Mr. Goldsmith, a retired construction manager, recalled the high standard of service, food and entertainment for first-class passengers, who saw first-run movies and could listen to several orchestras. He said that he and his brother were required to wear suits and ties at dinner, and passengers dressed smartly even when strolling the decks. “There were no shorts, and no baseball caps,” he said.

The ship, which on its maiden voyage in July 1952 set the record of three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes for an eastbound crossing of the Atlantic at an average speed of 44 miles per hour, was built for speed because it was meant to be a troop carrier if needed. The Pentagon paid two-thirds of its $78 million construction cost.

The high standards of its construction have ensured its structural viability, said Dan McSweeney, managing director of the SS United States Redevelopment Project. He said tests on the hull indicated that its steel retained 92 percent of its integrity.

Redevelopment is expected to cost $170 million to $300 million, depending on the combination of uses, and “seed capital” of about $15 million will be needed for an initial phase of the project, Mr. McSweeney said. Putting the ship back into the cruise market could cost as much as $1 billion, which is too expensive to contemplate, he added.

He declined to identify the potential developers but said all would move the ship to New York, its former home port, where its commercial potential would be most likely to be realized.

Mr. McSweeney said that the conservancy — which bought the ship from Norwegian Cruise Line for $3 million in 2011 — also considered locating the ship in Miami, Baltimore, Boston and Philadelphia and other cities but that none matched New York.

“New York makes the most sense because the market density is there,” he said.

The ship’s future may have parallels with the Rotterdam, another liner that sailed the Atlantic for Holland America Line from 1959 until 1997, and is now a mixed-used center in its home port.