SS ''President Wilson'' was an American

passenger ship A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freig ...

originally ordered by the

Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 195 ...

(MC hull 687) during World War II, as one of the ''Admiral W. S. Benson''-class Type P2-SE2-R1 transport ships, and intended to be named USS ''Admiral F.B. Upham'' (AP-129), but she was launched just after the war ended. in 1948, The ship was put into service for the American President Lines. The ship remained in service for the shipping company until 1973. She was sold to Oceanic Cruise Development before eventually, scrapped at

Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...

Background

The ''President Wilson'' and her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

the SS ''President Cleveland'', was originally planned to be commissioned by the

United States Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 195 ...

in a series of eight troop carriers and supply ships of the type P2-SE2-R1 (Admirals) class ships. All ships of this class were designed to be used as a

Passenger ship A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freig ...

which could be readily converted into a troop transport ships during wartime service. However during construction, she and President Cleveland were canceled and so because of that the ships later converted into passenger liners.

History

The ship was laid down on November 27, 1944 at the Bethlehem Steel shipyard in

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is primarily located on Alameda (island), Alam ...

, but was canceled on December 16,1944. The ship was finally launched on November 24,1947, completed and delivered to the Maritime Commission on April 27, 1948. Under the name SS ''President Wilson'', she was

bareboat charter A bareboat charter or demise charter is an arrangement for the chartering or hiring of a ship or boat, whereby no crew or provisions are included as part of the agreement; instead, the people who rent the vessel from the owner are responsible f ...

ed by the Maritime Commission to

American President Lines APL, formerly called American President Lines Ltd., is an American container shipping company that is a subsidiary of French shipping company CMA CGM. It operates an all-container ship fleet, including 9 U.S. flagged container vessels. In 1938, ...

. During its service with APL, President Wilson operated on a Pacific Ocean route, traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Hawaii, or the far east before returning back to San Francisco. By the late 1950s, passenger liners were being eclipsed by jet airplanes as the preferred mode of trans-oceanic travel, but APL redirected its marketing efforts to pleasure travelers and continued its liner service well past the retirement of many of President Wilson’s contemporaries. The ship remained in service until 1960 without major incidents. It was then modernized in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. In 1962 ''President Wilson'' moved from San Francisco to

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

. In 1970 the ship was decommissioned and sold due to falling passenger numbers. She was sold to Oceanic Cruise Development, Inc. ( C.Y. Tung Group) on April 27, 1973, and renamed ''Oriental Empress''. Laid up at

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, the ship was eventually scrapped at

, Taiwan, in 1984.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:President Wilson 1947 ships Ships built in Alameda, California Type P2 ships