Bye-Bye Big U

[Goldryder]

It appears that NCL may have managed to circumvent the 'no sale to outside US interests' clause regarding Unites States..Big U.

Reported in TradeWinds today is confirmation that NCL officially transferred ownership of the old girl to their parent Star Cruises, Malaysia.

The transfer of Big U and that of Norwegian Sky were both signed off in June, Norwegian Sky's charter to NCL is to last until 2010.

This arrangement was all part of the 2007 agreement tween Apollo Management & NCL.

Now that Star is officially the owner of Big U, may well make her effectively foreign owned/flagged...and thus possibly one step closer to Alang.

http://www.tradewinds.no/shipsales/article542537.ece

[Goldryder]

I cannot believe that NCL have done this again....if indeed they have circumvented the rules once more, like they did with Norway & Independence.

With Big U now owned by Malaysian interests...which is exactly what they did with Norway & Independence before they were towed off...that makes a mockery of any idea of saving the ship or stopping an outside of US interest buying her for scrap. If Global Shipping now enter the equation...who are based in Maryland...then all hope is definitely lost as they are brokers for Priya Blue at Alang who broke up Norway.

[ohioNCLcruiser]

adieu

[ukchris]

Originally Posted by Goldryder

I cannot believe that NCL have done this again....if indeed they have circumvented the rules once more, like they did with Norway & Independence.

With Big U now owned by Malaysian interests...which is exactly what they did with Norway & Independence before they were towed off...that makes a mockery of any idea of saving the ship or stopping an outside of US interest buying her for scrap. If Global Shipping now enter the equation...who are based in Maryland...then all hope is definitely lost as they are brokers for Priya Blue at Alang who broke up Norway.

Just curious, what do you think should be done with it? It will never sail again with the new SOLAS regs it would be to costly to convert.

[veggie59]

Maybe I am missing something. If they are no longer going to sail...then what is the difference who owns them? If they are still sail worthy......then maybe.....but really.....what difference does it make?

[Goldryder]

Originally Posted by ukchris

Just curious, what do you think should be done with it? It will never sail again with the new SOLAS regs it would be to costly to convert.

Personally I feel that NCL never had any intention of restoring her for the Hawaii route after the boiler explosion aboard Norway. They realised at that point that a ship of her age would be too much to keep up together properly...especially since they badly maintained Norway anyway.

They have left United States to rot as long as possible, knowing that each year that passed made it more and more impossible to save her and now that she is officially Malaysian owned, they can quietly get rid of her and hope that no-one will notice or make much of a fuss cos she is so badly neglected.

NCL did it with Independence too, broken promises and circumvented rules

[Goldryder]

Originally Posted by veggie59

Maybe I am missing something. If they are no longer going to sail...then what is the difference who owns them? If they are still sail worthy......then maybe.....but really.....what difference does it make?

She is the last great American built ocean liner, she is a piece of American maritime history and she should be restored and kept, not discarded lik a piece of unwanted and unloved scrap.

This will be the third classic ship that NCL have squandered...United States was a record breaking ship, she has more history than NCL/Star Cruises will ever have or deserve.

United States is a monument, she should have been reveered, not left to rot.

[ukchris]

Originally Posted by Goldryder

Personally I feel that NCL never had any intention of restoring her for the Hawaii route after the boiler explosion aboard Norway. They realised at that point that a ship of her age would be too much to keep up together properly...especially since they badly maintained Norway anyway.

They have left United States to rot as long as possible, knowing that each year that passed made it more and more impossible to save her and now that she is officially Malaysian owned, they can quietly get rid of her and hope that no-one will notice or make much of a fuss cos she is so badly neglected.

NCL did it with Independence too, broken promises and circumvented rules

OK. So you have admitted it would be too costly to keep going. So what would you do with it?

[gtalum]

It's a boat. I don't get it.

You're saying that NCL purposely left the ship to rot and therefore reduced any chance they had to sell it for a profit (or at least elss of a loss than sellign it for scrap)? That doesn't make any sense. Who would have bought it anyway knowing the current SOLAS regs?

[Goldryder]

Originally Posted by ukchris

OK. So you have admitted it would be too costly to keep going. So what would you do with it?

When they bought her in 2003 they should have laid her up properly that way others might have had a chance to restore her and turn her into a floating museum or hotel like Queen Mary...but since she was laid up badly and her interiors were stripped out of her, NCL made sure that once again that if they couldn't do anything with her, no-one would.

She is an historical ship, she should have been preserved for future generations. It is too late to save her now but what NCL did was criminal.

I saw her in service as a child, and to see her now breaks my heart, I wish that she had been broken in 2003 instead of NCL building up hopes of those who loved her into thinking she might one day be plying the seas again.

She is the last great Transatlantic greyhound and the last of a once great era and NCL have seen to it that she can never be saved for future generations to admire.

[Goldryder]

Those of you who do not know this beautiful ship...

http://www.ss-united-states.com/

http://www.ssunitedstates.org/

http://ssunitedstatesconservancy.org/SSUS/blog/

http://www.ss-united-states.net/

[ukchris]

Originally Posted by Goldryder

When they bought her in 2003 they should have laid her up properly that way others might have had a chance to restore her and turn her into a floating museum or hotel like Queen Mary...but since she was laid up badly and her interiors were stripped out of her, NCL made sure that once again that if they couldn't do anything with her, no-one would.

She is an historical ship, she should have been preserved for future generations. It is too late to save her now but what NCL did was criminal.

I saw her in service as a child, and to see her now breaks my heart, I wish that she had been broken in 2003 instead of NCL building up hopes of those who loved her into thinking she might one day be plying the seas again.

She is the last great Transatlantic greyhound and the last of a once great era and NCL have seen to it that she can never be saved for future generations to admire.

You cant blame NCL for not putting her back to sea, it's the new SOLAS regs that make it financially a non starter.
I'm guessing you dont have an answer to my question as to what you would do with it? Sounds like you just have issues with NCL, even the American posters are asking what is the point of keeping her.

[Goldryder]

Originally Posted by ukchris

You cant blame NCL for not putting her back to sea, it's the new SOLAS regs that make it financially a non starter.
I'm guessing you dont have an answer to my question as to what you would do with it? Sounds like you just have issues with NCL, even the American posters are asking what is the point of keeping her.

The issue is a simple one.

NCL have once again managed to circumvent the rules in regards to the ships they purchased for restoration and introduction into service.

They did it with Norway, they did it with Independence.

United States was just another ship for their collection, and they had no intention of saving her as they promised, they agreed not to allow her to be sold to foreign (outside US) interests earlier this year and not to be sold for breaking. Thus giving a chance - albeit slim - to those wishing to try and preserve her to buy her and get her out of the water and out of harms way until repairs and restoration could be carried out and she could become a museum ship or hotel.

They promised not to allow a foreign entity to have her yet they agreed to do exactly that anyway.

NCL have no principles.

I had been closely following United States and the various groups who have fought to save her as the national treasure that she is for years and had been hoping that she might be sold (since she is on the market) to one of the groups wishing to restore her, and maybe one day go and see her in her restored state. That is unlikely to happen now though since NCL have bent the rules again.

Walter Cronkite, who died recently, and many other well known people put their weight behind keeping her in the US and restoring her to her former glory...but all the efforts now seem to have been kicked to one side.

But hey, who cares about history...who cares that had it not been for United States and other ships of her era that the modern monstrocities that float around today might never have happened.

[ukchris]

Originally Posted by Goldryder

The issue is a simple one.

NCL have once again managed to circumvent the rules in regards to the ships they purchased for restoration and introduction into service.

They did it with Norway, they did it with Independence.

United States was just another ship for their collection, and they had no intention of saving her as they promised, they agreed not to allow her to be sold to foreign (outside US) interests earlier this year and not to be sold for breaking. Thus giving a chance - albeit slim - to those wishing to try and preserve her to buy her and get her out of the water and out of harms way until repairs and restoration could be carried out and she could become a museum ship or hotel.

They promised not to allow a foreign entity to have her yet they agreed to do exactly that anyway.

NCL have no principles.

I had been closely following United States and the various groups who have fought to save her as the national treasure that she is for years and had been hoping that she might be sold (since she is on the market) to one of the groups wishing to restore her, and maybe one day go and see her in her restored state. That is unlikely to happen now though since NCL have bent the rules again.

Walter Cronkite, who died recently, and many other well known people put their weight behind keeping her in the US and restoring her to her former glory...but all the efforts now seem to have been kicked to one side.

But hey, who cares about history...who cares that had it not been for United States and other ships of her era that the modern monstrocities that float around today might never have happened.

Your right about it being a simple issue, it's just too expensive to restore. All these well known people putting their weight behind saving it failed to buy it when it was up for sale. I'm sure Star cruises would be only too willing to sell it to them if they want it.

[iheartbda]

There was a valiant effort to save her but with 20 million dollars as the asking price and another 300 million to restore her, it was just too much for the SS United States Conservancy to come up with.

As much as I hate to see her go, in this day and age where the cruising public wants bigger and everything imaginable on a ship, there is just not a market for what she could offer even with updating to today's required standards. Sometimes, when death is inevitable, we just have to accept it and move on.

There are people who want what she could offer but not enough of them to make it profitable for any cruise line. Also, smaller ships do not afford the profit margin that the larger ships provide. As much as we would like to think differently, the cuise lines are not offering cruises out of the "goodness of their hearts". It's a business and no business would survive doing that.

For the person who said it was just a boat....the SS United States set the trans-Atlantic speed record, 40+knots, that still stands today. She was a marvel of ship building design that was well ahead of her time.

[sjbdtz]

Originally Posted by Goldryder

The issue is a simple one.

NCL have once again managed to circumvent the rules in regards to the ships they purchased for restoration and introduction into service.

They did it with Norway, they did it with Independence.

United States was just another ship for their collection, and they had no intention of saving her as they promised, they agreed not to allow her to be sold to foreign (outside US) interests earlier this year and not to be sold for breaking. Thus giving a chance - albeit slim - to those wishing to try and preserve her to buy her and get her out of the water and out of harms way until repairs and restoration could be carried out and she could become a museum ship or hotel.

They promised not to allow a foreign entity to have her yet they agreed to do exactly that anyway.

NCL have no principles.

I had been closely following United States and the various groups who have fought to save her as the national treasure that she is for years and had been hoping that she might be sold (since she is on the market) to one of the groups wishing to restore her, and maybe one day go and see her in her restored state. That is unlikely to happen now though since NCL have bent the rules again.

Walter Cronkite, who died recently, and many other well known people put their weight behind keeping her in the US and restoring her to her former glory...but all the efforts now seem to have been kicked to one side.

But hey, who cares about history...who cares that had it not been for United States and other ships of her era that the modern monstrocities that float around today might never have happened.

The issue IS a simple one. If the "rules" were unassailable, then NCL wouldn't have been able to "get around them".

They appear to have bought US-flagged ships with the intent of building up their Hawaiian fleet...but history has shown that while the idea was good, the absence of casino revenue, and the over-capacity of just 3 ships...did not justify putting another 2 or 3 in service.

What they effectively did however, was ensure that no other company could compete with them.

They also agreed not to sell the ship to a foreign interest, such that a foreign interest could run a US-flagged ship....which isn't the case.

Time to get over it. I followed your link....hideous looking ship. I'd never travel on that.

[mtwingcpa]

Originally Posted by ukchris

Just curious, what do you think should be done with it? It will never sail again with the new SOLAS regs it would be to costly to convert.

As someone mentioned on the TV special last year, maybe it should simply be painted (exterior) and maintained as a museum ship, similar to many historic military ships. Indeed, it sort of WAS a military ship.

I agree that a full restoration/conversion would not be practical at this point.

[LOWTYD]

It is a shame that it couldn't be restored but there is plenty of history behind her that she won't be forgotten.
Hell, the ship my grandfather came over to Ellsi Island on got old was sunk on purpose. That's what they use to do with these things. I would have loved to seen it but we can't save every piece of history physically so we do it with memories in the form of books, museums and the internet. I found the inforrmation about the ship at Ellis Island.org
We just had a historcial house torn down in our neighboring town because they couldn't rasie the funds, public or private, to renovate it. It was over 200 years old.

Companies reneg on promises all the time. Sometimes they bite off more than they can chew and , for economic reasons, decisions have to be made. Who has millions to spare to renovate an old ship when they could be puttig it towards new ones?

It happens.

[mikedw]

I've been interested in this for over 10 years now. Was a member of the SS United States Foundation and been a member of the Conservancy for several years now. I got a chance to spend several hours on her in Philly back in 99. Except for the engineering spaces, the ship is completely gutted. It would take a tremendous amount of money to even turn her into a static display. I was at a party in DC in 03 to celebrate the sale of her to NCL and we had big hopes, but this is a business decision plain and simple. NCL and all companies are in the business to make money. Museum ships are very expensive to maintain and in this economic enviroment, I don't see it happening.

All things have there time and place and I'm sad to say the the SS United States day is over. We should celebrate the history of this great ship, but I honestly believe there's no way to save her.

[smeyer418]

The Intrepid recently under went a $110,000,000 refurb. Most of the money came from the City of NY. The SS US was stripped by the US Government before NCL ever had anything to do with it. All the asbestos was removed. Yes its paint is peeling but that is cosmetic and can be redone for much less. Its worth 20,000,000 because of the old steel that is in it.
Should it be maintained? Probably remember the most storied(and ship that served in more battles than any other capital ship) aircraft carrier from WWII went to the breakers even though Admiral Halsey tried to save it. If the Enterprise could not be saved....the SS US is probably doomed.