Will a Once Glamorous Ship Become a Reef in Florida?

Good morning. It’s Monday. Today we’ll look at a last-ditch move to save the S.S. United States, which still holds the trans-Atlantic speed record. We’ll also look at some upcoming hearings in the Luigi Mangione case.

A City Council resolution calling on the federal government to intervene to save the S.S. United States is admittedly an 11th-hour move. Gale Brewer, the councilwoman who introduced the resolution, called it a “Hail Mary.”

Its proponents want to keep the ship, which still holds the trans-Atlantic speed record, from being sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef that would become a destination for what James Kaplan calls “scuba-diving tourists.” Kaplan, an organizer of a group to save the ship, wants it towed to Brooklyn and repurposed as a “dynamic use center” in much the same way that other cities have turned former ocean liners into tourist attractions and hotels.

“It’s a crazy idea to sink the greatest passenger ship ever built,” Kaplan said. His group, the New York Coalition to Save the SS United States, promises to exhaust all possibilities “to prevent the vessel from being lost to history.”

Brewer’s resolution asks the federal government to seize the ship and underwrite a move to New York. She appeared with Kaplan and others from the coalition who testified at a City Council committee hearing last month, and, although it will have no practical effect, she hopes that the resolution will go before the full Council on Thursday. The coalition has collected more than 15,000 signatures online for a petition to save the ship.

Dan McSweeney, the coalition’s treasurer, said the S.S. United States had a singularly emotional connection to New York. And the city itself seemed to play at least a supporting role when the cameras were on the ship, as in the 1962 comedy film “Bon Voyage!” starring Fred MacMurray and Jane Wyman.

In other filmed sequences, there were glimpses of busy piers along the Hudson River and an awed sense that might on the water mattered in the days before air travel overtook even a record-setter like the S.S. United States. In a 1950s newsreel, the announcer breathlessly describes how the United States — christened in 1951 — had sailed into New York “surrounded by 100 smaller craft, dwarfed by her length, the equivalent of five city blocks.” It was modernistic and opulent, with boldface-name passengers. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor favored a stateroom known as the “duck suite” for the murals of waterfowl painted on aluminum panels that were fireproof, like everything else on the ship.

But it went out of service in 1969 and was stripped of its grandeur years ago. The ship has spent the last eight months in Alabama, where paint, chemicals and wiring are being removed in preparation for the sinking. The coalition says it will work to establish a monument in New York if the ship ends up in the Gulf.

It belongs to Okaloosa County, Fla., in that state’s panhandle, which paid $1 million for it last year. The sale followed a rent dispute involving the nonprofit S.S. United States Conservancy — which had long owned it — and the company that controls the pier in Philadelphia where it had been docked. Kaplan’s coalition went to court in Florida in April to prevent Okaloosa County from going full speed ahead with the sinking. In August a judge dismissed the case, saying the New York-based group lacked standing to bring it.

“There’s nothing that’s going to stop it from becoming a reef,” said Nick Tomecek, a spokesman for Okaloosa County, adding that the county’s timetable calls for sinking it early next year. “We certainly understand the passions surrounding the history. She’s a magnificent vessel that’s provided a lot of memories for a lot of folks,” he said. But “Okaloosa County owns the vessel, and it has been our intent since the beginning to deploy her as the world’s largest reef.”

Tomecek said that the county has already deployed more than 20 vessels as reefs, providing “a very necessary habitat for marine life while supporting tourism.”

He added: “Those little fishes need some safety, and the food chain goes all the way up. This large vessel will help protect those smaller species but also provide an ecosystem” for larger fish like tuna and marlin.

Weather

Expect a sunny day with a high near 42. There will be a chance of snow overnight, when the temperature will drop to 32.

ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING

In effect until Dec. 8 (Immaculate Conception).

The latest Metro news

Mamdani and police surveillance: Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has been a critic of the Police Department’s surveillance tactics, but has also reappointed Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner who helped create the monitoring network. One former police official says Mamdani could find himself defending a system his supporters loathe.

Snow and ice are on the way: A potential nor’easter could bring as much as a foot of snow to the Catskills and the Poconos as well as parts of New England tomorrow.
Cory Booker weds Alexis Lewis: New Jersey’s senior senator and his bride celebrated their wedding over Thanksgiving weekend in Washington, D.C., after a legal ceremony last week in Newark.

We want to hear from you …

… if you’re a theatergoer. Michael Paulson, our theater reporter, is looking for people from close-in suburbs in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut whose patterns of Broadway attendance have changed since the pandemic. If that describes you and you’re willing to talk, please email him at [email protected].
… if you have a SantaCon story: We’re gathering readers’ stories about one of New York’s most polarizing traditions, a sea of red felt that is beloved by some and dreaded by others.

Luigi Mangione’s lawyers will argue that some evidence should be excluded from a trial

Luigi Mangione, the man accused of assassinating a health insurance executive outside a Manhattan hotel last year, is expected to appear in court today for the first of a series of hearings on evidence taken from his backpack when he was arrested in Pennsylvania last year.

His lawyers indicated last week that they would ask the judge to bar prosecution witnesses from testifying about the contents of “writings” that were taken from Mangione “or characterize them in any way, including referring to any item as a ‘manifesto’ — a prejudicial, invented law-enforcement label.”

The judge, Justice Gregory Carro, ordered the hearings after Mangione’s lawyers argued that the police had violated his constitutional rights during his arrest. Mangione faces a second-degree murder charge before Justice Carro, who threw out a terrorism charge in September. Mangione also faces separate federal charges. Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in that proceeding.

Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pa., five days after Brian Thompson, 50, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down. Prosecutors have said that he showed officers who approached him a fake ID that matched what the gunman had used at a New York hostel.

His lawyers said the officers patted Mangione down and moved his backpack away from him. Later, after he had been informed of his rights, he was searched again and handcuffed, and an officer searched his backpack — without a warrant.

METROPOLITAN diary

A truce

Dear Diary:

In 2014, my wife, two young children, small dog and I moved to a section of Brooklyn where some considered us to be interlopers.

Before we moved in, the cable company told us it needed access to our neighbor’s yard to hook up our service. Our neighbor, a longtime resident, refused.

When the work proceeded anyway, our neighbor cut the wire. It was the start of a frosty relationship.

The rift extended to our dogs. Ours was typically skittish and submissive. Our neighbor’s walked slowly and wanted no trouble. They hated each other.

On the occasions when our paths crossed, our dog would lunge and bark. Our neighbor’s dog would regard ours as if she embodied everything that was wrong on the block.

Years passed. We went through a pandemic together. Time gave us the chance to put down roots. The frost began to thaw. When we saw our neighbor on the street, we began to nod, then wave a little, and eventually would say, “Hi,” without stopping to talk.

The truce extended to the dogs. Late on one cold December night, I took ours outside to the curb. In the distance, our neighbor and her dog were walking slowly toward us.

There was nobody else on the street. When they reached their gate, our neighbor paused. It was silent.

“How old is she?” I heard her ask.

“Fourteen,” I said. “How about him?”

“Nineteen,” she said.

Neither of us spoke for a second.

“Isn’t it amazing that the feud between them seems to be over?” I said.

“I think they just got tired out,” she said.

“Yeah, maybe,” I said. “Or I guess it’s possible that things can change.”

“Maybe,” she said.

We all went inside.

— David Neibart

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.