THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020435
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
LENGTH: 91 lines
The former flagship of America's merchant fleet has returned to the nation's waters in much the same state as when it left Hampton Roads for Turkey four years ago - stripped, powerless and under tow.
The SS United States, the largest-ever American passenger ship and a paragon of maritime design and construction, today rests near Philadelphia's Walt Whitman Bridge at a Packer Avenue Marine Terminal berth.
It returns to the East Coast after a lengthy and sometimes-contentious stay at a shipyard outside Istanbul, where its owners had hoped to refit the aging superliner for cruise service.
Introduced into transatlantic service in 1952, the ship - built at Newport News Shipbuilding and still among the company's most recognized vessels - set a speed record on its maiden voyage from New York to Southampton, England.
Eclipsed by transatlantic jet service inthe late 1950s and beset by mounting debts, the liner was laid up in 1969, first at Newport News and later at the Norfolk International Terminals. It was towed to another berth at a Newport News coal pier in 1989 and sold at auction three years later.
Now its owners, Marmara Marine Inc., are seeking backing for the ship's modernization - a multimillion-dollar effort that was also the stated aim of its former owners during its long, lonely dormancy in Hampton Roads.
``We want to think positively,'' said Fred Mayer, a Florida-based cruise industry executive who is Marmara's chief executive.
The 44-year-old superliner is ``safer here,'' he said of the berth in Philadelphia. It's ``going to stay there for a while . . . then go to a shipyard for refurbishing.''
The cruise official declined to provide more specific details, saying an announcement would be forthcoming at the end of October.
In a statement, Marmara said the ship will be docked in Philadelphia ``until final financing of approximately $250 million and conversion plans are completed.''
Officials outside of Marmara said overhauling the ship could become a project for the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and that the vessel, once restored, could be employed in the coastwise gambling trade in the Philadelphia area. Work on the ship is expected to include expanding smallish staterooms and equipping each with a modern bathroom.
Marmara's efforts to secure backing evoke those of Richard Hadley, a Seattle businessman who bought the ship from the federal government in the early 1980s, stripped it of its interior finery and strove, unsuccessfully, to garner backing for its conversion to warm-weather cruising.
Turned down in his attempts to obtain federal government financing for the job under the Maritime Administration's Title XI loan guarantee program, Hadley eventually was forced to give up the ship to satisfy creditors.
Mayer made the winning bid on the ship - $2.6 million - in April 1992. His company had it towed it to Turkey two months later.
It is unclear whether Marmara also will seek federal government financing. The Maritime Administration said Monday it has not received an application for the project.
So far, Marmara has succeeded in removing tons of asbestos from the ship, whose engine spaces were layered in the carcinogenic material to bolster its ``fire-proof'' design.
The asbestos work was accomplished during its stay in Europe, despite protests by Greenpeace, an international conservation group, that performing the removal there amounted to corporate America exporting its dirtiest, most dangerous labor.
The United States returns emptied of all but its steel hull and framework, its aluminum superstructure and its intact, though atrophied, power plant - four steam turbines that once gave the liner the distinction of being the most powerful vessel afloat, capable of producing 240,000 shaft horsepower.
That horsepower rating and its top speed - well over 40 knots - were once government secrets, because the ship was designed for rapid conversion to troop carrying in times of crisis.
``I think she has a future,'' said Frank O. Braynard, museum curator at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., and a critic of past delays in the ship's salvation. ``That's a good, solid engine.''
Holt Cargo Systems Inc. is providing the berth at the Packer Avenue terminal. Walter Curran, Holt's stevedoring director, said he doesn't know what is in store for the ship.
``We're merely accommodating'' Marmara by allowing them to tie up for three weeks or so while they set their plans, Curran said. Holt is also interested because of the possibility the ship will have a future in the Philadelphia area and create jobs there.
``It's exciting that the SS United States has returned home,'' said former Maryland Rep. Helen D. Bentley. This ship ``belongs in America. I hope that funds will be available to make her a viable ship once more flying the Stars and Stripes,'' she said. MEMO: Staff writer Earl Swift and the Journal of Commerce contributed to
this report. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
FILE PHOTOS
The United States was a fixture on Hampton Roads' waterfront before
being towed to Turkey. by CNB