SS United States Sinking Set for 12 November Off Destin, With a Sendoff the Day Before

The planning figures have not changed since the site was announced a year ago. When Okaloosa County named the location in November 2025, CBS Philadelphia reported a seabed of about 180 feet (55 metres) with the top decks around 60 feet (18 metres) below the surface, roughly 12 nautical miles from the USS Oriskany, the reefed aircraft carrier that is already a dive destination. The Associated Press, in a report carried by KY3 on 26 October, said the county hopes the wreck will join more than 500 existing reefs in its programme and bring millions of dollars a year in tourism spending. The county paid 10 million dollars for the ship, PhillyVoice reported.

When can divers visit the SS United States reef?

Not yet, and nobody official has said when. None of the outlets reporting the date carried a diver-access timetable, and The Scuba News advised readers to wait for verified site information and the guidance of local operators before planning anything. The reasons are practical rather than bureaucratic. A hull this size has to settle, be surveyed and be marked before charter boats can work it, and the upper structure will tell divers more about its real depth once it is on the bottom than any pre-sinking estimate can. If the planning numbers hold, the superstructure would sit within recreational limits while the hull bottom would belong to technical divers with decompression training.

The ship's funnels, radar mast and stem anchor were removed before the tow and are being kept for a museum that the SS United States Conservancy, the former owner, is developing with the county. That is the compromise the long fight over the liner ended in: the recognisable parts on land, the hull as habitat.

What could still change

The date is explicitly weather-dependent, and this project has slipped more than once, from early 2026 to the autumn and then to a specific week. A Gulf front on the wrong day would move it again. For now the county's plan is a tow from Mobile, a ceremony on the Wednesday and a 10 a.m. start on the Thursday. We will report what the surveys find once the ship is down, including the depths that decide who gets to dive it.

This article is journalism, not instruction. Diving any wreck, and especially a deep one, belongs with a certified instructor and agency and with operators who know the site.