In a long-anticipated milestone in the effort to save and redevelop the legendary ocean liner SS United States, the SS United States Conservancy has announced that the national nonprofit organization has aquired title to the nation’s historic “ship of state.”

“We are one big step closer to ensuring that this great symbol of American innovation is permanently preserved,” said Susan Gibbs, the Conservancy’s board president, whose grandfather, William Francis Gibbs, designed the legendary liner.  “Now that we have secured title, we will accelerate our efforts to redevelop the nation’s flagship as a multi-purpose waterfront destination with dynamic hotel, retail, educational and museum offerings.  To succeed, we will tap into the same “can-do” spirit and ingenuity that the ship has embodied since her first splash in 1952.”

In July 2010, the Conservancy announced a pledge of $5.8 million by Philadelphia philanthropist H. F. “Gerry” Lenfest to purchase and maintain the vessel for 20 months.  Owners Norwegian Cruise Line/Genting Hong Kong entered an exclusive purchase option with the Conservancy last year, graciously declining a bid twice as high from a vessel scrapper, in order to support the Conservancy’s efforts.  The Conservancy is deeply grateful to both Gerry Lenfest and Norwegian/Genting for their support.

Lenfest underscored the importance of the ship by stating, “She is worth keeping.  This ship is an iconic part of American maritime history and if there’s any chance at all that she can be saved, we should take that chance.”  Lenfest is a retired Navy Reserve captain and major maritime enthusiast whose father, a naval architect, designed components of the SS United States.  He has been a visionary in his support for the ship.

“This is the first time in the history of the SS United States that a group concerned primarily with the vessel’s historical significance and preservation has owned her,” said Dan McSweeney, the Conservancy’s executive director.  “We can’t truly say she’s saved yet – that will happen when we establish a successful partnership to redevelop the ship – but we can say that we’re generating the right momentum to be able to achieve that goal.  Thus far, New York, Philadelphia, and Miami have expressed an interest in the vessel.  The total cost could be a couple of hundred million dollars but that’s comparable to land-based development on a similar scale.  We’re completely committed to accomplishing this and there’s no question that we’ll succeed.”

The vesselwas launched in 1952 and is widely considered the greatest ocean liner ever built.  Four U.S. presidents (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Clinton) and countless foreign heads of state, business, military, and diplomatic leaders, Hollywood celebrities, and everyday Americans traveled aboard her during 400 mishap-free voyages.  Thousands of immigrants to America sailed aboard the vessel, which served in the Navy Reserve Fleet as a convertible troop ship and Cold War weapon able to carry an army division 10,000 miles without refueling.

Source: SS United States Conservancy

Over the River: 1903 – New York circa 1903. "East River from Brooklyn tower of Williamsburg Bridge." 8×10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size »

Manhattan: 1908 – New York circa 1908. "Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline." 8×10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size »

The Submarine Boat: 1904 – New York ca. 1904. "The Submarine Boat, Coney Island." 8×10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size »

Steamers of Detroit

City of Detroit: 1912 – "Steamer City of Detroit III, pilot house and bridge." 8×10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size »

The Luxe Boat: 1912 – "Steamer City of Detroit III, grand salon, looking forward." 8×10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size »

The Detroit River circa 1905 – "Transfer steamer Detroit." 8×10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size »

See Also:

• Lake Steamer City of Cleveland: 1908 » and Main Deck: 1908 »
• Philadelphia Ferry Terminal circa 1905 »
• Buffalo, New York: Jack-Knife Bridge: 1905 »

MV Doulos

Update 2010: On March 18, 2010, Doulos was handed over to her new owner, Mr Eric Shaw, Director and Chief Executive of BizNaz Resources International Pte Ltd in Singapore. The new owners plan on preserving the historic ship. She will be renamed Doulos Phos, or Servant Light, in this process.

The MV Doulos is the world’s oldest active ocean going passenger ship. The 94 year old ship has gone by many names over the years such as the SS Medina and SS Roma. During World War II she saw action in the Battle of the Atlantic as a freighter. Today she is used as the world’s largest floating bookshop bringing books to port cities around the world. The ship has a official website which tells us, “Volunteers from over 40 countries serve on board Doulos. They are mostly young people who have chosen to dedicate two years of their lives to be on board, learning to live and work together, and serving the communities in the ports visited. Additionally, the ship has a full complement of qualified crew, as required by international maritime regulations.” The website goes on to say that “over 20 million visitors have been welcomed on board for tours, programs and visits to the floating book fair. With stops in over 500 ports of call, this unique ship has visited more than 100 countries including Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and many island nations.”

This World’s Oldest Ocean-going Passenger Ship has been crossing oceans and building bridges between the nations for over 30 years by promoting Knowledge, Help and Hope. The ship’s volunteer crew of 320 people from 50 countries offers an unique opportunity to cross cultural barriers, and raise cultural awareness and understanding of other cultures. Members of the public have opportunities to meet the international crew, experience the numerous cultures on board, and discover more about this historic ship.

The DOULOS is operated by the non-profit charity organization Gute Bücher für Alle (“Good Books for All”), based in Germany. The ship was originally built in 1914 – this makes her only 2 years younger than the Titanic! It is recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the World’s Oldest Ocean-going Passenger Ship still active. In the past 31 years, the DOULOS has visited almost 600 ports in 103 countries, and has welcomed over 21 million visitors on board. East Timor will be the 104th country she will visit.

The 130-meter ocean-going vessel offers the World’s Largest Floating Book Exhibition with 8,000 titles in English and a selection in Bahasa. The books cover a wide range of subjects: Dictionaries, novels, cooking, hobbies, sports, medicinal, Bibles, children books, Chrisitian books, etc… During her 6 days stay, various programs such as school visits and International Music Cafes will be offered. wombathole.com

Click here to view the embedded video.

ST. LOUIS, March 22 (UPI) — Fire destroyed the Robert E. Lee, a riverboat that for years was a popular tourist restaurant on the St. Louis waterfront, officials said.

The riverboat burned Sunday at the Beelman River Terminal, where it had been towed for renovation, Globe-Democrat.com reported Monday. No one was injured.

• What sparked the fire on the Robert E. Lee?
• Riverboat burns before heading to St. Charles
• Fire investigators in St. Louis continue to look into blaze that destroyed …

Ares pulled into the Duluth harbor on Oct. 27, a successful finish to a journey that included filling the boat with 60,000 gallons of water to get it under a bridge in Illinois, a misunderstanding at a slip in South Chicago, unpredictable weather conditions and four days in Michigan with bad lake conditions. Ares has had a name change to Nels J. and will be put to work in the spring.

by Christa Lawler, Duluth News Tribune
reprinted in its entirety with permission

It was the stuff adventure stories are made of: a touch of Huckleberry Finn meets the Great Lakes, “Gilligan’s Island” and some Popeye thrown in for good measure.

In late October, a local crew was part of a 16-day mission to bring a retired tugboat named Ares from a scrap yard in Texas to Lemont, Ill., to Duluth. The journey included grubby toilets, ingenuity, a little luck, high seas and an encounter that nearly ended in fisticuffs. Now, the tug — which has been renamed Nels J. and will begin its career as an icebreaker in the spring — can be seen to the east when you cruise over the Blatnik Bridge into Superior.

Mike Ojard, the boat’s owner, and Paul von Goertz, who was part of the crew (his official title is vermin exterminator/gopher/historian) will tell their story, “Racing the Witch of November II,” next week in Knife River.

“When you’re at this age, what it is is an adventure. It’s kind of like the ‘Bucket List,’ ” said Ojard, who owns Heritage Marine, a tugboat company that works western Lake Superior.

Ojard had been looking for a second tugboat when he heard about Ares, which had seen both Hurricane Ike and Katrina. It is a 103-foot, 1,950-horsepower boat with a 16-cylinder diesel engine that once supplied oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. It had no anchor, so they rudely crafted one from metal held together with cables. The living conditions inside the boat included a kitchen, bunk space and two toilets — a setup closer to camping than a luxury cruise ship. Not to mention the cockroaches.

The boat was taken to New Orleans, where it became part of a barge tow, and was dropped off in Lemont, Ill., about 30 miles south of Chicago. A revolving crew of four to nine local men — most of them in their early 60s — boarded the boat to bring it home. They were a collection of Ojard’s friends and family from Knife River, with skills ranging from electronics to navigation to engine specialists.

Sinking the Boat (on purpose), and Fisticuffs

The crew’s first obstacle was getting the boat to clear a railroad bridge near where they were docked in Lemont. They filled the ballast tanks, and when they were still about 4 feet too high, they vacuumed out the fuel tanks and filled those with water, too. Eventually the boat was filled with 60,000 gallons of water and, with the assistance of a push tug, they were able to pass under the bridge — with 6 inches to spare.

“It looked like a swamped canoe,” von Goertz said. “If you couldn’t get it under the bridge, you’d have to settle for being in the tugboat business in Lemont.”

From there, they traveled about six blocks and pulled into a slip on South Chicago. The boat needed to be emptied of water and refueled (this was done in an environmentally safe way, von Goertz said), cleaned up and cleaned out, and a mast was attached to the top of the pilot house.

Unfortunately, they had pulled into the wrong side of the slip, attracting a Spanish-speaking security guard who gave the men some guff. He kept asking what the crew was doing, von Goertz said, and finally threatened to call the police, giving them an hour to leave.

“This guy starts hollering and screaming and jumping up and down and threatening us with bodily harm,” Ojard said. “We had no idea where we were supposed to be. The push boat pushed us into the wrong spot.”

The crew used a small boat to row the ship’s mooring lines to the other side of the slip, and they used a pickup truck to tow the boat to the other side. At the slip, the crew made friends with another group that fortuitously had a crane and a crane operator, and so they were able to weld the 800-pound steel mast onto the boat. They got the engine running, took it for a test run on the Calumet River, made a few adjustments. After four days, the Ares crew set out on Lake Michigan.

“Seeing [South Chicago] in your rear-view mirrors is one of the most welcome sights you’ll see,” Ojard said.

High Seas

There was an overnight stop in Milwaukee, and then they were off again. A tail wind shifted to a head wind, and waves sprayed the front windshield. The windshield wipers, by the way, were broken. And instead of a steering wheel, the boat was manipulated with a joystick.

They chugged along at a top speed of 13 mph, under the Mackinac Bridge, on Lake Huron for 40 miles, and a left on the St. Mary’s River. Weather forecasts stalled the trip in Michigan for a few days. Ares pulled in behind the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center on Oct. 28, and the crew members met with friends and family.

Ojard’s other tug, named Edward H. after his father, who was also in this business, managed the early season work through this past week. Nels J. will be added to the fleet in the spring.

There are no plans to make another similar journey. In fact, von Goertz said the story of picking up Edward H. is more harrowing than this one. That tug couldn’t even go in reverse.

“I don’t know if we will want to do this again for a while,” von Goertz said.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

The famed paddle-wheeled steamboat, the Delta Queen, may be close to making its final commercial voyage come the end of the month. The 82-year-old Delta Queen has been operating on a presidential exemption from an amendment of the Safety of Life at Sea Act, prohibiting the operation of overnight passenger vessels with mostly wooden structures. The National Register of Historic Places tells us:

The Safety at Sea Law of 1966 threatened the continued operation of Delta Queen because one clause of the law forbade operations of vessels with wooden superstructures in overnight passenger service. The first of a series of legal maneuverings fueled by a tremendous public outcry, allowed a special Congressional exemption from the law for Delta Queen in 1970. Several subseguent extensions of this exemption have focussed tremendous national attention on this problem. Many modifications for safety have been made, though short of the complete rebuildina sought by the Coast Guard.

Congress has refused to grant further renewal of the exemption, which expires October 31.

In 1989, the Delta Queen was declared a National Historic Landmark.

For information on how yo can help save this historic ship, visit Save-The-Delta-Queen.org

Built in 1950 the SS Independence and her sister ship the SS Constitution were built to transport passengers between U.S. ports and the Mediterranean but with the advent of commercial aviation her usefulness as a means of transport was short lived. In 1968 she was taken from her cross Atlantic duties and shortly sold to the Atlantic Far East Line and laid up in Hong Kong, her fate unknown. By 1980 a new phenomena was born and the Indy returned to the states to serve the new Hawaiian cruise ship market. After serving for 21 years in Hawaii she became victim to the post 9/11 tourism slowdown and, with her owners bankrupt, was laid up in San Francisco.

Last week we told the story of the Independence’s final voyage, today EagleSpeak brings us the following new developments:

A TUGSHIP towing a disabled cruise liner loaded with polychlorinated biphenyls or PCB and asbestos is reportedly on its way to Guam to refuel here after being refused entry in Hawaii.

The SS Independence — now called the Oceanic — is being towed by the tug ship Pacific Hickory, which needs to refuel before heading toward India, where the 57-year-old contaminated liner will be scrapped.

KITV News in Hawaii reported that the tug ship was headed to Guam, towing the SS Independence.

Activist and former senator Hope Cristobal has asked the Guam Environmental Protection Agency to stop both ships from coming anywhere near Guam.

“The ship was refused entry into the Hawaii by the State of Hawaii EPA because it poses too much health risk. Now, it is being towed toward Guam. We have reason to be very concerned,” Cristobal said. Continue Reading…

The fate of this historic ship is still unknown but we assume she’s on her way to be scrapped.