The SS United States, with only one smokestack, sits south of downtown Mobile, Ala., as pictured on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025. John Sharp

On the morning of Lundi Gras in early March, the SS United States arrived quietly in Mobile as a sleeping giant , rusting but regal as it was guided up the Mobile Bay.

From a distance, “America’s Flagship” seemed frozen in time, still bearing the same silhouette that once graced postcards of its glory days in the 1960s. But that illusion was shattered this week, as workers began dismantling one of the vessel’s most iconic features - its forward smokestack.

It’s one of two towering six-story smokestacks, also called funnels. At 65 feet each, the two funnels are considered the largest to have ever been installed on a ship.

“It put a bittersweet exclama

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