In case you didn't know, the United States – the ship – was the fastest luxury liner ever made by anyone. This beautiful, sleek colossus – at 50,000 tons and about 1,000 feet long, she was comparable in size and heft to a WW II battleship – was capable of 45 MPH on the open ocean. Try to visualize something that big moving that fast.

She could easily outrun the fastest battleship.

In her prime – in the 1950s and '60s – she was magnificent. She was designed by the brilliant William Gibbs, who had previously designed the Malolo – Hawaiian for flying fish – which survived what otherwise would have been a catastrophic collision with another vessel that tore a massive gash in the side of the ship that ought to have sunk her but didn't because of Gibbs' decision to extend the water tight doors all the way up to the main deck, such that Malolo did not suffer the fate of Titanic.

United States was his crowning achievement – and more than just that. It was an expression of American capability at the apogee of what, undoubtedly, will be regarded by future historians as the apogee of America itself. She was capable of making the Atlantic crossing in three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes. Probably faster than that, if she'd been run all-out. It took the Mayflower 66 days to do the same run.

United States was powered by four Westinghouse double reduction geared steam turbines that could each generate 60,000 horsepower; these were fed steam by eight Babcock & Wilcox Type-M boilers. She could carry 2,000 passengers in style and comfort. She was elegant and classy. Two things one rarely encounters nowadays.

That she is about to be thrown away says much about what America thinks of itself – and its history.

Like the Saturn V rocket, she propelled America to unparalleled greatness, now not just forgotten but also questioned. America no longer honors her history; she is ashamed of it. Statues come down. Tiresome lectures about "enslaved people" take precedence over the ol' E Plebnista. Vulgar floating casinos full of obese slobs ply the oceans now.