You are listening to this is Cruise Radio Rewind.

Real reviews from real cruisers.

Welcome to this weekend's episode of Cruise Radio Rewind.

My name is Doug Parker.

We're going to go back to the early 50s this week.

Talk about the SS United States.

It's a retired ocean liner that is currently in Philadelphia.

In fact, I was actually, this was like an interest project for me because I was at the,

what's the place with the meatballs? Ikea. I was in IKEA and I was walking into the store and

across the parking lot was this massive ship and it looked like a ghost ship. Turns out it's the SS United States.

I should have known more about it.

I've heard of the ship in the past because Crystal Cruises was going to buy it at some point,

and years ago, NCL was going to try to buy it and refurbish it.

None of that actually went through.

But it's sitting at Pier 82.

So I called the SS United States Conservancy, and I got a

hold of Susan Gibbs. Turns out, she's the executive director, and her grandfather was the architect

of the ship. So some cool, some cool history here. And if you're a ship geek like myself, you'll really

enjoy this interview. And if you're not, maybe you'll learn something.

So here's the interview I did with Susan. Hey there. So there's a lot of ground to cover today.

So we'll jump right in here. And for context, talk to us a little about the history of the SS United States.

Sure. The SS United States or America's flagship smashed the transatlantic speed record on her maiden

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