The Skeleton Of The Past: The Story Of The S.S. America, From Ocean Liner To Beach Wreck


The Skeleton Of The Past: The Story Of The S.S. America, From Ocean Liner To Beach Wreck

Generally speaking, a cruise ship has a useful life of about thirty years. That’s a bit surprising to someone who isn’t involved with ships on a daily basis, but it’s true. Outside of freaks like the MS Marco Polo, which has been on the water since 1965 and MV Astoria (formerly the MV Stockholm, best known for it’s role in the sinking of the Andrea Doria in 1956), which has been on the water since 1948, it isn’t common to come upon an old ship that’s still in service, and even rarer to find one that’s in decent condition. The sea takes it’s toll on even the most ruggedly built ship. Salt water erodes away every single second, the waves do their part, the passengers do their part, and just like how an airplane has to wind up in the desert for scrapping after it’s too unsafe to fly, such is the case for a ship…once it reaches a point of no return, it’s time to send it off to it’s fate, usually on a beach where it’s broken up for scrap.

The SS America and it’s sister ship, the SS United States, were both standouts when they were new, had glorious careers, and then were pretty much left to degrade. United States has been laid up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 1996 and has been out of use since 1969. It’s been caught in development limbo for decades…sometimes it’ll go up for scrap auction, sometimes someone wants to spend the money to save it. SS America suffered no such fate…after a successful career with United States Lines and a stint as a converted troopship, United States would wind up bouncing around, twice owned by Chandris Group, once owned by Venture Cruise Lines, where she wound up having a disastrous two years’ of service, once earning a 6/100 score from the U.S. Public Health Service. She almost became a floating prison in the early 1980s, nearly sunk due to a burst bilge pipe, was initially supposed to be scrapped in the late 1980s before the scrappers defaulted on payments, and then the final chapter took place, which saw the ship beached on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands in 1994.

The image of the bow section of what was then the American Star standing in the waters, rotting away, captured my attention as a kid. The scene was haunting…it was a skeleton in real life, the layers of paint wearing away, the “X” marks from it’s Chandris days still visible on the one remaining smokestack, a hastily-created ladder welded onto the side of the ship. Check out the story of this liner’s sad tale in the video below:


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16 thoughts on “The Skeleton Of The Past: The Story Of The S.S. America, From Ocean Liner To Beach Wreck

  1. Chris In Australia

    Happy memories for me. We came back to Australia from the UK on the Australis in late 1971. Quite an adventure for a 12 year old.

    1. Tom

      This article’s punctuation rendered it unreadable for me. Get a better editor who knows where and where not to use apostrophes!

      1. Allan kalfin

        I came to the USA on the America from England as an immigrant in 1966,travelled tourist class(3rd ) level, my first experience with Americans. I remember the 1st dinning room meal. The waiter said “what do you want bud.”it became an easier way of life after stuffy England..great trip except for weather.Best move I ever.made .

        1. Steve Chevis

          Rubbish. It’s just sloppy to write it’s instead of its. Changes the meaning completely. People who say grammar and punctuation don’t matter are just plain lazy.

  2. Paul Fuqua

    In the early summer of 1959 my parents and the four of us children sailed from New York to Europe as 1st Class passengers on the SS America. The trip was hellish because the weather during the crossing was horrific.

    1. David Housh

      A few words about accuracy. The two ships were not sister ships which implies they were virtually identical. The America was just half the size of the “Big U” and far slower. She also predated the United States by over 10 years.

    1. Jason

      The ss United States is docked one Philadelphia on Columbus Avenue. I used to see it all the time and loved it. It’s changed hands a few times and has had a few proposals on what to do with it. Nothing solid yet.

      1. John K

        I traveled as a 5 year old with my family moving to France on the SS United States and have fond memories of the almost 7 day trip. Then took the Orient Express to Paris from Le Havre. Hard to believe!!!

        1. Jason H

          That’s awesome. After I saw it docked on Columbus blvd I did a lot of research on it during that time. It still looks awesome the paint is fading but overall still standing. I just looked and apparently a real estate company owns it and they are looking for a location to turn it into a hotel/museum.

      2. Marc

        The SS United States still hold the speed record for crossing the Atlantic. Every decade, someone says they will restore it. But there’s no market for it, and who is going to spend $1B to do so, only to wind up with a 1960s ship?

  3. Tim T

    My father came home from Italy on the America at the end of WWII. Set a record time Naples to NY.

  4. Don Prytherch

    A beautiful 44″ model of the S.S. America was built by the late Mr. Albert Young of Williamson N.Y., and is now preserved by one of his grandsons, Donald W. Young II in Hammondsport NY.

  5. Dale Leach

    I sailed from Melbourne, Australia to Southampton with 3 friends via the Panama Canal in 1976. We had a shared cabin for 8 girls on C or D Deck? If someone wanted privacy they left a pair of shoes outside in the corridor. We spent a month on the ship visiting Sydney,Auckland, Tahiti, San Juan?, Panama City, the ship got stuck on a sand bar in Bilboa so we missed Spain, then Southampton.

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