On the Nose!
By 
The United States is being disassembled, bit by bit…
The process to remove the towering funnels of the legendary SS United States began Monday afternoon.
FOX10’s Ashlyn Mitchell hopped on board the Perdido Queen to watch as crews dismantled the first smokestack on the magnificent ocean liner.
Soaring 65 feet high, the funnels are equivalent to a six-story building. Several folks came out to watch the slow, methodical process.
Chris Bryant is a local photographer who has been capturing the ocean liner ever since she docked in Mobile in early March.
“She’s a beautiful ship- to see part of her taken off to become part of a museum- like you said, it’s a little bit bittersweet. There will never be another one like her,” said Bryant.
The smokestacks will eventually become the centerpiece of the future SSUS Museum and Visitor Experience, according to the SSUS Conservancy.
The SSUS Conservancy says its agency is working closely with Florida’s Okaloosa County and other stakeholders to “ensure the funnels’ protection, transport and safekeeping.”
The rest of the ship will be sunk off the Destin-Fort Walton Beach to become the world’s largest artificial reef.
Yes… what small parts of the United States shall remain in museums after the rest has been disassembled and disposed of?
All jest aside, as we’ve discussed here before the scrapping of the SS United States was overdue; there wasn’t enough left inside her to make a plausible museum ship. I think that the bigger issue in the long-term is whether any of the eight battleship museums or five remaining aircraft carrier museums will become unviable over time. The expense of maintaining USS Texas, a good 25 years older than the WWII ships, has been immense and largely worth paying (Texas is unique and the state of Texas is flush). I think that the argument around the other twelve ships is going to get rougher as the condition of those ships deteriorates over time, but we shall see.