Please sign this petition to promote the diving, discovering, raising, and restoration of these historic liners that served 

The SS Constitution was a ship that was first a historic ocean liner, but later became a Hawaiian cruise ship. Originally owned by American Export Lines from it’s construction in the early 1950’s until the early-mid 1970’s. Her last owner was American Hawaii Cruises, who owned the liner during its retirement in the middle to late 1990’s. Although she was sold to many different owners in her lifetime and getting smaller makeovers like painting and furnishing, she never got major refits like modifications to the structure and interior rebuilds. If she was not retired in the mid 1990’s, she would get a larger makeover like her identical sister ship, SS Independence. But Independence never got rebuilds to her structure though. After her retirement, she was planned to be scrapped. But while under tow to an Asian scrapyard, she sank about 700 nautical miles (1,300 km) north of Hawaii on November 17, 1997. Her wreck was never discovered after the event. As an ocean liner she traveled from the US to the Mediterranean and vice versa, as well as routes to the UK. Constitution did not split up while she sank, so it is very possible that she is still mostly intact as a wreck. Both the SS Constitution and SS Independence were built with Titanic era style counter sterns also.

 

 

Here is the complete history of The ship:

 SS Constitution was an ocean liner built for American Export Lines around 1950-1951, designed by a famous American industrial designer named Henry Dreyfuss who was famous for designing the Western Electric Model 500 telephone, Westclox Big Ben alarm clock, the Honeywell T87 round thermostat, Hoover model 150 vacuum cleaner, and John Deere Model A and B tractors as well as New York Central Railroad's streamlined Mercury train. 

The SS Constitution’s famous sister ship was SS Independence, which also was laid down and launched in 1950, and first sailed in 1951, also designed by Henry Dreyfuss for American Export Lines and built by by Bethlehem Steel Corportaion in Quincy, Massachusetts. The Constitution became famous specially for making a famous appearance on the ‘I Love Lucy’ show in the 1950’s. It was owned by American Export Lines until 1974, when both ships were sold to American Far East Lines, who owned Constitution and Independence until 1979. The ship was renamed Oceanic Constitution.

Then the ship was sold to American Hawaii Cruises in 1979, who owned her until 1982. After that, she was sold to American Global Line, another Hawaiian cruise line, who owned her until retirement in 1996 and renamed her to her original name, SS Constitution. No other owner altered the ship’s structure and layout, she only got slight modernizations like painting and furnishings. While Independence got a bigger makeover to widely modernize the ship, all of  the money that was spent with the full renovation, the expense took away the space to spend money on another renovation on an identical ship. Right around that time in the 90’s, a larger makeover was planned for Constitution as well. If she was not retired then, Constitution would get a similar type refit to what was done on the Independence. No alternations to the structure, but complete interior overhauls that would completely modernize the atmosphere of the ship inside. Before that could even happen, she was of course, retired in 1995, and remained afloat until November of 1997. On November 17, 1997, she sank undertow to the shipbreakers. According to Google, she did not split while sinking.

Her sister ship, SS Independence sailed until the beginning of the next millennium, but got abandoned only a few years later (in the early-mid 2000's) and during her time as an abandoned structure, she was moored at Pier 70 in California, and was supossed to be scrapped  but due to hazardous material, she could not legally be scrapped, but on February 2008, she got towed to Alang, India and was illegally renamed Platinum II to change the identity of the ship so it could not be recognized because of the hazardous material onboard. In 2010, she ran aground the scrapyard in Alang India, and split into two, her halves got scrapped at the spot. The Independence is currently unsalvageable. By January 2011, she was reportedly ‘Completely gone’.

Size of the SS Constitution and Independence: 682 feet (207. 874 meters) in length, and 89.2 feet (27.2 meters) wide. The mainmast is 172 feet tall measured from the spar deck to the top of the mast.

The SS Britanis was an ocean liner originally owned by Matson Lines as the SS Monterey. Built from 1931-1932 in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Monterey was laid down in 1931 at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation Shipyard in  Quincy, Massachussetts, launched on July 12, 1932, and started sailing for her maiden voyage on December 27, 1932. She departed New York City on January 12, 1933, and was bound for San Francisco via Panama Canal, she continued to Sydney and the South Seas, returning to San Francisco in April 1933, according to Cruising The Past. It was the era of the Great Depression, also built less than a decade before WWII would start. It was famous for being one of the last surviving ocean liners of the 1930’s, and one of the very few to still be existing until the era of the turn of the 21st century. She was renamed Matsonia in 1957, and in 1963, she was renamed Lurline still by the same company, Matson Lines. With being purchased by Chandris Lines  in 1970 (the same company that bought SS America), she was long lived. It became Chandris Lines’ longest living liner. She was renamed Britanis. In 1998, she was bought by the shipbreakers, and got towed to the scrapyard in 2000, but while undertow to the breakers she capsized and sunk 50 miles off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. 
Both ships were sailing when the famous, iconic record holding ocean liner SS United States (and her sister ship America) were in service. The SS United States needs to be saved now, too.

The size of SS Britanis/SS Monterey:

632 feet (193 meters) long, with a beam (width of 79 feet (24 meters).

It is likely that the ship is (mostly) intact as a wreck and that some of the lifeboat davits and maybe a few lifeboats are still intact. If not, let’s try our best to find the missing parts wrecked under the sea , and if that’s the case, part of the drydock process would be to clean, repair, and restore/preserve those parts, and re install them onto (or into) the ship. The smoke funnels are the parts most likely to come off any ship while sunk due to the water pressure. The funnels are extensions that are built separately and later attached onto the superstructures of the ships, and due to the water pressure while sinking, it is very likely that they are not intact on both ships, and if they are not found or are too costly to repair, replica smokestacks can be built and fitted on to the vessel(s) like what was done on the Queen Mary. Speaking of which, both the SS Constitution and SS Independence had the exact same cigar like shaped funnels and same designs of captain’s bridges and hulls like the Admirals/ R1(s) of the P2 transport battleships did. That is because the Constitution and Independence were based off the P2-SER-R1 ships. 
Here’s a list of the P2 ships: P2-SER-R1 (Admirals), P2-S2-R2 (Generals), and P2-SE2-R3 (Presidents). These ships were meant to become battleships for World War II and to become ocean liners. There were 10 Admiral (R1) P2 ships, 11 Generals (R2)s of the P2 transports , the two Presidents (R3)s were Admirals (R1)s that were canceled to become civilian passenger ships.

While the Generals and the Admirals were all battleships, the two Presidents were converted ocean liners (that crossed the Pacific) instead. They were named SS President Cleveland and President Wilson. These ships were civilian passenger liners, not troop transports like the original R1 design, according to Wikipedia. Each of the classes of P2 transports had a slightly different design.

Other classes of transports by the US Maritime Commission includecargo ships (like the Liberty and Victory ships), tankers (T1, T2, T3), and specialized vessels like refrigerator ships (Type R). They also included various types of cargo ships, designated as C1, C2, C3, and C4, each with specific characteristics, according to Wikipedia. The SS Constitution and SS Independence were not part of these lists.

Since both ships did not get scrapped due to sinking, it  still makes the ships salvageable. This meant process would require finding the exact location of the wrecks, raising the wrecks (finding missing parts of the ships underwater if needed), towing the ships to treatment shipyards such as dry docks, for inspection, cleaning, preservation/restoration, repair, and repainting and installing furnishings/ appliances, then towing the ships to the future dock where the liners will be repurposed into attractions like museums, entertainment centers, and maybe hotels. The plan (originally, and still is) to moor the ships over a body of water, but plans are allowed change to placing the liners over land as land based (buildings), letting the ships stay a float seems more authentic still. If a ship had split apart while sinking, and if possible, the solution would be to remend the ship by either replacing damaged/broken structural parts, or welding.

Good examples of marine terminal for the vessels would be the Camden Waterfront (which is home to the 888 foot long USS New Jersey), Paulsboro Marine Terminal (which the Battleship NJ also was once moored at), or the Port of Camden or Port of Salem. Even the USS New Jersey, which is over 200 feet longer than the SS Constitution and SS Britanis (formerly Monterey) has docked at the Paulsboro Marine Terminal as well. The plan is to restore, preserve, moor, and open/ repurpose both of the ships like what was done with SS Brazil Maru, NS Savannah (Nuclear ship and Ocean Liner now an open museum in Maryland) and Lenin (a preserved, Russian historic icebreaker ship currently a museum).

 

Artifacts and parts of the ships that is more likely to need to be reinstalled or replaced/replicated are include: The steam funnels, the horns/whistles, lifeboat davits and lifeboats, crows nests/radar masts, anchors and forecastle/bow equipment, propellers, engines, bridge equipment like the captains’ wheels along with the other equipment in the bridge, furniture, and other furnishings such as doors, windows, portholes, (important) plumbing and electrical fixtures, more equipment, and railing among other important artifacts, etc. .  If the process is cancelled due to concerns or fails, part of the plan is to build identical life sized replicas of the ships 

 

If battleships and historic submarines are treated better by preserving them/ not scrapping them (and repurposing them into museums, hotels, and more tourist attractions), why can’t ocean liners be well treated this way? Well, we MUST change that standard habit for ocean liners. Currently there only 15 ocean liners out of the 500 ever made still standing and two are reaching their final fate, that is the Astoria and the SS United States. We need to save those ships now, before they are gone. Let’s retrieve Constitution and Britanis to get them back to existence. A project like this can be challenging, but when it becomes an attraction, specially vessels like those, can attract thousands (maybe millions) of people across the country and the globe. 

Let's make the salvaged SS Constitution and Britanis (ex. Lurline, Matsonia, and Monterey) tourist attractions like museums so people can really see what cruising  has been like for many years and decades, and to get a special experience to get onboard an ocean liner type vessel, which hasn't been a thing, I would say, for these past few years or decades. And for those who have, you can step in to remember and re experience how it was like, and so people can get to know and see ships that they've never known before. We should make these experiences very authentic so everyone really gets the feeling. The idea is to get the ships moored at the chosen dock after the full drydock process is done on both ships, and repurpose the vessels into museums, entertainment attractions, restaurants, office space, and maybe even hotels.  The idea is to also incorporate interactive experiences, galleries, various amenities, offices, authentic service, restaurants and (movie)theaters to make the experience entertaining and very authentic. The idea is mainly influenced by preserved liners and ship museums such as the NS Savannah, Liberty Ship John W Brown, Lenin, RMS Queen Mary, SS Rotterdam, RMS QE2 (Queen Elizabeth 2), the Brazil and Hikawa Maru, MV Doulos Phos, MS Funchal, the MS Minghua (formerly SS Ancerville), MV Moonta (now MV Lydia) and the Titanic museums including the famous one in Pigeon Forge.

More notable’s examples are:

SS Rotterdam (A preserved ocean liner ship built in 1959, now serving as a floating hotel in Rotterdam, Netherlands), RMS Queen Mary (Preserved ocean liner that served as a troopship in WWII now preserved and restored serving as a floating hotel and museum in Long Beach, CA), RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (former Cunard Ocean Liner now preserved as a floating hotel in Dubai) , Liberty Ship John W Brown, USS The Sullivans, USS Little Rock, USS Croaker, USS Hornet, USS Constitution, SS Brazil Maru, MV Doulos Phos (Formerly SS Medina,  built in 1914, currently serving as a land based hotel), SS Hikawa Maru, USS New Jersey, SS Great Britain, NS Savannah (A retired nuclear ship, cargo ship, and ocean liner launched in 1959 now preserved as a museum ship in Baltimore MD), Lenin (a historic Russian nuclear powered ice breaker ship from the late 1950s now preserved as a museum ship), Ms Funchal, and MV Moonta (a currently preserved ocean liner from the early 1930s). 

A diving excursion or submarine/submersible event, also serving as a donation for the event organizers and people who are in need would be a good idea. 

The main idea of this petition is to promote the raising, salvaging, restoring and preservation of ships such as ocean liners like Constitution and Britanis that did not have time to be scrapped (but sunk still). We would ask those who are in power and those who specialize in oceanography, maritime history, ship salvaging, restoration, and those who are interested that really CAN do it. Thank you.