The Wreck of the American Star

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Wreck of the American Star (formerly SS America), seen from the land side, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands: photo by Wollex, 2 July 2004

In humiliation
at the hands of the Greek
investors, forced
like a broken horse
onto a storm wracked
course in red
weather. The second
attempt at
passage back
out into the Atlantic
interrupted -- propeller screw
shot, captain restive
the driven
hulk brought
near the parlous
shore. Abrupt uplift
coming aground
on the sandbar.
The pounding relentless
waves, the ship breaking
imminent, futility
of the enterprise apparent
now toward the end
of the one-hundred-day tow, crew
choppered
out, Ukraine
tug detached from the tow
line; nature
left to recover its own
rusting
rejectamenta, a gull
perched on a remnant
of funnel looking on
uninterestedly.

Hull of the SS America under construction at Newport News, Virginia: photographer unknown, 1938 (US Maritime Commission / Library of Congress)




Shipbuilding. Newport News, Virginia. A small section of the shipyard, showing an overhead travelling ("Gantry") crane in the foreground. There are two lanes on which ships are being built visible in the picture. The ship at far background is the S.S. America: photo by Alfred T. Palmer, October 1941 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



Newport News, Virginia. General view of the fitting and repair slips at Newport News, Virginia. The S.S. America can be seen in the background. The ship in the adjacent slip is a tanker: photo by Alfred T. Palmer, October 1941 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)



S.S. America, United States Lines, Ballroom I: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator (the New York modernist interior decorating firm of Miriam Smyth, Anne Urquhart and Dorothey Marckwald were the first female interior designers of an ocean liner): photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc. (Samuel Gottscho/William Schleissner), 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)



S.S. America, United States Lines, Barroom I: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)



S.S. America, United States Lines, Barroom II: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)



S.S. America, United States Lines, Smoking room, looking to bar: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)



S.S. America, United States Lines, Smoking room, looking to mural: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)



S.S. America, United States Lines, Smoking room, end detail: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)



S.S. America, United States Lines, Swimming pool: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)



S.S. America, United States Lines, Shopping centre I: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)



S.S. America, United States Lines, Desk detail, Suite U49: Eggers & Higgins, architect, Smyth, Urquhart & Marckwald, decorator: photo by Gottscho-Schleissner, Inc., 3 August 1940 (Gottscho-Schleissner Collection, Library of Congress)

SS America, designed by the naval architect William Francis Gibbs, built in 1938-1939 and christened by Eleanor Roosevelt on 31 August 1939 as flagship of the United States Lines, diverted from European ports due to the Neutrality Act following the German invasion of Poland on the day after her launching, here seen with insignia to identify her as "neutral" to German submarines as she transits the Panama Canal en route from New York to San Francisco: photographer unknown, 1939, from Harry Wildman Collection (via United States Lines)



SS America, designed by the naval architect William Francis Gibbs, built in 1938-1939 and launched in 1940 as the flagship of the United States Lines, here seen recommissioned and in light North Atlantic pattern camouflage, as troop transport ship USS West Point (AP-23). Carrying a total of over 350,000 troops during her naval service, West Point had the largest capacity of any Navy troopship in service during World War II. Her many wartime missions included the perilous relief of Singapore under Japanese aerial bombardment. On one voyage in August 1944, she carried, including ship's company, a total of 9,305 people: photographer unknown, after June 1941 (US Navy)



SS America, recommissioned and camouflaged for wartime service as USS West Point (AP-23), steams past the Statue of Liberty, bound for the New York City docks, while transporting U.S. Army troops of the 347th Infantry Regiment and 87th Infantry Division home from Europe:  photographer unknown, 11 July 1945 (US Navy / National Archives)

SS America, returned to civilian commercial service on 31 August 1946, here seen leaving New York: photographer unknown, n.d., from Collection of Steamship Historical Society, Langsdale Library University of Baltimore (via United States Lines)



SS America (foreground) with her younger sibling and running mate SS United States, in New York harbor, 1950s: photographer unknown; image by Oknazevad, 20 May 2009 (US Navy)




United States Lines advertisement: Time, 17 August 1953 (via Gallery of Graphic Design)

Returned to the United States Lines and converted back to civilian service on 31 August 1946, the America continued to carry passengers between New York and Europe into October 1964, when, with the advent of stiffer international competition in the transoceanic shipping business and the success of the larger, more luxurious United States, she was sold to the Chandris Line, a Greek firm, renamed Australis and operated as a passenger ship on cruises to the Far East and South Pacific into 1977. Between 1978 and 1994 the ship's condition deteriorated as she changed ownership several times. In 1993 she was renamed American Star and on New Years Eve left Greece for the last time, under tow by a Ukrainian tugboat and bound for Thailand where she was to be refitted as a five-star luxury hotel ship. Heavy North Atlantic thunderstorms broke the tow lines; the American Star was abandoned and left adrift, with the forward part of the ship aground on a sandbar; under the assault of heavy surf, within 48 hours she had broken in two just past the second funnel. Her fate entangled in negotiations between owners, towing firm and insurance companies, she was now in the hands of nature. On 6 July 1994 she was declared a total loss. In 1996 her stern section collapsed completely to port side and sank, with the bow continuing to remain intact. In November 2005 the port side of the bow section collapsed. With the remains of the ship now listing sharply, her remaining funnel detached and fell into the ocean. The hull now began to break up;  by October 2006 the wreck had collapsed almost completely onto its  port side. In April 2007 the starboard side collapsed, the wreck broke in half and fell into the sea, with the remains slowly disappearing beneath the waves. As of February 2012, only a few feet of the once proud liner remained above water line.




Wreck of SS American Star (formerly SS America), grounded at Fuerteventura, Canary Islands: photo by Pindakas, December 2003



Wreck of the American Star (formerly SS America), front view (cropped): photo by Wollex, 2 July 2004



Wreck of the American Star (formerly SS America), seen from middle distance, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands: photo by Wollex, 2 July 2004

 The former SS America, now beached and disintegrating on the island of Fuerteventura: photo by Ian Pullen, September 2006



Shipbreaking in progress: wreck of the SS American Star: photo by Michael Wunsch, 9 August 2007



Front section of the wrecked and sunken American Star: the last visible part of a grand old lady of the world's oceans: photo by Thomas Fietzek, September 2009