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I like the movie "The company men". One of the main characters in the movie says about recovery of a shipbuilding plant: "We made different ships, small and large. Men got job and improved skills gradually. They earned good money, became owners of hoses. They bought the first car, then the second one".
The interior fittings including much of the engine rooms have been gutted. Propellers or at least one is missing (it was on deck at one point), in short it is nothing but a rat (and the cats who hunt them) rusted out shell of a ship.
While am all for saving the USS, it would be cheaper, faster and probably better off if a new ship was built based upon the old plans.
I have a sentimental attachment. She was put in service the year I was born. I was born in Newport News, where she was built. My grandfather helped build her. A commemorative launching photo hung in my grandparents house for many years. Though I was very young, I think it safe to assume my grandfather was proud of working to build her. They had lived through WWII and now a few years later, this magnificent ship was sailing the Atlantic.
Anyways, I would love to see it brought back to its glory days but I am skeptical of the value for the money it would take. They are talking almost a billion dollars to restore her. The entire Royal Caribbean Cruise Company fleet of about 50 of the best cruise ships in the world is worth about 30 billion and nets in one year what it would take to restore the SS United States.
I just can't see this cruise ship, no matter how glorious its past, netting enough income to pay for its restoration during its life time. Not unless there are a lot of generous people out there willing to donate a lot of cash just to see it happen.
I was on that ship when I was 8, It took days to get to europe and rolled quit a bit in the heavy seas, but it was still and experience I never forgot.
I remember when Belfast Ireland was a great shipbuilding industry. So too many places in the USA.
Where are all the great ships being built now days?
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