Here’s the wikipage for the ship.

In the 90s this ship, having had a long and storied career, was being towed away. The plans were to turn her into a floating/docked hotel but things didn’t work out as intended. The towing distance was extreme and would take over 100 days but a small Ukranian vessel won the bid to bring her there. Weather didn’t agree. Two attempts were made, both marred by bad weather. While they were able to turn back from the first storm, they were not so lucky for the second.

Partway into the journey the strain from an intense storm forced the cables to snap, the ship breaking free in the intense waves. The ship drifted off into the dark, carrying men who were on board into the void. Attempts to find her were a non-started in such weather. The America drifted on her own, presumably terrifying the people left on board as they had no way of controlling the ship at all.

After the storm passed, search parties were sent out to locate the ship and not long later it was discovered. The America had run aground of a sandbar and was wedged with the stern exposed to strong waves. The crew were rescued off of the stranded ship but to unstick the America itself was a larger undertaking. However within 48 hours the increasing strain on the ship proved to be too much. The waves that were endlessly smashing into the stern finally buckled the hull and the ship tore in two, dashing all hopes of retrieving it.

The photo posted is of the ship is between 2005 and 2007. You can no longer see the remains of the ship above water but dives have been done to study the remains of the wreck underwater.

  • Ele7en7@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Four of my great grandparents went to the U.S. on that ship in the early '30s. Its prop is displayed outside of a small museum in Virginia.

      • Ele7en7@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Damn, I had no idea they were time travelers too, sweet! j/k I’ll have to ask around, but I’m sure I’ve seen the ship manifest with their names on it and I was definitely told it was the America. Somebody has some 'splainin to do.

        Edit: It looks like my Norwegian family was on the SS Stavangerfjord, maybe it was the Germans. I’ll have to do some more digging.