World's fastest ocean liner is sunk to break another record: largest artificial reef
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liner → sink → record
The fastest passenger liner in the world crossed the Atlantic Ocean in less than four days.
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liner → cross → days
On Wednesday, it sank in five hours.
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it → sink → hours
The SS United States, launched in 1951 and longer than the RMS Titanic, once transported four presidents, the Mona Lisa and a slate of 20th century movie stars.
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States → launch → stars
After decades spent rusting, and facing the scrap heap, its minders settled on a deal to turn the vessel into what's expected to be the world's largest artificial reef off the coast of Okaloosa County, Fla.
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what → spend → County
Crews removed plugs in the ship's hull, allowing it to fill with water without the use of explosives.
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it → remove → explosives
After hours of delays, its final moments went quickly.
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moments → go → delays
The ship tilted onto its side and dipped below the waves.
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ship → tilt → waves
The sinking marks a bittersweet coda to the era of gleaming behemoths that crossed the seas in elegant fashion.
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that → mark → fashion
It is also the latest in an ongoing effort by coastal communities to lure thrill-seeking tourists away from international destinations, one that has so far generated surprising economic benefits.
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that → lure → benefits
"For those of us who love shipwrecks and love ships in general, it was way more tragic to see it sitting and rusting away at the dock," wreck diver and maritime enthusiast Karen Flynn told NPR.
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Flynn → love → NPR
Her diving club, the Maryland-based Atlantic Wreck Divers, booked tickets and a charter boat just days after a date for the ship's "deployment," as the sinking is diplomatically described, was set.
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sinking → base → deployment
"We've dove everything that you can around the world," Flynn said.
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Flynn → dive → world
"This will just be one more unique, new thing for us to dive."
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us → dive → ?
In many ways, Flynn and her club are the exact type of visitor that Okaloosa County is hoping to attract: divers planning to stay overnight who will spend a fair amount of money on equipment, food and lodging during their travels.
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who → hop → travels
The Florida panhandle county has sunk hundreds of artificial reefs, many of which are ships or boats.
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many → sink → which
"Certainly this is the biggest that we've done," said Okaloosa County tourism director Jennifer Adams.
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Adams → do → that
Reefs bring in roughly $10 million to $12 million in annual economic benefits for the county, Adams said.
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Adams → bring → county
She expects that number to climb now, and for the county to recoup its $10 million investment in the United States in "a couple of years.
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county → expect → years
"
To fulfill that promise, the liner's transformation was designed to appeal to tourists, marine life and federal regulators, Adams said.
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Adams → fulfill → tourists
Its hull was stripped of toxic materials and bulky components, and the ship itself was placed just over 20 nautical miles from the city of Destin's beaches.
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ship → strip → beaches
"It should rest at a place where its upper decks … are not outside of the recreational diving limits," said Flynn, the diver.
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Flynn → rest → limits
Panhandle counties now have a claim to several big-ticket ships that could draw tourists.
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that → have → tourists
The SS United States joins the USS Oriskany — a 888-foot post-war aircraft carrier sunk by the U.S. Navy off Pensacola in 2006 — and is set to make the area home to the first and second largest artificial reefs globally.
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area → join → reefs
Since 1940, Florida alone has created more than 4,000 artificial reefs, according to a state fish and wildlife commission tally.
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Florida → create → tally
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration analyzed 2017 data on diving tourism around artificial and natural reefs.
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Administration → analyze → reefs
It calculated that visits to just a few of those reefs generated almost a billion dollars in annual economic benefits.
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visits → calculate → benefits
Economist Andrew Ropicki, at the University of Florida, says Okaloosa and its surrounding counties have something of a "critical mass" of these planned shipwrecks.
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Okaloosa → say → shipwrecks
"You can capture more of those tourism dollars than [other areas]," he said.
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he → capture → areas
But Ropicki also warned that an overinvestment in reefing might eventually lead to diminishing returns, as visitor interests shift or they become overwhelmed by choice.
Adams, the Okaloosa tourism director, told NPR plans are already in the works to sink "five or six" additional artificial reefs after the SS United States.
For now, however, she hopes the sight of such a unique ship below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico is enough to draw crowds.
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sight → warn → crowds
Wednesday's sinking carries a far more complicated set of emotions for Susan Gibbs.
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sinking → carry → Gibbs
She's head of the SS United States Conservancy — custodian through much of the ship's ill-fated stretch moored in Philadelphia.
"I'm full of a complex mix of sorrow but gratitude and pride and hope," she said prior to the sinking.
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she → fat → sinking
Gibbs is the granddaughter of William Francis Gibbs, who worked obsessively on the ocean liner almost a century ago.
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who → work → liner
"He would freely admit that he loved this ship a thousand times more than my grandmother," she said.
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she → admit → grandmother
Now, seeing her grandfather's crowning achievement stripped and scuttled feels "complicated."
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achievement → see → ?
Her organization sold the SS United States to Okaloosa County for $1 million in 2024, a fraction of its original cost.
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organization → sell → cost
"We felt that reefing was by far the more dignified solution," she said.
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she → feel → ?
Karen Flynn, the wreck diver, agrees.
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Flynn → agree → ?
She says even below the waves the ship will still have a sense of grandeur.
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ship → say → grandeur
"There's something about looking out over that bridge … and seeing the nose of the bow and then seeing just the blue out in front of it," she said.
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she → be → it
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
