Menu – Farewell Dinner – SS PRESIDENT CLEVELAND – 1949
Beluga-Molossol Caviar was served for the SS President Cleveland’s “Farewell Dinner” on October 5, 1949 prior to arriving in Yokohama, Japan. The SS President Cleveland’s had just completing her trans-Pacific liner crossing from San Francisco and Los Angeles via Honolulu, Hawaii.
The sleek 1940s modern lobby of the SS PRESIDENT CLEVELAND
This was during the height of American passenger ship service. American President Lines was not alone. Grace Line, the US Lines, American Export Line, Alaska Steamship Line, Matson Line, Delta Line, Moore-McCormick Line, Bull Line, Eastern Steamship Line were all operating services with American flag ships.
SS PRESIDENT CLEVELAND – Off coast of California
Pool, Promenade Deck and arrival in Los Angeles, California
With the launching of the Presidents Cleveland and Wilson in 1947, American President Lines reestablished its preeminence in the passenger trade following World War 2. Designed to carry 550 passengers and a crew of 352, the ships were advertised as “your American hotel abroad.” They carried passengers from the West Coast of the USA to the Orient. This included China during the late 1940s until services were curtailed because of the Korean War. In the 1970s, with the end of the Viet Nam War and USA shipping subsidies American flag passenger service was ending. Finally in 1973 the trans-Pacific liner service ended. The President Cleveland was sold to C. Y. Tung and renamed Oriental President. The President Wilson completed her last round-the-world voyage. Her retirement marked the end of the trans-Pacific passenger service that APL and its forebears had offered since 1867. The ships lasted briefly under C. T. Tung’s Panamanian flag company and were scrapped in 1974.