TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—A historic ocean liner that once ferried immigrants, Hollywood stars, and heads of state may soon find its final resting place at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, after a Florida county inked a tentative deal to turn the ship into the world’s largest artificial reef.
The contract approved Tuesday by officials in Okaloosa County on Florida’s coastal Panhandle is contingent upon the resolution of court-imposed mediation, after a judge ordered the storied but aging ship to vacate its berth at a pier in Philadelphia, following a yearslong dispute over rent and dockage fees.
The largest passenger ship ever built in the United States, the SS United States shattered a record for the fastest transatlantic crossing by a passenger liner on its maiden voyage in 1952, The Associated Press reported from aboard the vessel….