Luxury liner with secret military past set to surpass ex-US Navy carrier as world’s largest artificial diving reef

The 990-foot ship, which was never activated to live its secret life as a Cold War fast troop transport, will be sent to the bottom of the ocean floor. The former ocean liner SS United States docked in Mobile, Ala., where it is being prepared to sink off the coast of Florida in late November 2026. (Okaloosa County, Fla.) The famed luxury ocean liner SS United States, which won the “Blue Riband” as the fastest ship on the North Atlantic while leading a secret double life as a potential Cold War fast troop transport, is poised for its final voyage — to the ocean floor off the coast of Florida as a diving tourist attraction.

“We’re looking to deploy in the second week of November,” Nick Tomecek, spokesman for Okaloosa County, Fla., which owns the ship, said Monday. “It’s pretty exciting to be so close to the end.” The 990-foot ship nicknamed “Big U” will be sent to the bottom about 22 nautical miles southwest of Destin-Fort Walton Beach. It will rest in about 160 feet of water, leaving the ship’s remaining superstructure 75 feet below the surface. The SS United States would become the world’s largest artificial reef, a rank currently held by the former aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, located in the same area, just to the east. The