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.S. Fairstar, 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.
**********************
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. Goossens, of 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?
*****************************
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 of Dear Dr. Goossens emails of thanks and today this page contains
a good number of them, but there were countless more.
Best wishes - S.E.
*************************
“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
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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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.