The 990-foot ocean liner that spent 20 months being stripped at a Mobile River berth is set to be sunk off Destin, Florida, on Thursday. Here is how to watch.

The SS United States, the ocean liner that has been moored on the Mobile River since March 2025, is set to be sunk in the Gulf on Thursday, Nov. 12.

Okaloosa County, Florida, owns the ship. It plans to deploy the 990-foot liner as what it calls the world’s largest artificial reef, about 22 nautical miles southwest of Destin-Fort Walton Beach. That is about 87 miles southeast of downtown Mobile.

The county said the ship would be towed from Mobile to the site “days in advance”. Work at the site is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday, weather permitting. The county had not posted a notice of the tow’s departure by Monday evening.

“This will be a historic day for Destin-Fort Walton Beach and for a ship with such a historic story,” said Trey Goodwin, chairman of the Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners, in the county’s release.

What the ship did in Mobile

The liner still holds the record for the fastest ocean liner, set in 1952, the county said. She sat at a pier in Philadelphia from 1996, according to the SS United States Conservancy, the nonprofit that owned her before the county.

She arrived in Mobile on March 3, 2025, after a tow of more than 1,600 miles from Philadelphia. Okaloosa County gave those figures in a December 2025 project update to its commissioners. Her berth was at 601 South Royal Street, the county’s questions and answers page says. The Conservancy said about 200 workers would be operating aboard during the cleanup.

The work in Mobile was to make the ship safe to sink. By December 2025, the county reported:

  • all 120 fuel tanks were empty
  • 99% of materials containing PCBs had been removed
  • both funnels, the radar mast and the propeller had been taken off and secured on land
  • every porthole and window had been removed
  • all flaking paint on the outside had been stripped

The county said 80% of the ship was then ready for final inspections, mostly by federal agencies. Holes are cut through the hull so she settles upright, and no explosives are permitted, the update said.

Okaloosa County commissioners set aside $13 million for the whole project, the county’s questions and answers page says. That covers buying the ship, the remediation, the tow and money for a land-based museum. The county said the project was paid for by tourism revenue and partner contributions.

A Mobile County lab will listen in

The Dauphin Island Sea Lab, about 30 miles south of Mobile, is one of the project’s research partners. The county said the lab will measure how the underwater soundscape changes before and after the ship goes down.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in Massachusetts, is to monitor the site for 10 years, and Louisiana State University is to track tagged fish around the wreck, the update said.

What it means for you

  • Watch it online. The county said a live link will be posted at thessus.com before the deployment on Thursday.
  • Sendoff ceremony. Okaloosa County holds a public event at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11, at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Convention Center in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
  • Viewing party. A live feed will be shown on an outdoor screen at AJ’s Seafood and Oyster Bar in Destin from 9 a.m. Thursday.
  • By boat. The county expects hundreds of vessels at the site and said boaters must follow the safety boats. The proposed location is 30° 07.148’ N, 86° 46.755’ W.
  • The date can move. The county has said throughout that the sinking depends on the weather.

The ship’s funnels, radar mast and anchor stay on land. The Conservancy said they are being kept for its planned museum in the Destin-Fort Walton Beach area.

The liner’s stay was one more chapter in the working river’s history. For more on the port, read our story on the Port of Mobile’s record revenue and the 50-foot channel, and see our guide to Mobile’s history and landmarks.