In the end, there was no more time. There was no more money. And America’s flagship, the SS United States, tied up since 1969, may soon be on her way under tow to become part of a fishing reef off Florida.

Her story in this region is already well known, for the SS United States was the pride of Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company upon her launch in 1951, and after her maiden voyage in 1952. On that memorable trip, the passenger liner unveiled the power of her turbines and snagged the Blue Riband for her record-fast passage from Ambrose Lightship in New York Harbor to Bishop Rock off Cornwall, England, in three days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes. It was said that her engines never reached their full capacity.

The record still stands. And the beautiful ship that set it, the SS United States, is likely to become a fishing reef.

Speed alone could not save her career. Transatlantic jet flights secured her placement in mothballs and long periods of idleness at many ports, most recently (for years) in Philadelphia. Many, many efforts have been made to revive the liner, as a cruise ship, a museum, or in some other form, in the past 55 years. None has worked out. Now the end is near.

Thousands of Gloucester and Mathews men and women have worked at the shipyard over the past century, and those who built the beautiful liner must be nearly gone now. But the DNA of our local skilled shipbuilders became part of her fabric. Those who have loved the liner, and yearned for a better fate, will surely feel a wrenching pang if and when she settles to the bottom of the salty dominion where once she ruled the waves.