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Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

It wasn't a cruise ship. It was a fast ocean liner. An obsolete concept. Business class, US to UK, at high speed. Only 3.5 days!

The SS United States was famous, but a long time ago. Back when Elvis and the Beatles mattered.

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I know it's different, just trying to find the closest modern comparison. You bring up Elvis and the Beatles, but they still matter to quite a few people. This ship does not, and that doesn't mean it's worthless, but it does mean that it's not a national icon that the president should step in to save.

It does mean something to a lot of people. It was a monument to American engineering. Once it launched, it immediately won the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic in a passenger ship, a record no US ship had held for a century. That record still stands 70+ years later. It's just a really cool ship? It's a shame that it's been neglected for so long and will now almost certainly be destroyed.

The point stands though. Warships that served the nation and have actual name recognition have trouble raising funds to stay afloat as museums. Keeping some unheard of commercial vessel afloat as a floating ballroom or whatever seems totally unrealistic.

Incidentally, if you're ever in Philly, check out the USS Olympia. There aren't many ships from that era (late 19th) still around. Really cool ship.

Collectables too big to lift often have negative value. The cost of ownership and maintenance is too high. The Living Computer Museum hit that problem. Used locomotives are cheap, if you can move them and store them. Linotypes are cheap.

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