Built in 1950, the golden age of the luxury liner, the S.S. Independence was a 1,000 passenger ship specifically designed for high-speed, long distance cruising on the open sea.

The Indy, and her identical twin sister ship, the S.S. Constitution, worked the six-week route from New York to a variety of ports in the Mediterranean. She was a first-class ship, transporting 2 presidents- Truman and Reagan as well as numerous film and TV stars.

By the 1970s her steam engines were already hopelessly outdated and incredibly expensive to operate, so she was refitted and demoted to low speed tours of the Hawaiian Islands where she served until 2001.

She was decommissioned from her island hopping duties when American tourism ground to a halt for 6 months in the wake of 9/11. She's been laid up and left to rust at various locations in the Bay Area for the past 7 years, a ghost ship, shrouded in mystery.

DESTINATION UNKOWN 2008
The Indy being towed from her berth on her last moning in San Francisco, slipping into the fog of an uncertain future.

 
  She was towed from her berth in San Francisco 2/8/08 by an ocean-going tug, the beginning of her last journey. The official word is she's being towed to Singapore for refit, but most say it's the breaker beaches of India for the last (barely) seaworthy '50s American liner.

Her sister ship, the Constitution, was on her way to be broken in India in 1997 when she began taking on water in a storm. The tug was forced to cut her loose and she sank in two miles of water, 700 miles off the coast of Hawaii. Those in the know say it wouldn't be shocking to see the similarly worn out and structurally unsound Indy suffer the same fate.

I was lucky enough to wrangle night access for photography a few times in the last week she was in San Francisco.
 

FLYING BRIDGE 2008

 

FLOWERED STACKS 2008
The Indy's superstructure, from an adjacent drydock.

 

OCEANIC 2008
A common practice with derelict ships, the Indy was renamed in an effort to play a tax-shelter shell-game with her.

 

EX'D FORECASTLE 2008
On March 5th 2002 the Indy departed San Francisco assisted by two tugs at 7:20 AM sailing north under the Richmond Bridge for storage with the mothball fleet in Suisun Bay, but her mast just nicked the Carquinez Bridge and snapped off. In The mast was still lashed to the foredeck as she left for points unknown.

 

LETS GO BELOW 2008

 

ALOHA 2008
"All ashore that's goin' ashore!"

 

OHANA DECK 2008
Luckily these signs were relatively easy to find on the ship because it truly was like being lost in a maze. A pitch dark maze.

 

GOLD LEAF 2008
Elevator button panel in a stairwell.

 

DOWN THE WELL 2008
One of the 4 passenger stairwells aboard the S.S. Independence ghost ship.

 

HEAR HERE! 2008
Soundproof telephone station inside the engine room, well below waterline, deep in the dark bowels of the ship.

 

CASTLE FRANKENSTEIN  2008

 

MYSTERY VALVE 2008
This part of the ship was as dark as dark gets.

 
 

HAUNTED HALLWAY 2008
One of the endless, pitch dark hallways running all over the ship.

 

BEDSIDE 2008
Hundreds of staterooms.

 

NIGHTSTAND 2008

 

HOI HOI SHOWPLACE 2008
One of the huge ballrooms.

 

JOHN WILKES  2008

 

TEAK FLOOR 2008

 

OUTGOING DIALING PROHIBITED 2008

 
 

FULL STEAM AHEAD 2008

 

ARCING 2008
The San Francisco industrial waterfront from the weathered fantail deck of the Indy.

 

FANTAIL 2008

 

PORTHOLE 2008
The San Francisco industrial waterfront and the Bay Bridge through a rusty porthole.

 

LIFEBOAT 13 2008

 

QUESTION MARK 2008
Curling steam from the PG&E stack.

 

FIREBOAT SENDOFF 2008
Passing under the Golden Gate on her last morning in American waters. As of this writing, her fate is still in question.