Rust in peace: SS United States faces the scrap heap unless $500,000 can be found to save the historic transatlantic cruise liner 

• Vessel carried more than one million passengers over 400 round trips
• Guests included President Kennedy, Salvador Dali and Elizabeth Taylor
• SS United States Conservancy group are campaigning to save the ship
  

By SUZANNAH HILLS

Published: 05:26 EDT, 25 March 2013 | Updated: 05:28 EDT, 25 March 2013

The SS United States is sending out what may be its final distress call unless $500,00 can be found in the next two months to save the transatlantic cruise ship from the scrap heap.

A preservation group is leading a campaign to secure a permanent home for the 990-foot-long vessel but is in desperate need of funds to keep it afloat.

Talks are under way with developers and investors about the ship's long-term future, but without the emergency funding, its caretakers fear they will run out of money before a deal is inked. 

Campaign: Money and time are running out for the historic ocean liner SS United States, moored in Philadelphia, which needs $500,000 of funding to stay afloat

Rusting away: An enclosed walkway on the once-glamorous cruise ship is now just a barren shell

The historic ocean liner carried princes and presidents across the Atlantic in the 1950s and 1960s but has spent decades patiently awaiting a savior at its berth on the Philadelphia waterfront.

'We've made progress on the fundraising side and the redevelopment side,' said Susan Gibbs, executive director of the SS United States Conservancy and granddaughter of the ship's Philadelphia-born designer, William Francis Gibbs. 'Our immediate goal is to buy some time.'

The group has raised $1 million through fundraisers and a website, where contributors can sponsor a piece of the ship for $1 per square foot.

But the campaigners say they desperately need donors with deep pockets and high profiles to help save the ship.

'Are we giving up on successfully redeveloping the ship as a self-sustaining entity? Absolutely not,' said Dan McSweeney, head of the redevelopment efforts. 

At risk: The 990-foot-long ship could be sold for scrap in two months time unless $500,000 is raised to save it

High costs: It costs $80,000 every month for mooring, maintenance, insurance and security

Ravaged: Moored in Philadelphia, the SS United States is now owned by the nonprofit SS United States Conservancy

'We continue to have active discussions with potential partners, we have ideas of potential sites for the ship, but we need more time to get it off the ground ... and we're running out of runway.'

It costs $80,000 a month just for mooring, basic maintenance, insurance and security, he said.

The conservancy is exploring potential partnerships with four entities in Philadelphia and New York City to refashion the vessel as a stationary entertainment complex with 500,000 square feet of space for a hotel, theater, restaurants and shopping. The sluggish economy and other factors have slowed negotiations, McSweeney said.

As talks continue, he said, the hope is to convince corporate sponsors, influential politicians and prominent business leaders - are you listening, Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg? - to lend their political and financial capital to the effort.

'Any way you look at it, there is no downside to this project,' McSweeney said. 'It's an economic and community development project that's going to create jobs.'

A lot of work to do: The rusted and ruined interior view of the SS United States

Heyday: The SS United States pictured in front of the Midtown Manhattan skyline and Empire State building as it begins its first voyage along the Hudson River to Europe from New York in 1952

The SS United States carried more than one million passengers at record-breaking transatlantic speeds over the course of 400 round trips from 1952 to 1969, among them President John F. Kennedy, Prince Rainier of Monaco, Salvador Dali and Elizabeth Taylor.

A joint venture between the Navy and ship designer Gibbs & Cox, the luxury liner was made with hidden military might - it could have been converted in a single day to transport 14,000 troops for 10,000 miles before refueling.

After being decommissioned it changed hands multiple times, from the Navy and on through a series of restoration-minded investors.

It was towed from Virginia to Turkey to Ukraine, finally arriving in Philadelphia as a gutted hulk in 1996. Another succession of developers and a cruise lines failed to return the ship to service as retrofitting costs proved too great.

A local philanthropist's 11th-hour gift of $5.8 million allowed the SS United States Conservancy to save the ship from the scrapper and keep it berthed and maintained for 20 months. That was last November.

'It's an all hands on deck moment,' Gibbs said. 'Now is the time, there's a window. Within months it will close unless everyone assists in the effort.' 

Record holder: The once-great liner is still the holder of the Blue Riband for the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing which it set in July of 1952

Special honour: The ship is still the only man-made object within America to bear the name United States