Okaloosa County will become the home of the world’s largest artificial reef

OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) — Okaloosa County commissioners believe they have sealed the deal to buy the SS United States.

The old cruise ship has been sitting at a dock in Philadelphia since 1996.

“It was built to accommodate about 2,000 passengers, but it was built in the time following World War two where the United States was trying to figure out ways to get troops across the seas very very quickly, so it was built in a manner to where it could actually be retrofitted to accommodate 14 thousand troops and bring them over to Europe if needed,” Natural resources chief Alex Fogg said.

Okaloosa County is budgeting 10.1 million dollars to buy the ship, pay the dock fees, perform the necessary clean-up, tow it to the panhandle, and sink it about 20 miles off the coast of Destin. Many think this will boost tourism.

“They’re not just places to go, they are true destinations,” Resident Frank Gidus said.
“Bringing the SS United States here as an artificial reef would bring immense opportunities for us,” resident Savanna Christy said.
“They provide a lot of ecosystem benefits to marine life and diversity in the area,” resident Eric Larson said.

But some feel 10 million is too much.

“That ten million dollars that’s you know it’s hard right now. When you look at the people who are hurting because of these hurricanes, for us to take ten million dollars and sink it into the Gulf of Mexico.. that’s a hard sell,” County commissioner Carolyn Ketchel said.

The current owner is the SS United States conservancy. The group looked at restoring the famous ship as a museum or floating hotel, but it was too expensive.

Okaloosa County has budgeted about 1-million of the 10-million dollars to build a land-based museum for the ship’s artifacts.

County staff expects diving activity around the ship to generate 3-million dollars a year to the local economy.

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