When Captain Mike Vinik was asked years ago about his favorite ship, he didn’t hesitate: “The SS United States.”
- Little did he know he would one day be responsible for towing the massive 990-foot ocean liner — affectionately known as “America’s Flagship” — from its long-time berth in Philadelphia, PA to Mobile, Alabama, where it will be prepared to become the world’s largest artificial reef.
“Every time you look back at the ship, it’s just more beautiful than you remember,” Vinik said in an interview following the successful completion of the journey on March 3. “I can’t believe the lines of the ship. It’s just amazing.”
Vinik, owner of Vinik Marine, captained the tugboat Vinik #6 on the 10-day journey around Florida’s coast to deliver the historic vessel to its new temporary home in Mobile. The ship will eventually be deployed off the coast of Destin-Fort Walton Beach, surpassing the USS Oriskany, currently the world’s largest artificial reef at 888 feet.
From Space Dreams to Maritime Career
Vinik’s path to becoming one of the most capable tugboat operators wasn’t initially focused on maritime pursuits.
“My childhood aspiration was 100% devoted towards becoming an astronaut,” Vinik revealed. After attending space camp between 7th and 8th grade, he reconsidered.
- “I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life competing against other people trying to go to space,” he explained.
Instead, Vinik attended the Marine Academy of Science and Technology for high school and later graduated from New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler in 2003. Just over a year later, he took a bold step by purchasing a tugboat in disrepair.
“I started my own tugboat company a little over a year later by buying a tugboat that was in pretty bad shape,” Vinik said. “And spent 10 months getting it back up and running again. I’ve been working ever since for my own company.”
Not All Tugboats Are Created Equal
The Vinik #6, the vessel that towed the SS United States, is a specialized ocean-going tug built for challenging operations. At 141 feet overall with two EMD locomotive engines generating 5,750 horsepower, it’s equipped for serious offshore towing.
- “This boat’s amazing. It can handle rough weather like very few other boats can, but it’s not ideal for small close quarters, shallow draft,” Vinik explained.
The tugboat holds over 130,000 gallons of fuel, 30,000 gallons of lubricant, and approximately 60,000 gallons of ballast. It features two wheelhouses — upper and lower — plus an after steering station where the crew can control the towing machine.
What makes Vinik’s operation unique is its availability for specialized jobs like dead ship tows — moving vessels with no operational propulsion systems.
“Most of the boats that are this size and this class are not on what they call the spot market, where they don’t have a permanent job,” Vinik noted. “The fact that I have this boat and it’s available for odd jobs, like towing a dead ship… there are very few boats that are of this class that are available.”
Preparing for a Historic Tow
The SS United States tow was not his first, by far the most significant and challenging. At nearly 1,000 feet long, it was the largest vessel his company had ever moved.
Preparations were extensive and involved multiple agencies and stakeholders.
“Surveyors, they ensured the ship was safe. The U.S. Coast Guard had extensive requests and requirements,” Vinik explained. “We had to make sure that the tow gear and the rig was all set.”
One particular challenge was the ship’s condition at its Philadelphia berth, where it had remained stationary for decades.
- “The berth that the ship has been at, it’s silted underneath the ship. So at low tide, the ship rested on the bottom and at high tide, it was floating,” Vinik said. “They had to get the ship out of the berth at high tide but it had to clear the bridges at low tide.”
This delicate timing operation required moving the ship to an intermediate location, where Coast Guard officials reinspected it to ensure it wasn’t taking on water before the ocean journey began.
The Art of Towing a Dead Ship
With a crew of six to seven, including three captains, two Able Seaman, an engineer and a deckhand, Vinik and his team faced the unique challenges of moving a massive vessel with no propulsion system of its own.
“There’s nothing that we can do. We just pull it,” Vinik explained about controlling a dead ship. “It doesn’t want to tow straight.”
Using approximately 1,800 feet of wire — which acts as a shock absorber — the tugboat maintained a crucial physical separation from the SS United States as they traveled. This “catenary” of wire had to be constantly adjusted based on sea conditions.
- “You have to constantly change the amount of wire you have out, depending on the sea conditions and the body of water that you’re in..and the depth,” Vinik explained.
Weather presented significant challenges, particularly when winds and currents pushed against the ship’s massive profile.
“When we departed Delaware Bay and passed Norfolk, once we had the cold front from the North and the Gulf Stream in the South, it was extremely windy,” Vinik recalled. “We had a tailwind, and the ship was trying to come about. It was trying to go beam-to-the-sea, and beam-to-the-wind.”
In these situations, Vinik employed a technique called “heaving to,” where they reduced speed to maintain better control rather than fighting against the forces of nature.
- “You accept that you’re not going to make a lot of headway for that duration of the rough weather… you ease off on the throttles and let the ship pull you along a little bit, but don’t let it take advantage,” he said.
A Journey Under Public Watch
The voyage of the SS United States attracted extraordinary public attention. From the moment of departure from Philadelphia, crowds gathered to witness the historic event.
“For our departure in Philly, there were people lined along the banks of every public access point in the Delaware River, shoulder to shoulder,” Vinik recalled. “There was a golf course that had run out of parking so they started parking people on the grass.”
The public interest continued throughout the journey, with boats, planes, helicopters, and drones following their progress, particularly as they passed along the Florida coast.
- “Off of Florida, there were at least half a dozen boats at any given time following us. There were airplanes and helicopters. We had drones,” Vinik said. “It’s so nice that the ship had the pomp and circumstance she deserved.”
The tow progressed faster than expected, averaging between six and seven knots, with speeds exceeding nine knots in the Gulf as they raced to beat an incoming weather system. The ship arrived in Mobile two days ahead of schedule on March 3.
Carrying on a Maritime Legacy
For Vinik, towing the SS United States carried special significance beyond just another job.
“It’s a tremendous honor and we’re happy that we had the opportunity to do it,” he said.
He noted the connection between his crew and the ship’s history, with all the tugboat captains being graduates of Fort Schuyler (New York Maritime College), and belonging to the same union — Masters, Mates and Pilots — that represented the SS United States crew during its service.
- “We got to carry on that legacy as well with the Masters, Mates and Pilots union… it felt very nice to know that we were carrying on a part of the legacy,” Vinik said.
As for the legendary vessel itself, Vinik has a profound appreciation for its engineering excellence. With its 240,000 horsepower, four shafts, and two engine rooms, the SS United States was built for record-breaking speed, reportedly capable of 38 knots or more.
“It’s 10 times as long as it is wide. It’s a rocket ship,” Vinik said. “Ships don’t go 30 knots, let alone 38 or more. And then there’s another faster speed that we don’t even know about. It’s just incredible.”
Ocean Rewards
Despite the intensity of towing operations, Vinik finds deep satisfaction in his maritime career, particularly in the natural wonders he encounters at sea.
“Marine life. And the sunrises and sunsets,” Vinik said when asked about the most rewarding aspects of his job.
During the SS United States journey, the crew spotted diverse wildlife, including a shark off Cape Hatteras and a sperm whale that briefly surfaced to observe them. As much as he’s at sea, Vinik says it’s been at least 15 years since he’s seen a shark.
- “The sunrises and sunsets are just more beautiful than you remember the last one. That’s what gets me through the day,” Vinik said.
With the SS United States safely delivered to Mobile, Vinik’s tugboat is now heading back to New York, ready for its next challenging assignment. Meanwhile, the historic ocean liner awaits the next phase of its journey — transformation into an artificial reef that will create new habitat for marine life and attract divers and fishermen to the waters off Destin-Fort Walton Beach.
One Response
Captain Mike Vinik and the crew of Vinik 6 deserve the US Merchant Marine’s highest honour: the Distinguished Service Medal for their professionalism and role as the Official Pallbearers for SS United States. The care and respect they have shown is greatly appreciated by all of us who have sailed upon her decades ago, or those who revere her place as our a symbol of our nation’s maritime heritage and pride.
Thank you, Capt. Mike and the crew of Vinik 6!
And there is another very deserving recipient of the DSM: the SS United States Conservancy, headed by Susan L Gibbs, granddaughter of the ship’s designer, who has worked tirelessly for decades to find a way of keeping this great ship alive and afloat for future generations. Alas, all efforts to find a reuse at shore were not to be; hence, the only option is, sadly, the one now being taken: as a natural reef in the Gulf in 2026.
We will never see another ship afloat as beautiful as William Francis Gibb’s iconic design, SS United States. But to keep her memory alive, please go to the SS United States Conservancy website and become a member or donate to the construction of their new museum in Okaloosa, Florida dedicated to ‘America’s Flagship.’ http://www.ssusc.org It will be the only way to experience the ‘Big U’ without learning to dive first!
God bless the SS United States and all those who served and sailed aboard her
1952-1969.
From a grateful passenger of six transatlantic crossings, the last being in 1965,