ssMaritime.com - Enter a world of Classic Passenger Liners

 

 

Farwell to what was once a Magnificent Liner ...

 

S.S. UNITED STATES

 

The once grandiose S.S. United States

For interest: The “SS United States Conservancy” was established in 2009 and incorporated in Washington, DC as a non-profit organization. The Conservancy purchased the S.S. United States in 2011.

The once great liner S.S. United States continues to hold the “Blue Riband” to this very day! Her record is as follows;

East Bound: 3 July - 7 July, 1952, USL from: Ambrose to Bishop Rock - 2,942 Nautical miles - (5,449 km) - 3d-10h. 35.59 knots - 65.91 km/h.

West Bound: 11 July - 15 July, 1952, USL from: Bishop Rock to Ambrose - 2,906 Nautical miles -(5,382 km) - 3d-12h-12m.

Re the “SS United States Conservancy”:

The first thing I noticed was that the Conservancy named themselves; “SS United States Conservancy”. Now that tells me as one of the worlds Maritime Historians that it really should have read; “S.S. United States Conservancy”, but OK, I am rather fussy! What did worry me so much, despite of all that was said and promised, how fast this great ex Liner ended up! Soon she looked more of a dilapidated rust bucket and nothing short of a tragic looking ship which looked more like a wreck. Even though I spent a small fortune, as I encouraged others in the USA and around the world to assist the Conservancy with funding. I still have multiple certificates regarding of parts of the ship that I was supposed own. We paid up to ensure her safety and her being restored as was planed, etc. But sadly nothing ever eventuated.

The Great and Magnificent S.S. United States was indeed the jewel of American Passenger Liners, but she just seemed to tragically rust and fall in a worse state before our (and their) eyes!

A sad sight indeed

 

 

 

Tugs towing the tragic looking “Big U” on February 14 between the piers

But we all know now that the “United States” had tugs moving her between piers, on Wednesday, February 14, 2025, for tragically she was heading in the wrong direction, as she was being prepared and made ready in Mobile to be sunk to become “World’s Largest Artificial Reef”.

A sad looking S.S. United States being towed down the Delaware River bound for a repair facility in Mobile.

Apparently this new “Artificial Reef” is to be paired with a shore-side “Museum & Visitors Center” to honour the S.S. United States; I would have loved to have seen the ship itself though! (personally), I find it a bit of an insult to the great “S.S. United States”.

 

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Parts of this page has been written by me Samuel Elisha.

Due to Dr. Reuben Goossens having retired due to old age and illness, as I am an old friend since the early 1980’s, of both Reuben and his late wife Betty, and I will be writing parts of this page, whilst some other parts will still be by Reuben Goossens. However, I will always sign off as follows. S.E.

Introduction:

ssmaritime.com features simply countless Classic Liners and the occasional cruise ships as of recently modern cruise ships are presented as a part of a ‘New World of Cruising’! Reuben some time ago added a New Feature on the new CUNARD Cruise Ship M.S. Queen Anne. In the past he operated CruiseAustralia.com for countless years and was a firm supporter of P&O, Princess Cruises, etc, etc. And I cruised with them countless of times, be it on various around world voyages or one way world sailings, etc. Also countless cruises on almost all P&O ships (par the Pacific Sky) But my favourite at that time was the Sitmar’s and the P&O Australia’s T.S.SFairstar, and much later the beauitiful, the best P&O Australia ship ever the M.V. Pacific Aria, but sadly she is gone says Reuben who sailed on her many times, now they have those big hotel ugly far too high boxes, with (what an real Liner designer told me) a sort of hull below it, as they are terrible. I, S.E. asked him what was the worst cruise ever, he said that was simple. I did an around the world cruise with Princess Cruises on the Pacific Dawn. The ports were very good, the ships crew were the worst ever, and the female entertainment director was more like a walking foul mouthed, calling passengers all sorts horrible thing and telling hen to (f) something off. Over all the voyage was poor and I wrote about it and I will not sail with Princess even if they gave me a free suite! Of course I only pay for a de-Luxe suite, whenever a cruise! S.E.

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Please Note: All ssmaritime and other related maritime sites are 100% non-commercial and privately owned, thus ssmaritime has NEVER been financially been associated with any shipping company or any other organisation! Although the author has worked and been involved in the passenger shipping industry for now over 63 years, and he has been a Managing Director of a major shipping company, as well as an Owner of a Cruise Company, and in those days there where those who would come to him for advice from a good number of countries, and he was always happy to assist. Reuben has been a very close friend of mine. But sadly Reuben is now 80 years of age and in poor health, thus he decided to retire. Yet, by now he has written around 1,610 Great Classic Liners, and Passenger-Cargo Liners as well as humble converted C3 converted Migrant Liners, which transported countless thousands of migrants to the new world, but also countless of Cruise Ships’ on his CruiseAustralia site which is no longer online. Amazingly; ssmaritime.com has received 7,579 Billion visitors to late 2024. Considering this site has been online since 1992 (although he was writing long before that) and countless people have visited this site well over hundred’s of times. This makes up that huge (to the globe’s number population) of visits, thus this is the most visited maritime site on the Globe! Cunard’s Commodore from the QE2, P&O Captain’s from the S.S. Oriana and S.S. Canberra, and countless others well known ships and companies from, Holland, Germany, America, Italy Greece, and the Israeli designer of the S.S. Shalom, have all written to Reuben as well as countless companies who desired to place advertising on his site, but he always refused, for he kept ssmaritime as a non- profit site, and desired it to be 100% unbiased! He has been given some fine liner designer’s books which are simply amazing (from the actual designer), and he has always appreciated their kindness and their great appreciation of his work of almost of so long and being a worldwide known shipping expert!

However, I trust the features Reuben has online will continue to provide all Classic Liner enthusiast’s, Crew, those who have sailed on any of the ships that he has online, and those who simply love sailing on those wonderful Ships, and those who are Ship enthusiasts, or those who are just seeking information. I trust that this site will in one way or another provide a great deal of pleasure and that many will relive many happy memories!

S.E.

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Also Note: The email service to ssMaritime is sadly no longer available, due to Mr. Goossens’ old age and severe chronic illnesses as well as being completely disabled. Since the 1990’s ssMaritime has received up to 114 emails per day, but sadly Reuben was no able handle such massive task and he sincerely regrets this.

Please Note: If there are any photographs, images or copy missing any this page, please refresh the page. S.E.

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I was given permission to state; that over the years I have been greatly honoured by some of the most famous people on earth, including an email from the now late H.R.H. Price Philip, who wrote me to thank me for the feature on the S.S. Gothic on which He and the Queen sailed on he from 1952 to 1954.

Some time ago, Dr. Reuben Goossens discovered a number of ships which he had already started and they were either close to being completed or they needed to be finished, and a few still required quite some work to be done be completed. Of course none of these were listed on the ssmaritime Index. Thus with my assistance myself and Reuben have been able to bring the last added ships online, for as I would not have been able to do this all by myself, due to my lack of knowledge. S.E.

There are some emails/letters online and they can be found on Dear Mr. Goossensof course there was also one, from Buckingham Palace which I could not publish for obvious privacy reasions. Reuben.

Of course there are countless amazing ships the ssMaritime Index (another link is located at the bottom of this page). However, apart from the S.S. United States above, sadly there are now no more ships to come as Dr. Reuben Goossens can no longer write any further. I have been his friend and assistant since the early 1980’s, yet sadly I do not have much knowledge in regard to the world of shipping, but glad to assist in a small way and finish what he really had already done. Reuben became a good friend of then P&O (Carnival’s) Australia’s director Sture Myrmell almost from when he arrived in Australia from the U.S.A. Since 1958 Reuben has been on many world voyages and cruises. In addition he was also invited on various ships to lecture with several companies, however he always paid for his cruise, and yet he would still give lectures as a paying guest. For he enjoyed living in a De-Luxe suite, since 2002, he had to use his scooter. I have lost count of his countless voyages/cruises, but it is well over 200 plus?  S.E.

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In Conclusion by Dr. Goossens:

My dear Friends, this will be my very last Notice. I hereby whish to say a very special thank you to all my dear ship lovers from all over the world, for I have been simply astounded that there have been so many of you reading ssmaritime over and over again, for the numbers of reader’s simply have more than blown me away! There are so many who have been reading this site up to a hundred of times for a good 32+ years. In fact this site has now reached over 7.5 Billion visitor’s, that is really the globe’s entire population, (and my online counter can’t be wrong) thus during all those many years you have been reading and reading, I am completely amazed. But more so about the amazing letters and emails I have been receiving over the many years, including one from Prince Philip, may He Rest In Peace, Lord’s and Sirs, but his H.R.H. wrote me regarding my feature, (which I am currently updating) on the Royal Yacht the ‘Gothic’, on which H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth and He sailed on. The voyage was certainly a joy to them both! At this point I can reveal that I was bestowed with a certain honour when I was in England, but I will not reveal anything else, for my own reason, I have also received countless letters from Lord’s, Sirs etc, and those who were famous designers of ship’s and or their interiors, but Naval Architect’s were most interesting, especially all the details provided me. There were some of the world’s most famous designers, one of these was a designer of the S.S. Oriana, and another of the S.S. Canberra. The list just goes on. Some of the most famous interior was designers such as my dear friend Sir. Hugh Casson, may he rest in peace, who has not only designed the interiors of the Canberra, but also Buckingham Palace, as well as the Royal Yacht “Britannia”.

It is simply beyond my belief that my originally basic ssmaritime.com in the later days became the one of the largest and famous Maritime website, and I certainly feel greatly honoured. Many Captain’s are well known to me, and they have written to me countless times. World famous ship designers who have not only contacted me, but given me their wonderful book’s including the designer of the S.S. Oriana and many other world famous ships! And please remember, that all my maritime & (now past cruise sites) have always been and will remain 100% non-commercial, thus ssMaritime has been paid for into the 2030’s, thus you can continue to view it and hopefully provide wonderful and joyful memories for past passengers from around the world, and for those who really love passenger liners and older cruise ships!

It certainly has been a great joy for me to present these classic liners for the viewers of ssMaritime, and it has been a joy to have been able to write for so many years having commenced writing in 1982, and I finally went online in 1992.

Thus please enjoy the around 1,610+ wonderful maritime memories that are online, and I pray that after a lifetime of sharing my love of all these fine ships with you, that they will live long after I am gone, as this site will give knowledge to future and new of generations and provide wonderful memories to those who remain! For I have paid for the site to run long into the future for your enjoyment.

Reuben Goossens.

As I stated earlier Dr. Reuben Goossens is now retired due to his rather poor health, being disabled in addition he also has poor eyesight, the last item “As seen on the top of this page was done with great difficulty. Over the years Reuben has received thousands oDear Dr. Goossens emails of thanks and today this page contains a good number of them, but there were countless more.

Best wishes - S.E.

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 “Blue Water Liners sailing to the distant shores.
I watched them come, I watched them go and I watched them die.”

Or ENTER THE SITE's INDEX HERE

Amazingly: ssmaritime.com has received 7,579 Billion reader’s over 34 years.

The last update was on: Sunday November 24, 2024.

Remember many readers have read different pages & ships hundreds of times

Also certain features have up to 12 pages and that is a great deal of reading!

 

Email: rg@ssmaritime.com.

 

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ssMaritime.com

Where the ships of the past and the Luxury Cruise Ships of today make history.

The author has been in Passenger Shipping & the Cruise Industry since 1960.

Having been a “Managing Director”, and has “Operated a Cruise Company”

In addition he was founder of “Save the Classic Liners Campaign” in 1990.

Please Note: ssmaritime and associated sites are 100% non-commercial and the author seeks no funding of any shape or form, never have and never will!

Photographs on ssmaritime and associate pages are by; the author or from the author’s private collection. In addition there are some images that have been provided by Shipping Companies and private photographers or collectors. Credit is given to all contributors. However, there are some photographs provided to me without details regarding the photographer/owner concerned, so sorry if this is the case.

This notice covers all pages; although, and I have done my best to ensure that all photographs are duly credited and that this notice is displaced on each page, that is, when a page is updated!

ssMaritime is owned & © Copyright by Reuben Goossens - All Rights Reserved.