This WEB page covers plein air oil studies I did of the SS United States. She was designed by William Francis Gibbs to be the world's fasted ocean liner.
He succeeded.
Winning the Blue Ribbon on both her east and west bound maiden voyages from the Cunard liner Queen Mary, she arrived in port with the paint stripped down to the bare steel at her bows, testimony to her unprecedented speed (and perhaps some issues with the original paint job.)
I, and other Philadelphia area artists, did paintings, watercolors, drawings and photographs of her from the limited vantage points available along the Philadelphia waterfront in her final months with us.
Many of these artists joined the crowds to watch her passing as she was towed down the Delaware, out into the Atlantic and on to the Gulf where she will be sunk, serving as the world's largest reef.
On that day I chased her as far as Wilmington, Delaware, where a large crowd from neighboring states had gathered in Fox Point State Park to watch her passing.
Reflecting a fate that confronts much of our nation's artistic legacy, decades of efforts to fund her preservation failed. But at least in this instance a ship has been saved from the scrap yards and portions, such as one or both of her iconic funnels, are expected be preserved for a shore based museum.
(Further details and information are available on the SS United States Conservancy web site at https://www.ssusc.org/)
