Rusted, stained, gutted and paint peeling, but still grand, the SS United States glided past Sand Island Light house into Mobile Bay early on the morning of March 3. Towed by the powerful Vinik No. 6 tugboat and nudged by several squat harbor craft, she advanced towards the Port City as hundreds of excited people watched. Prompted by extensive press coverage, social media posts and good old-fashioned word of mouth, some had waited hours for the historic event. From Dauphin Island and Mobile Point to the Eastern Shore, the Causeway and downtown Mobile, they all grasped its significance — the SS United States represented the pinnacle of American maritime design and engineering, an impressive if faded ocean relic redolent of mid-century glamour, celebrity and class. Mobile-bound for preparation as an offshore fishing and diving reef, she would soon slip beneath the waves for all time. Contemplating her stylish lines and raking smokestacks, just about everyone expressed some variation of the same sentiment: “Too bad she can’t be saved.”
While the United States remains in Mobile, possibly for months to come, many will see her distinctive profile on the downtown waterfront and wonder about her history. As one might guess, it is a saga filled with larger-than-life personalities and monumental achievements. The ship’s genesis dates to November 12, 1894. On that day, the parents of William Francis Gibbs, or W. F. as he always called himself, took their 8-year-old son to Philadelphia to witness the launch of a brand-new passenger ship, the SS St. Louis. As young W. F. watched, First Lady Frances Cleveland smashed a champagne bottle against the ship, after which it slid down the ways with a loud metallic groan, hitting the water with a prodigious splash. Mesmerized, W. F. resolved to design and build such marvels himself. His father had different ideas, however, and pushed his son into law school. W. F. graduated from Columbia in 1913, and in deference to his father, practiced for two years. Not surprisingly, he hated it. He spent his spare time studying ship design and construction. He clearly had a gift and got so good that he managed to apprentice himself to a prominent naval architect, after which he and his brother, Frederick, founded their own company, Gibbs Brothers, Inc., and even gained financial backing from J.P. Morgan.
Fortunate in their historical moment, Gibbs Brothers flourished, designing reliable, fast and safe passenger ships like the SS Malolo (1924), accidentally rammed by another ship during her sea trials but not sunk despite a gaping hole, and the SS America (1940). During World War II, the brothers teamed with naval architect Daniel H. Cox and renamed the firm Gibbs and Cox. During the war they turned out thousands of merchant vessels as well as tankers, minesweepers, destroyers and liberty ships. Despite these significant achievements, W. F. yearned to build a passenger ship equal to the nation’s greatness…