Legislation is now pending in Congress to save the SS United States! At this time there are no further details. Once more information is known I will post it. What you can do right now is contact your Congressman and ask them to support this legislation. Those of you with Representatives in the New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania delegations should rally all your friends and family to write, call or e-mail their support. Time is of the essence in this campaign. Go for it!

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Legislation is now pending in Congress to save the SS United States! At this time there are no further details. Once more information is known I will post it. What you can do right now is contact your Congressman and ask them to support this legislation......SS United States Foundation Washington DC[/QB]

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Not as a practicing lobbyist, but as one who has done so from time to time .. with mixed results.. You are going about this all wrong!

FIRST: Is this a proposed piece of legislation; a scheduled committee hearing, or what?
SECONDLY: It is imperative that some title or number be attached to this action. NOTHING is gained by enlisting the support of a legislator when there is nothing to indicate what he or she is being asked to support. You are firing a round prematurely, in attempting to get the support of a Rep. or Senator without teling him/her EXACTLY he or she is being asked to do. Support, co-sponsor, testify in favor of ...whatever.

In short the cause is good, excellent in fact, but I am not going to use my chits was my legislators until I know what they are asked to support. Museum? New MARAD appropriation? Conversion to Hospital Ship (my favorite)? Fast-deployment ship for strike forces in the new DoD universe?

In short, What?

The Devil may be in the details, but do not stirr up the Hill until you have more facts on hand!!

As to just what they intend to do with her, I suspect it would be along the lines of museum, due to the enthusiasm expressed in the message. I believe this is the case because the Foundation's goal is to have the ship restored to at least that capacity.

As always, if I find out anything else, it will be posted to this forum.

IT was a good turnout when you consider the only advertising and communications were over the internet with no budget.

I forsee battles when and if the funding goes thru on how to restore her. Some will want to replicate her as original, [Is it worth spending money on rebuilding her 3rd class cabins] others will want to keep her profile, but modernise her as a cruise ship, [I would hate to see her Costa Riviera-ised] another wants her as a hospital ship, and another wants her as a stationary museum-hotel in NY harbor ala Queen Mary.

Had the SSUS been any other ship, she would have gone to the breakers by now.

For example, one component of the "Save" forces should examine the new roles and missions of the US Dept of Defense.

More than two decades ago, under the leadership of the late ADM Zumwaldt, the US Navy was examining roles and missions of an "80-knot Navy." We looked at Hovercraft, Hydrofoils, Surface effect ships, (remember the USSR "wing in ground-effect" monster now showing up on the Discovery Channel?), and other wondrous technologies.

The upshot of all applications for USN use, were that by the time the various candidate platforms carried enough fuel for nominal missions, at expected ranges from US bases they would have to have had minimal and ineffective payloads.

I did a parallel mission analysis using the Big U in both fast deployment missions and hospital ship roles. I

The ship was patently superior, and more cost-effective, but was insufficiently "high-tech" (yes even then!)to ring the chimes of our USN sponsors.

Remember, the "miles per gallon" factor which would determine the ship's operational viability did not matter in these roles. Speed did. This, of course, was the rationale for the performance specs in the first place.

In 2001, with a new DoD taking a new look at roles and missions, the ability to "project force," from home bases could warrant a revisiting of the use of the Big U in these operations.

NB I also wrote mission scenarios in which I compared projecting forces overseas,(in sufficient mass to be viable), with C-5s, C-17s, and the "Sea Land" fast containerships. The latter were not only winners, they became part of the USN logistic-support fleet!

Bottom line, support the foundation with discussions of realistic roles and missions for Big U.

And, if such are not technically feasible, get support from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. They played a role in the re-birth of the Delta Queen, and could do such again in support of Big U.

The defense rests!