Lives of the liners: Westward around the world

[Doc Vernon]

American President Lines most diverse service were 95-day voyages westbound voyages around the world. In addition to superbly decorated Mariner Class cargo liners carrying up to 12 passengers each, the sisters President Monroe (shown here, having just departed from San Francisco) and President Polk carried 96 all-first class passengers. They sailed via Panama to Los Angeles & San Francisco and then across to the Far East, Southeast Asia and India & Pakistan before passing through Suez to the Med. The final leg of these itineraries included a westbound trans-Atlantic service from Alexandria, Naples, Genoa, Marseilles and Leghorn. Leghorn to New York took 11 days.

The President Monroe & President Polk appear in our new book First Class Cargo and will make guest appearances in my talk on March 31st about passenger-cargo liners.

[j.sabourn]

Vernon the American built cargo and offshore vessels I have served on were always very bare accommodation wise, even though they called cabins, staterooms, don't be put off by the high sounding names they were in a lot of cases worse than British built ships. No timber in cabins/staterooms. all tin lockers, Bathrooms just stalls where the toilet bowls were, the doors on same a good foot above deck level. many accommodation doors much wider than what they would be normally, this was so as to adjust their tonnage space as had to be able to get a bale of cotton through to rearrange the Gross tonnage to suit. American ships to me were much more basic in a lot of ways to British ships accommodation wise, this does not include passenger liners which I would assume were much more pretty.Cheers JWS