I think Michael directs his dislike to the 9 digit people who come by it via the moocher/looter line, there are a lot of candidates these days, HillaryBeast comes to mind, and she hasn't earned anything but disrespect...

Probably, it all depends on what the main owners are trying to accomplish. A lot of PR could be done in a US yard, where the foreign option is always disdained.

I've been following this off and on too, pessimistically, so this is excellent news, assuming they can actually get it done.

My only personal story on the S.S. United States is that I built a Revell model of it back in the mid-'70s when I was something like 12 or 13 (with the Wishbone Ash "Live Dates" album on continuous loop for the duration, so, weirdly, listening to that album instantly transports me back to... building the S.S. United States. 8^] 'Funny how music acts as a kind of "time-stamp" on the things that were going on in your life when you first heard it.)

What I love most about this particular ship is that it captures that excellent '50s aesthetic of dawning space-age modernity, mixed with classic cruise liner grace - something these boxy, bloated "bigger-for-bigger's-sake" contemporary things from the Carnivals and Royal Caribbeans utterly lack.

I just... hope they get it done, 'cause if I were ever to take another cruise, there's no ship I'd rather sail, unless they yanked the original Queen Mary out of LB harbor and got it going again. (R.M.S. Queen Mary: The second Revell ocean liner model I built.)

So here's a secondary note to parents on this thread: If you can get your kids interested in plastic models, particularly of historical vehicles, do it. There's a whole lot of thinking and absorbing of history that happens in a kid's head whilst spending hours building a scale model of something. I'm pretty sure I would have little interest in - or knowledge of - this ship if I hadn't done the model.

To retrofit the USS United States in the US would be cost prhibitive. Disposal of any dangerous materials such as insulation, stateroom materials and engine space could be a major problem in this country. She could be towed by ocean going tugs to a foreign shipyard is doable. It looks like she'll need a new bow section with a nosed one along with thrusters, The hull will need to have to be scanned for metal deterioration. They have to cut a sizeable hole in the superstructure to lower in new propulsion plant. The main shaft will have to be removed and the stern refabricated for more than one drive unit, The cost of all the steel would be cheaper in a overseas shipyard.

It generally works out that way.

really! . we have paid in advance, so here goes! -- j
.

Thanks! . we need to go before we can't! -- j
.

What's wrong with being in the 3 comma crowd? You work hard for it, and you produce, and you earn it, you deserve it... or is money somehow evil, that making money even more evil? Sorry but WTF??

Someone wake me up - this HAS to be an alternate reality, or a bad dream, because if Objectivists hate capital, hate profit and hate hard work and ingenuity and inventiveness... if thats the case, what's left - going back to the pinko moocher looter commies??? Shoot me now...

Yep, cost drives everything, as well as time. What used to be the most cost efficient way to do something suddenly flips and becomes the most expensive. Of course they have a crew of 500 or a thousand, with 2000 passengers, when maybe 6 jumbos could do it with a total crew of 60-80.

There is a lot of value just in the name and history, so if they can do an updated design, with the balcony cabins and such, it may be lucrative, as it would become a status symbol to sail on her..

According to the videos, the basic ship is still in good shape as it has been in FW for a while, which limits galvanic corrosion. The overall value will be in restoring a classic ship that almost rates as a monument, and people getting to relive the past.

A lot of it is lighting, look at the new design Cruise ships, more lights than an avg city crammed into an apartment building size. Also Diesel generation is more fuel efficient than steam, so they can actually cram more generating space into the same area turbo alternators are huge.

I sailed on QE2 from Englan to US in 1971 as a youngling. Huge ship, easy to get lost in.But beautiful throughout...

Well, they seem to be trying to think along the lines of a US refit, if they can dodge all the leeches..

Dino, that was one reason I went to submarines, and even then we had times we had to be on the surface. I was on a Trident doing an excercise off Hawaii, and the weather was clear sunny windy and we had 30 foot seas. The mess in the boat was tremendous, I ended up on watch in Sonar with a 3rd class and his puke bag...what a stink! Better than the Quartermaster who kept throwing up on the charts...

Hopefully the weather cooperates...

Bon vonyage!

Nominal peak load, AC Heating, etc. Remember it is not a house. It is a city block with bars, casinos, restaurants, etc. The number is about right. The original Disney cruise ships painted the hulls the dark blue color of turn of the century ships for aesthetics, and the AC load went over the capacity of the plants, which ran full on, and regularly failed. Not repainted.

we are going on our tenth cruise this spring, around
Hawaii and eventually to Vancouver. . should be a
fun trip! -- j
.

"Cruise ships favor electric propulsion because the hotel loads for the ship (6-15MW) are a significant fraction of the propulsion loads (~2x20MW)."
So if there are 2,000 people on the ship, that means 10MW / 2 kpeople = 5kW per person? That means every person uses more power than a typical house.

Probably better to make a new one. The hull inspection is going to be a mess, and fraught with risk.

In response to engine room note - No doubt the steam boilers, which are dangerous and maintenance intensive, will be replaced by diesel electric (diesel, generator, vfd motor). Wartsilla is the world leader in these diesel engines, and ABB is the world leader in the propulsion system. The US used to be the world leader until after WWII, when turbine gear drives started taking over. Most of the cool WWII battleships etc were steam-turbine-electric.

Cruise ships favor electric propulsion because the hotel loads for the ship (6-15MW) are a significant fraction of the propulsion loads (~2x20MW).

Ah, a symbol of American prosperity done with socialist Chinese money and HRM Trump gets a ".royalty" for every nautical mile.
A very appropriate allusion to the facade that Trump has always been and that America has become.

IMO the owner is Chinese-based - leave the US flag status, but do the refit in China... then re-sail it.

IF we get someone like, well, Trump in office, I suspect the project will get the workarounds to work here. It's part of the whole "Make America Great Agin" thing, and what a capstone the SS US would be...

Our family has some personal history with the SS US... My other half and my in-laws sailed back from England (where dad was stationed) on it's inaugural voyage... So seeing her returned to service would mean a LOT to us personally, as well as having a symbol of American prosperity on the high seas again...