A Piece of American History Needs Our Help

[Dattebayo]

lol

A hotel with shin busters... not gonna happen.

[szh]

What do they do with your money if they fall short of the goal?

ALMOST raising enough money to save historical items sounds like a good business to be in.

Don't give our resident ethics-challenged person any ideas!

Z

[AZhitman]

What do they do with your money if they fall short of the goal?

ALMOST raising enough money to save historical items sounds like a good business to be in.

Missed this the first pass-through... GOOD point.

I'm liking Dave's idea, but I'm liking the recycle idea better. Steel prices are crazy enough as it is, and there's also a lot of aluminum on board.

[Otto.]

Saw this on one of the other forums I visit regularly. I hope she gets saved.

[PoorManQ45]

Don't give our resident ethics-challenged person any ideas!

Z

*Calls other ethically challenged friends*

[Chaotic_Warlord]

They've been talking about wanting to scrap this boat for like 2 years now, and everytime they do some how it gets a saving grace just before they come to take her away. If they really want to create jobs they need to just pass the ruling to dredge the Delaware River so larger ships can come into ports, that has been up in the air for almost 8 years now. Personally I'd like to see something good come out of this story, but if they scrap it then there's money to be made by some company. Either way I'm pretty sure anything that is worth any substantial money has been stripped away, it hasn't sunk so the hull is still good, just need to repaint, retrofit the mechanicals and run new electricals and it should be goo to sail. Realistically to make the damn moveable shouldn't require to terribly much money.

[Solar_Runner]

I don’t think it would be reasonable for her to sail again. The steam plant is a dinosaur and thirsty! You’d have to re-engine her with big diesels to make closer to being economical. Pretty much a clean slate when it comes to passenger accommodations… but no provisions for balconies – a MUST HAVE for modern cruise ships and the SSUS (or Big U) is, or, was an Ocean Liner. Big difference in intended use.

She has so much sheer, camber and tumblehome (think curves) that the craftsmanship to work on her hull may about be extinct too. Add balconies and you’ve pretty much destroyed the ship you wanted to save. NCL could build new cheaper than putting the Big U on the seas again.

In my perfect world, they would park next to the ex USS Intrepid in NY harbor. Fix the outside and turn to inside to new accommodations and museum space. I’d just hate to see her cut to pieces on the horrible cesspool beaches of Alang.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

With all the emphasis on Philly revitalizing the Waterfront, this would be awesome as museum space next to the Mushula and the SS New Jersey across the way in Camden. The Waterfront gets a ton of traffic daily (from locals and tourists) so just moving her 1/4 mi up and refurbishing the paint and engine room you could totally turn this into a museum.

[AZhitman]

I think Philly has bigger fish to fry.

Use all that money to put more cops on the streets.

[Otto.]

With all the emphasis on Philly revitalizing the Waterfront, this would be awesome as museum space next to the Mushula and the SS New Jersey across the way in Camden. The Waterfront gets a ton of traffic daily (from locals and tourists) so just moving her 1/4 mi up and refurbishing the paint and engine room you could totally turn this into a museum.

I like this idea.

[Bubba1]

I like this idea.

I like it too, but the City of Philadelphia does not have the money to restore it, plus it would be cheaper to build a new ship from scratch than to restore this ship.

The fact NCL (current owner) is talking scrap should give you an idea how expensive an undertaking it would be to restore it.

I'm afraid unless a very wealthy ocean liner fan buys it outright from NCL in the next few weeks, she's gonna get scrapped.