Abandoned - S.S America

[Music] what's up guys my name is jake and welcome to abandoned episode 51. today i wanted to talk about the companionship to the iconic ss united states a ship i've already talked about in the past which is still in philadelphia abandoned by the way this ship though is every bit as special and iconic but perhaps not for the reasons you may think it had a colorful service and up to modern times was planned for even greater adventures but was eventually cut short after she washed up on a beach abandoned and slowly rotting away in the surf she became one of the most recognizable and iconic shipwrecks ever captured so today let's explore the history and find out what happened to the iconic ss america in the late 1930s the relatively new shipping company united states lines had begun building a brand new vessel it was constructed at the cost of one million dollars or a little over 22 million dollars today and was designed to prove america could build luxurious ocean liners too by 1940 the ship had been completed and was christened by eleanor roosevelt at the time it was unlike anything else at sea the aptly named ss america had been designed not only to be an efficient large vessel but also a modern one taking sleek attractive design cues mainly for its two funnels she was thought to be the perfect size for an ocean liner not too massive but not too powerless either within her interior was also thought to have been just right interiors which by the way were some of the first at sea to have been designed by a woman weighing in at 26 000 tons the ss america had 10 passenger decks had a top speed of a quick 24 knots and could carry over 1 200 passengers across 3 classes of cabins so the ss america had set out on her maiden voyage out of new york city on august 5th 1940 as an objectively beautiful vessel this however didn't last long [Music] in 1941 just a year into the vessel service the country of the united states had entered world war ii and with the navy desperate to move troops across to europe many private ships were enlisted including the ss america she was converted into a troop carrier holding a maximum of now 9 000 people light weapons were installed on deck and the ship carried out atlantic crossings through the war helping the allies enormously and ended up being quite a reliable and safe ship by the end of the war the vessel returned back to her ss america livery and the luxurious interiors were reinstalled and finally she began making passenger atlantic crossings ss america was finally able to serve the purpose she was built for and many had considered the vessel a ship of pride for the country she was named after the ss america had been the flagship of the united states lines until around 1952 when a larger version of the ship was put into service called the ss united states however despite being dethroned in a way the purpose these ships were built for began to become less popular ocean crossings mainly atlantic crossings from new york to southampton began to fall out of favor to the public over using air travel especially now with the advance of jet planes really ocean liners became economically impractical so through the early 1960s the ss america had done few ocean crossings in comparison to cruises to the caribbean this fundamental change in travel and the size of america had ultimately led the united states lines to sell the vessel in 1964. the ship was bought by a relatively new greek shipping company called the chandras line they were a new leisure cruise company buying up older ships to sail on the popular routes of europe to australia chandras lines renamed the ss america to the ss australis the latin word for australia they also changed the appearance of the vessel removing its patriotic colors in favor of their logo and paint scheme australis underwent a drydock refit and over the course of a few years the vessel sailed hundreds of voyages all around australia new zealand and europe because of her heritage as well the ship was the more popular one in the line and continued to please most new passengers however the aging ship and the rapidly changing cruise market had forced chandras to make a hard decision in june of 1978 they sold the ss australis to venture cruise lines for 5 million the new american shipping company had high hopes to use the heritage and notability of their new ship to their advantage they too had changed the ship's paint scheme to a more patriotic livery and changed the name back to the ss america they had been doing two three four and five day cruises out of the port of new york city however her new owners weren't exactly caring for the ship properly actually despite the inspections of the hull coming back very positive the new owners had let the ship get in horrible condition passengers who book sailings describe the interior as filthy with dirty sheets and piles and trash everywhere unsurprisingly venture cruise lines had little to no money and declared bankruptcy just two months later in august of the same year the ss america was seized by creditors and sold at auction weirdly the company who bought her once again was the chandras line they only paid a million dollars for the 38 year old vessel and once again brought her into drydock for some updates the largest update they had done was the removal of her forward funnel fundamentally changing the design of the ocean liner now with their name changed once again now to the italis the ship proceeded to do short and long cruises through europe and the eastern mediterranean clearly however the previous owners have let the ship's condition deteriorate and with other cruise lines bringing out more modern vessels chandras had just decided to get rid of the italis and once again the ship's fate was uncertain when they adopted her indefinitely otherwise known as laid up in 1980 she was sold and renamed to noga and this is where things sorta get strange the company who had bought the vessel had plans of turning it into a prison ship meanwhile back in the united states rumors began circulating of returning the ship to new york as a floating hotel none of these materialized though and the ship remained idle and rotting away with the future of scrapping becoming more and more like a certainty the ship had been floating abandoned in a bay in greece for several years at this point with the exterior in horrible condition the upper decks had been rusting with wood rotting away the interior however was left untouched now a time capsule from the ship's former ocean-going days in 1984 the vessel was sold once again to a fairy company who once again changed the name to the alfredos still with no real use the ship rotted away until four years later when a bilge pipe had burst allowing water to enter the vessel after severely listing the ship was quickly saved and had the water pumped out but this had seemed to be the final straw a scrap yard soon offered 2 million dollars which was accepted by her owners after over 12 years of being laid up work finally began dismantling smaller objects like lifeboats around the vessel preparing for the ship's main scrapping incredibly though in 1992 the ship was bought out and saved from its scrapping fates by a company based out of thailand their plan was to save the historic vessel and permanently place it in the city of phuket as a five-star floating hotel this was a future finally fitting for such an iconic vessel and her name was finally changed for the last time under the ss american star the vessel soon entered a two-month-long dry dock to prepare the ship for its long journey to thailand however no one foresaw what was actually going to happen finally after sitting abandoned for over 14 years the vessel left greece on december 31st 1993. since the american star couldn't operate under her own power the ocean liner was being towed by a tugboat with an enormous distance to travel which would have taken over a hundred days to complete through the next few days the tow had been uneventful and smooth successfully navigating through gibraltar and approaching the canary islands however on the evening of january 17 1994 the weather had significantly changed as both ships entered a violent storm through this the tow line had snapped in the pitch black during the storm the tugboat's crew had boarded the american star in an attempt to reattach the line however after several failed attempts and other tugs called out to assist the crew eventually had to be rescued by helicopter off the american star they were forced to abandon it the ship was now drifting on its own at 6 15 am on january 18th the ss american star had washed up on the beach upon the island of fort ventura the vessel was fully intact appearing to have no hull damage as it ran around on a sand bar however while the owners and insurance company had discussed what to do and if it was even possible to save the ocean liner the brutal winter waves slamming against the 722-foot ship had taken its toll the hurricane force wind and the colossal waves had fatigued the steel superstructure and the american star had split in two just behind the aft funnel this was the final blow to the ship's fate it was almost immediately deemed a total loss by the insurance company and the owners had left the vessel to the elements over the next few months the wreck had attracted many onlookers and even looters locals on the island had even gone to the lengths of creating a zipline tether to help carry off anything valuable from the ship as months and years passed with violent and powerful winter waves crashing against the wreck the side of the split vessel in the direction of the crashing waves showed an incredible visual difference to the deterioration from one side to the other the stern was in much dire shape though and in 1996 the 344 foot section of the ocean liner had collapsed into the sea leaving the bow section still standing incredibly the bow actually remained pretty sturdy over the next few years posing as a pretty iconic and kind of unbelievable monument because of the rough waves and the strong current the ship had been resting in getting to the actual wreck was quite dangerous over the years several people attempting to swim out to the vessel had died and various others needed to be airlifted off the wreck once they got on board on the starboard side of the vessel a steel ladder was welded to the hull during the ship's dry dock in the early 90s so getting on board was simple and definitely possible yet very dangerous they all had showcased incredible and rare perspectives and the creepy interiors of the vessel the only other visual documentation actually came from a german documentary called das wrecked america who actually filmed the interiors of the ship the documentary also showed rare footage from on board just after the stern section had split apart they also documented the sparse cabins and the water slamming through the blown out portholes the former illustrious dining room was now nothing more than a rotting shell and the main promenade had become a rusty dirty death trap as part of an art project for the film the crew had actually brought flood lights and generators aboard to illuminate the ghost vessel one last time a very fitting and emotional end to the vessel's tragic service by 2004 the bow continued to stay upright with the water below eroding away her cargo hole number one making the remaining 300 foot section of the ship extremely top-heavy by 2005 the ss american star had fallen over on her port side by now quickly eaten away by the waves over the next five years or so the wreck slowly disappeared beneath the surf and by around 2014 there was nothing left as of today i'm pretty sure at even the lowest tide possible there is nothing left to see via satellite photos you can still see the dark stain of the wreck beneath the water but really that's it the whole story of the ss america is honestly pretty incredible it's kind of hard to believe that this was once the ss america it had so many twists and turns in its history that you really forget what it even was in the beginning it served as a troop carrier in the military for around five years then she went on to serve her original purpose as an ocean liner for another 18 years but by that time the industry was already on its way out she had then gone on to have a decent yet rocky career as a pleasure cruise for an additional 16 years but after that the ship had been neglected and abandoned until she cheated death in the 90s with a hopeful future and someone actually willing to preserve the beautiful vessel but of course that didn't happen it really did have a long and fascinating career all over the world though serving all types of purposes and despite its tragic end the ship will forever go down in history for many reasons but also remain in the memories of those who traveled on this ship has been something i've wanted to do a video on and it's something i've been quite passionate about in the process of making this so if anyone unfair to ventura has a piece of the american star laying around in their shed i'd be happy to buy it off you anyway guys my name is jake and thank you very much for watching [Music] ah

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 1,145,632

Keywords: ABANDONED 51, SS United States, shipwreck, abandoned ship, creepy ship, SS America, SS Australis, SS Italis, SS American Star, canary islands, United States Lines, WW2, Documentary, new, 2020, update, HD, clean, PG, footage, onboard, pictures, ghost ship, destruction, bright sun films, jake williams, 2021, rare, sinking ship, cruise ship, Greece, America, USS West Point, Fuerteventura, SS Alferdoss, 2022, deleted video, reupload, documentary, re-upload

Id: S2lhuU-WXWg

Length: 15min 23sec (923 seconds)

Published: Fri May 21 2021