ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Scuba divers may soon add an iconic ocean liner to their bucket lists. The S.S. United States is a retired luxury ship that last sailed in 1969. Later this year, it could become an artificial reef in the waters off the Florida Panhandle. Designed to be sleek and unsinkable, it still holds the crown for the fastest transatlantic crossing. For many, it also brings nostalgia for a time when travel was glamorous. Alabama Public Radio's Cori Yonge reports.
ALEX FOGG: This is where there'd be shuffleboard and tennis and other things when they embarked.
CORI YONGE, BYLINE: Alex Fogg is natural resources chief for Okaloosa County, Florida. He's in charge of overseeing the S.S. United States' transition from ocean liner to the world's largest artificial reef.
FOGG: As we're walking down the promenade, stay on the left side of the green line.
YONGE: Passengers crossing the Atlantic once took in the ocean view from the promenade deck. Today, the ship is in Mobile, Alabama, where workers are prepping the luxury liner for its next life under the sea. Fogg stands on the ship's rust-covered, decaying deck, pointing out vacant window frames where people in wetsuit...
FOGG: For people to fish it.
YONGE: The S.S. United States would be the largest reef of its kind, but not the only one. Many coastal states sink old boats, oil rigs and even subway cars. Fogg says it's good for both the ecosystem and coastal economies. He's counting on the new reef to bring a big return. The $10 million the county is prepared to spend on it, he says, will be offset by the money visitors bring.
FOGG: Probably going to be on the order of 3- to $5 million per year in direct economic impact to hotels, to fuel sales, to restaurants, to all the things that people spend money on when they come to a destination.
YONGE: Okaloosa County wants to sink the S.S. United States toward the end of this year, but a New York preservation group is suing to stop the move. They want to bring the ship to Brooklyn as an attraction. Dive shop owner Christy hopes it will sink as planned, and if it does, she'll be there to watch.
CHRISTY: I'd love to dive it the day it goes down, if not maybe the day after (laughter).
YONGE: And for all those people who call and email, she's keeping a list.
For NPR News, I'm Cori Yonge in Mobile, Alabama.
(SOUNDBITE OF RONNIE FOSTER'S "MYSTIC BREW") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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