Picture History of the SS United States

William H., Jr. Miller

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9780486428390
• eBook ISBN:
  9780486141671
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Marine Transportation
• Index: Technology & Engineering

More than 150 rare photographs reveal stages in the ship's construction and its christening, as well as intimate views of modern lounges with paneled walls and fireplaces, staterooms and dining rooms, a gymnasium and pool, theatres, a ballroom with cocktail bar, and play decks. Extensive captions provide data on tonnage, size, speed, and other characteristics.

CHAPTER I

United States Lines: The Early Fleet

By the end of the First World War, the world’s collective passenger fleet was devastated. Britain’s Cunard Line lost more than half of its ships alone. Others, like the White Star Line, lost their leading ships, while the once prominent Germans, namely the Hamburg America Line and North German Lloyd, were crippled. Their losses were high, and almost all remaining passenger ships were taken by the Allied nations as reparations. In fact, the three largest liners then afloat, Hamburg America’s Imperator, Vaterland, and the incomplete Bismarck, changed flags. They became the British Berengaria, the American Leviathan, and the British Majestic, respectively. Many other ex-German liners were in American hands, some still serving as troop transports and others waiting at anchor for calls to commercial services following Yankee makeovers. Even a trio of grand four-stackers, once the pride of the Kaiser’s transatlantic fleet, were kept in mothballs, rumored to be awaiting a revival as rebuilt, modernized luxury ships under the Stars and Stripes.

The U.S. government saw this great gap in North Atlantic passenger service by 1920, and was also pressed to use the surplus of ex-German tonnage on its hands. Washington also wanted to strengthen the national merchant marine, a result of the eye-opening shortage of ships of all types during World War I, and to accommodate a potential need for troopships in the future. And so, the United States Mail Steamship Company was formed in 1920 to operate those government-owned passenger ships as commercial ventures. The new firm opened for business in the summer of 1920, and the first trip came that August, when the 9,900-ton Susquehanna, originally North German Lloyd’s Rhein of 1899, set sail from Hoboken for Bremen, and then onward to Danzig. Westbound immigration was still very much inherent in the thinking, and was reflected in her re-configured capacity for 500 passengers in cabin-class, and as many as 2,500 in third-class.

Expansion was rapid—far too rapid, in fact. Within a month, the seventy-eight-passenger, single-class Panhandle State and her five sisters began a New York–London service. In January, the Princess Matoika, formerly the German Prinzess Alice, inaugurated a western Mediterranean service to Naples and Genoa. The more pressing and prestigious North Atlantic route had preference, however, and soon other liners were assigned to that trade: the Hudson, once the German Hamburg; the Potomac, the former Neckar, also ex-German; and two large liners, the 23,788-ton George Washington and her slightly smaller sister, the 22,622-ton America. These were two of the largest and most popular in the German fleet prior to the war. Within eight months, the brand-new United States Mail Steamship Company was operating no less than ten passenger ships.

Unfortunately, the new company was incurring massive losses, lacked adequate operating capital, and suffered from inexperienced management. By the summer of 1921, the U.S. government, namely the U.S. Shipping Board, stepped in and took over all aspects of United States Mail. Quick reorganization followed and, in August, the company was given new management and improved finances, and was renamed United States Lines, a name that would be in use for the next sixty-five years. Soon afterward, two large combination passenger-cargo liners joined the fleet—the Peninsula State and the Lone Star State, which were briefly renamed the President Pierce and President Taft, respectively, before being permanently renamed the President Roosevelt and President Harding. That naming theme proved popular, and soon the Centennial State and her five sisters were given presidential names as well. Even some older ships changed, such as the Princess Matoika to the President Arthur, and the Hudson to the President Fillmore. Others were, of course, very popular as they were, such as the America and the George Washington. In 1923, in something of a giant step, the company added the rebuilt, Americanized, 59,956-ton Leviathan, the former German Vaterland. She was one of the largest ships of any kind then afloat, and, for the first time in memory, placed the United States in the major leagues of Atlantic passenger shipping. She was easily one of the eight greatest liners of her day, with the others being the Berengaria, Aquitania, and Mauretania of Cunard; the Majestic, Olympic, and Homeric of White Star; and the France of the French Line. Soon, the reviving Germans would add their first major liner since the war, North German Lloyd’s Columbus. The Leviathan was prominent in this select group of so-called “floating palaces,” popular to an extent, but never very profitable, quite sadly.

Overall, United States Lines prospered and made significant, cost-cutting changes. The five passenger ships used on the New York-London service were replaced by more practical, twelve-berth freighters run by a new subsidiary, the American Merchant Line. A third medium-sized liner, the 17,900-ton Republic, formerly Hamburg America’s President Grant left over from World War I, joined the America and the George Washington. Unfortunately, the far larger Leviathan was left without a similar-sized running mate.

By the late 1920s, United States Lines had grown and reached well beyond the North Atlantic liner trade. The company owned the Panama Pacific Line, which ran three deluxe passenger ships, the 20,000-ton sisters California, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, on an intercoastal run between New York, the Panama Canal, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. As well as being the first commercial ships to use turbo-electric drive, they offered very high standard passenger accommodations, which were often said to be equal to those on the Atlantic liners. Another subsidiary was the American Pioneer Line, which operated no less than twenty-one diesel-driven freighters from the U.S. East Coast to Pacific ports, to the Far East, South Pacific islands, Australia, and New Zealand. United States Lines also owned several other freighter firms, including the American France Line, the Oriole Line, and the American Hampton Roads Line.

There were hard times in the late twenties, however. Money problems worsened, primarily complicated by extremely costly American sea-going labor and Prohibition laws, which kept all U.S.-flag ships dry. It became increasingly difficult to compete with the likes of the Berengaria, the Majestic, or the brand-new Ile de France. The government had little choice but to sell off United States Lines in March 1929 to a private buyer, P. W. Chapman & Company. The price was $16 million for eleven ships. The sale contract included, among other items, federal assistance toward two 45,000-ton super liners that could run with the fleetmate-short, money-losing Leviathan. But further troubles were ahead—in fact, within six months. Soon after the Wall Street crash that October, transatlantic travel began its downward spiral. The million voyagers of 1930 had slumped to half that within five years.

The new owners made some quick changes. The aging George Washington, America, and Republic were dropped. Plans for new tonnage were altered from two 45,000-tonners to a more practical pair of 24,000-ton liners, the Manhattan and Washington of 1932–33. Two more American Merchant Line combo ships were added to reinforce the passenger and freight trades to England, while the giant Leviathan spent more and more time in lay-up, especially in the winter off-season. But then the Chapman Company itself collapsed in October 1931, overwhelmed by the Depression, with coffers that were all but dry. Once again, the federal government entered the picture, foreclosed on mortgages, and resold the entire operation to a newly organized holding company, United States Lines Company of Nevada, itself an arm of the International Mercantile Marine, once a huge and powerful shipping combine. Again, new management took hold and costs were trimmed. Any thoughts for a big new liner to replace the Leviathan were soon dropped, and, as that rust-streaked, faded ship sailed off to the breakers in the winter of 1938, a third new liner was ordered—smaller and more practical. Slightly larger than the Manhattan and Washington, the 33,900-ton America was due in the summer of 1940 for Atlantic crossings to Euro...

Table of contents

• DOVER MARITIME BOOKS
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Picture Credits
• Table of Contents
• CHAPTER I - United States Lines: The Early Fleet
• CHAPTER II - The America: A Grand Forerunner
• CHAPTER III - Workhorses on Water: Cargo Ships of United States Lines
• CHAPTER IV - Other Ships Flying the Stars & Stripes
• CHAPTER V - SS United States: The Yankee Record-Breaker
• CHAPTER VI - Making Waves: The World’s Fastest Ocean Liner
• CHAPTER VII - Decay and Decline: Decades in Limbo
• Bibliography
• Index of Ships