have potential as a waterfront restaurant.
A petition from the New York Coalition to Save the SS United States has amassed more than 15,000 signatures to date. The group has already earmarked a possible location for the ship through a board member who owns the Gowanus GBX terminal, according to Minnesota state Sen. Andrew Lang.
But according to Okaloosa County’s plans, the ship is slated to sink about 180 feet underwater for diving tourists to explore, joining roughly a dozen other shipwrecks in the area.
“The transformation of the SS United States into the world’s largest artificial reef creates a rare opportunity to elevate our entire region on the global stage,” Darien Schaefer, president and CEO of Visit Pensacola, told the Associated Press.
The Florida county’s purchase came after a dispute between its longtime owner, the S.S. United States Conservancy, and the parent company of the Philadelphia dock it has been housed in since the 1990s.
The vessel, which was built in the 1950s and retired in 1969, still holds the record — 44 mph — for transatlantic speed for an ocean liner. It has been docked in Mobile, Ala., for the past few months to be completely stripped and prepared for sinking.
Swaths of perturbed history buffs — hailing from Arizona to England — submitted testimony in favor of the ship to be relocated at a New York City Council hearing for Brewer’s resolution on Nov. 20.
“There is an extraordinary opportunity to transform this national treasure into a stationary, dynamic cultural and economic asset,” testified retired education administrator David Di Gregorio.
“The exterior of the SS United States — sleek, iconic and nearly as long as the Chrysler Building is tall, can once again inspire millions.”
Added Gilma Fields of the SS United States Ocean Liner Preservation Foundation: “It grieves me to think that our beloved country, that normally treasures our maritime history of excellence and exceptionalism, could stand by and watch the purposeful destruction of our historic ship and deny intervention to save her.
“Without intervention, it will be an unthinkable catastrophe,” she said, adding that her father worked on building the ship as a new immigrant.
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