The SS United States hosted a small event over the weekend to bid farewell to its Philadelphia home of nearly three decades as it heads to Florida for semi-retirement, writes Ximena Conde for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The SS United States Conservancy and Florida officials from Okaloosa County marked the occasion with a small transfer-of-title ceremony aboard the defunct cruise liner on Saturday.

The ship will be moved to Florida, where it will be sunk and become an artificial reef.

“We can tell you that you will not be lost, you will not be forgotten, you will no longer be neglected and abused,” said Thomas Watkins, a conservancy board member and retired judge of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, during the ceremony. “You will be rightly honored, cherished, and loved in a new home and in a new dimension. You will no longer be sailing the seas, but you will be surrounded and caressed by them.”

While the documents have been signed, the deal still needs to be approved by a judge of a U.S. District Court where the conservancy and Penn Warehousing, the ship’s landlords, have been arguing over a rent dispute.

Read more about the SS United States in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on PHILADELPHIA Today in October 2024.