SHE is a gallant old girl who just refuses to die - in fact, the former Southampton favourite is set for another lease of life.

Just in the nick of time the former transatlantic liner, SS United States, has been saved from the scrap-yard by a multi-million-dollar rescue plan which will see the 50-year-old ship brought back into service.

For 17 years the liner was a regular and well loved sight in Southampton and in her hey-day powered her way across the Atlantic between the city's docks and New York.

Since 1996 she has been moored alongside Pier 82 in Philadelphia, America, a meer shadow of her former glory, up for sale and facing an uncertain future.

Now, as reported earlier by the Daily Echo, Norwegain Cruise Line (NCL) has stepped in at the last moment to buy the legendary liner and is now set to undertake the huge task of refurbishing the vessel ready for a new career cruising the US coastline.

It might be a bit of a maritime clich but SS United States really was an ocean greyhound in her younger days, a sleek, grand liner that just could not be beaten for speed. It was more than half a century ago, that the ship made her first triumphant entry into port, watched on shore by a staggering 70,000 people crammed on to every vantage point along Southampton Water.

The crowds had come to see the marvel of 1952, the ship that had smashed the Blue Riband, held by Cunard's Queen Mary since the 1930s, by speeding eastbound across the Atlantic in just three days, ten hours and 42 minutes averaging more than 35 knots or over 40mph.

It was back in July, 1945, that formal design work began on the ship after the American government had been so impressed by other Southampton favourites, Cunard's Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, in their vital wartime role as troopships.

The USA wanted a superliner of its own that could easily be converted to military service and her $79m price tag was heavily underwritten by the federal government. So was born SS United States, nicknamed the Big U.

Her maiden voyage from New York to Southampton began on July 3, 1952. The liner could outrun anything afloat and steam non-stop for ten days at a time.

Although she was briefly on stand-by during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, she was never called to troopship duty.

Her 241,000 horsepower engines allowed her to reach a top speed of 43 knots and she had a power-to-weight ratio thought never to have been equalled.

Arguably one of the safest ships ever, United States was totally fireproof, being constructed completely of non-flammable materials. There were dozens of public rooms on board and she was the first passenger liner of her size to be air-conditioned and to have a telephone in each stateroom of all three classes. The ship carried a glittering list of personalities including actress Merle Oberon, singer Judy Garland, film cowboy William Boyd better know to his fans as Hopalong Cassidy and acclaimed artist, Salvador Dali.

During the 1960s jet aircraft were stealing transatlantic passengers from the great liners and on frequent sailings United States' 1,000 plus crew often outnumbered paying passengers.

In 1969 United States was sent to the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Virginia for her annual overhaul but her boilers were never fired again.

The years passed and she remained docked with little hope of revival until June 1992 when the ship was bought and sent under tow to Turkey.

Here yet another plan to restore her foundered through lack of funding.