Deadline arrives for SS United States to vacate South Philadelphia pier

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The deadline has arrived for the SS United States to vacate its current home along the Delaware River, though it doesn't appear that the vessel will move any time soon.

Earlier this year, a federal judge sided with Penn Warehousing that the once-great ocean liner can't stay at Pier 82 in South Philadelphia past Sept. 12. According to court documents, Penn Warehousing warned the SS United States Conservancy, which oversees the vessel, it was prepared to impose a $3 million penalty if the ship is there on Sept. 13.

In August, CBS News Philadelphia learned that the SS US could be sunk off the coast of Florida , and that the Okaloosa County Board of Commissioners was expected to take up the matter at a meeting in early September.

At that Sept. 5 meeting, the board postponed voting on whether the ship would be taken there and sunk off the coast as an artificial reef. County Administrator John Hofstad said the county "hit a wrinkle" with their pier operators, and asked for the vote to pushed two weeks until Tuesday, Sept. 17.

Following that meeting, sources told CBS News Philadelphia that any plans to move the ship are complicated. Because the SS United States is so tall, sources said the ship would come within "feet" of the Walt Whitman Bridge deck, and navigation would need to be timed for the lowest tide. Meetings about traffic on the bridge and in the shipping channel still have to happen.

Sources also told CBS News Philadelphia the journey to the Gulf of Mexico would depend on possible storms forming during hurricane season.

Docked in South Philadelphia since 1996, the SS United States was considered in its heyday as the "the most powerful, modern, and advanced passenger liner ever built," according to the SS United States Conservancy. Designed in the late 1940s, the SS US was intended to quickly move troops in the event of war but instead became a cruise liner.

The ship hit the high seas in 1952 and crisscrossed the Atlantic for 17 years, carrying presidents, dignitaries and entertainers.

The SS United States Conservancy has been working to save the vessel and raise more than $500,000 to help with relocation and other costs.