According to this NBC News story as of yesterday, the SS United States is in danger of being sold to a scrapper if substantial donations for her ongoing upkeep aren't received by the 31st.

http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/kee ... ip-n451626

$60,000 a month to park the ship at a pier that wouldn't be getting used anyway if the ship wasn't there, what a rip off.

Yeah, what nerve the owners of the dock have, thinking they should be getting money for this hulk being parked there for years and having to deal with any issues with the dock itself, including insurance, maintenance and all the things that goes with that. How freaking dare they! (sarcasm alert s in effect, of course)

For as long as I can remember, the SS United States has been "running out of money for docking fees".
I get that any ship without maintenance in the water is a ticking timebomb in regard to preservation, but the "boy who cried wolf" nature of tugging at the heart strings for stopgap funds is counterintuitive in regards for the longterm preservation of the ship.
Either the ship is going to get a second life as a museum (NOT likely) or a commercial venture (also unlikely but possible given the location), or it won't. $60,000 a month in fees and expenses, just sitting there, adds up with a quickness. It's been estimated that getting her back into condition to take to sea would cost around a billion dollars.
As impressed as I always was every time I saw the ship when I'd travel to Philly, contributing to dock fees which could stretch on for years with no real end goal is frankly not where my money would (or even should) go.
If a longterm use for the ship cannot be found, maybe she should be turned into cookware. A never-ending drive for money to just keep her afloat, with paint slowly fading and peeling, keeps the money from preservation efforts with more concrete goals and results.
All one has to do is to Google "Ferry Kalakala" to see a smaller-scale version of the SS United State's plight. She got cut up a while back, having been a money pit for the better part of 15 years, diverting money which could have been used for local good preservation efforts instead of being flushed down the toilet on a project that was always doomed to fail.

Use it for an artificial reef.. its a shell anyways...

My understanding of the situation is that the so-called "docking fees" include the necessary power to the pumps that keep the darned thing from sinking until it gets to dry dock for re-sealing the hull.

Ever seen the price difference between a tent-only campsite and one with full trailer/camper hook-up? Same deal--or so I'm to understand.

Exactly.
I knew a guy who seriously considered buying a WW2 minesweeper and then digging a channel onto some riverfront property so it'd be upright but out of the water for good, so he could make a house out of it. He looked into all the stuff he'd have to do and part of it would have required dock time while everything got into place*. The dock time covered all kinds of stuff other than just a parking space. that's why I roll my eyes at comments about how $60K seems too much for a ship this massive.

*It never came to pass, he couldn't get the permits in time and the ship was cut into razor blades. This was several years back.

Saving a ship makes saving a locomotive look like child's play.

I love the big ship, but I honestly see this ending up with her preservation, much less a restoration. It's a sadness we should probably accept.

This is one of those projects that just can't stay afloat without Federal support.

Yep, or a massive corporate sponsorship.
I can't see either coming at this point due to the massive cost just to keep her afloat at this point.

As much as I love classic ocean liners, and especially the lore of this ship, I believe sinking as a reef would be the best way to keep the legend alive. Think of the endless Discovery channel shows featuring the undersea exploration of the ship at rest on the bottom.

Wesley

The SS United States is one very beautiful ship, unfortunately her time has come and gone. The saving of this ship was not helped with it's gutting and sale of internal items. From all accounts it is nothing but a shell.

I would love to take a tour down into the engine room to see her turbine drive, which I have read is like that of the Iowa class battleships.

With the current dramatic decline in scrap prices, they have even missed the boat on that value. I was told by a scrapper today that it will fall even more in November. We were recently offered $90. a ton for railroad rail in random lengths.

As much I hate to see it, I am beginning to believe that sinking it would be the best thing for it.

One of my friends was involved in a group with a Great Lakes car ferry, they received a retired Coast Guard buoy tender and sailed it under it's own power to it's new home.

He ask me one time if I knew what a boat was, he called it a hole in the water that you pour money into, a ship is just a bigger hole.

Perhaps the National Park Service will come to the rescue....

Steamship Town

Meanwhile a certain cruiser Olympia right up the river could certainly make good use of $60,000 a month. She has a chance to survive long term, the United States does not.

....and the Olympia already is restored, open to the public and fulfilling a dedicated mission - three things alone that the SS United States is not and is a very long, expensive way from doing.

Not restored as much as you think. The Olympia has a great many issues which could spell her doom very easily. Just google the subject and you'll see a portion of them.