Posted on Friday, March 25, 2011 by Shawn Dake
In the ongoing efforts to rid Suisun Bay in Northern California of the remaining inactive ships of the Ready Reserve Fleet, the second vessel in a month has left to be scrapped. The PRESIDENT was towed away from the raft of ships at the end of Row J, on March 8, 2011, the few miles to her final resting place at Allied Defense Recycling, a.k.a. California Dry Dock Solutions, on Mare Island where she will be dismantled.
PRESIDENT in Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, courtesy MARAD.
The PRESIDENT is the former American President Lines (APL) PRESIDENT TYLER, built in 1961 as the third ship of that name. The vessel was laid down as hull #5489 at the Bethlehem Steel Company in San Francisco and launched on December 20, 1960 by Mrs. Maryon Davies Lewis. On August 3, 1961, the ship was delivered to her owners as the second and final vessel in the Sea Racer class, type C4-S1-1Qb. A sister, the PRESIDENT LINCOLN had been delivered earlier. These ships are particularly notable as they represent APL’s first attempt to build breakbulk cargo ships, also specifically designed to carry containers. The containerized cargo was carried in hold #4 just forward of the superstructure. Ironically, despite two rebuilding efforts that eventually brought their container capacity up to 410 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units) these early attempts at containerization were never completely converted to full container ships like the rest of the fleet.
From the collection of Shawn J. Dake.
The PRESIDENT TYLER was 563.75 feet long with a beam of 76 feet. The 13,223 gross ton cargo-liner was designed by famed naval architect George Sharp. Summer displacement tonnage was 22,630 and cargo capacity was 721,656 cubic feet. In addition to cargo, the ship carried 12 passengers in 8 staterooms including a spacious suite. Public rooms were placed in an aft-facing location over two decks and included an observation lounge, a second lounge one deck higher with an adjacent card room and dining room. Outdoor deck space was provided on both levels. The ship’s complement included 60 crew members.
From the collection of Shawn J. Dake.
The Sea Racers were very similar to the earlier Mariner Class cargo ships which made up the majority of the APL fleet at the time. With a service speed of 20.5 knots they were billed as “the fastest freighters afloat, rivaling the finest passenger liners not only in speed, but in the luxury and comfort of their passenger accommodations.” All staterooms had picture windows, wall to wall carpeting, private bathrooms and were fully air-conditioned. By contemporary freighter standards, they were very nice, to say the least. As with the Mariner Class, the ship was powered by a single-screw geared steam turbine producing 19,250 HP.
PRESIDENT March 11, 2011, photo © Frank Cleope Jr.
PRESIDENT showing passenger areas, photo © Frank Cleope, Jr. March 11, 2011
In the short span of just over a decade the PRESIDENT TYLER went from being a state-of-the-art freighter to a somewhat obsolete example of an earlier transitional era in cargo shipping. By the early 1970’s she was relegated to month-long voyages in Southwest Asia, sailing from Singapore as far west as Bombay, India and back via Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia. By 1976 the itinerary had been switched to two-week voyages from Hong Kong to Singapore and Jakarta, marketed to passengers under the hipper title of “Singapore Swing” cruises. By this time, her days as an American President Lines vessel were numbered. On August 30, 1979 they traded her to the Maritime Administration, with the name abbreviated to simply PRESIDENT and registered in Washington, D.C. The 18 year old ship was placed in the Ready Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay where she quietly spent the next 31 years rising and falling with the tides. Near the opposite end of the raft of 12 unwanted freighters tied side-by-side was her sister PRESIDENT LINCOLN, now renamed LINCOLN. Undoubtedly, that ship will soon follow her sister to the same inevitable fate. Both ships had their designation within the mothball fleet changed to “Inactive Status” in 2001. In July of 2009, the PRESIDENT was stripped of all useable materials. In December, 2010 MARAD announced the ship would be scrapped at California Dry Dock Solutions along with the former Lykes Lines freighter SOLON TURMAN. They would be the first two ships scrapped locally in California, in a deal worth $3.1 million. Both are now being dismantled near each other at Mare Island, the PRESIDENT in Dry Dock 2, the SOLON TURMAN in Dry Dock 3. The latter ship already has her masts cut down and some portions of the stern cutaway as of March 25th.
PRESIDENT at Mare Island, March 11, 2011, photo © Frank Cleope Jr.
The PRESIDENT is the 18th ship to leave the reserve fleet since October 22, 2009 when the purge of old ships began. With her departure there are still 39 ships listed under “Non-Retention Status” awaiting their turn at the breakers. Just like the PRESIDENT, each one has a story to tell.
Peter Knego
March 25, 2011 at 10:53 pm
Wow! Fantastic report, Shawn! Great to see Frank’s images, too. Many thanks!
Peter
Shawn Dake
March 26, 2011 at 8:43 am
Thank you, Peter. And thank you Frank Cleope, Jr. for the always great photographs. You’re our man in Vallejo!
David
March 26, 2011 at 10:35 am
Quite a nice cabin layout.
David
March 26, 2011 at 10:36 am
Does American President Lines have any more cargo ships that carry passengers…..?.
Numbers65 on OH
March 26, 2011 at 9:15 pm
So sad to see all these great ships sitting wasting away and then being scrapped. They are such a great resource wasted.
Glenn L.
March 27, 2011 at 6:58 pm
Nice article, thanks. One of President’s distant cousins is still sailing the seas as a training ship: http://www.sunymaritime.edu/index.aspx
Empire State VI is in pristine condition and bears the same upper works. She belongs to S.U.N.Y (State University New York) Maritime at Ft.Schuyler, Bronx N.Y.
S.U.N.Y. is a maritime college, land/sea and has a fantastic museum within the ramparts of Ft.Schuyler. I’ve seen one of S.S. United States’ deck chairs in there in mint condition.
Peter C. Kohler
March 28, 2011 at 7:07 am
What a shame. There was surely no finer looking American cargoliner than an APL “Sea Racer”, immaculate (as they always were) in classic APL livery. I remember seeing one of these sweep into Naples Bay (when aboard LEONARDO DA VINCI) flying an enormous US ensign, the setting sun glinting off freshly painted hull and looking absolutely gorgeous and making one proud to be an American overseas. The accommodation and decor of these APL cargoliners was brilliant, one wishes cruise ships today were half as nice.
Tom Clark
March 29, 2011 at 3:17 pm
Great pics Frank. Keep up the good work
Hank
April 1, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Such a shame that an old American President Lines ship is going off to scrap.
George
April 15, 2011 at 10:27 pm
In the above article about the “President”, it states that in July of 2009 all usable materials were stripped out. Would that have included the Bridge to Engine Room Telegraph?? What might an item like that be worth on todays market?? Peter Knego or anyone else happen to have a ballpark
figure??
Peter Knego
April 16, 2011 at 12:16 am
Hi George,
Shawn might know what was removed but from what I have seen most ships in reserve status are stripped of telegraphs and quality fittings before they are scrapped. Telegraphs are marketed in several ways, from the ship they came off of to the brand name and model to their weight in brass. Hard to put a ballpark price without seeing it first.
All the best,
Peter
Hank
April 17, 2011 at 10:41 am
I wish someone would preserve it. I would love to see it.
Shawn Dake
April 17, 2011 at 3:28 pm
Hi everyone. There is an excellent website that lists all of the items removed and inventoried from the Reserve Fleet ships. This is maintained by the Maritime Admistration and is called PMARS for Property Management & Archive Record System. It not only lists the artifacts but gives very detailed descriptions of the ship including virtually everything you would ever want to know. In the case of the PRESIDENT it includes the dates when it was denied preservation status and when the stripping was completed. The bridge items were removed including the steering control and engine order telegraphs. Also gone is the ship’s bell, navigation lights, gyro repeaters, 30 life rings and numerous other items. Officially MARAD lists the value of each of these items as “$Unknown.” Nearly all of the ships are stripped of these types of items before they are scrapped. It is already too late to think about preserving this ship as scrapping is well underway. Work is proceeding exceptionally fast on both this ship and the SOLON TURMAN which I wrote about earlier. If someone were to consider preservation the former PRESIDENT LINCOLN is still intact, but MARAD has already rejected the historical status of the ship as not significant to be worthy of preservation as they do most ships in reserve. To my knowledge only the U.S.S. IOWA is being recommended for preservation among the many inhabitants of Suisun Bay.
Peter C. Kohler
April 18, 2011 at 9:36 am
Typical. Just how many WW2 American battleships do we need “preserved” anyway? It’s like the fifth largest “navy” already. Enough! With truly historic ships like OLYMPIA in real danger of being lost because of scant resources, someone needs to plug the plug on yet another IOWA-class being saved.
Kalle Id
April 18, 2011 at 10:32 am
What I wonder is the general desire to preserve military vessels in great numbers, but not passenger vessels which – more often than not – have had a direct impact on the lives of many more people than the warships have. I’m not saying navy ships shouldn’t be preserved… but maybe we wouldn’t need so many warships preserved and a few other liners, ferries or cruise ships in their place.
Peter C. Kohler
April 19, 2011 at 6:37 am
A lot of this stems from the various veterans’ groups who provide the enthusiasm, a lot of the seed money and the core of volunteers to make these things “happen”. Nothing wrong with that and the folks who can and did win wars, can and do accomplish lots of other stuff, too. It’s just a shame that we have SO many preserved warships and so few preserved merchantmen. Generations of Americans (and indeed Britons) will not even appreciate we had a merchant marine something these warships were designed to protect in the first place.
Eric S.
May 28, 2011 at 2:58 pm
Well for those that are hoping this ship is preserved there might be some hope. It turns out the President was NOT scrapped in California, as I just saw it, and have pictures, being towed through the Panama Canal (Today May 28th 2011) by an American Tug based out of Maryland.
Shawn Dake
May 28, 2011 at 7:05 pm
No hope of it being preserved. PRESIDENT simply swapped scrapyards with sistership LINCOLN as the latter was not seaworthy for the long tow to Brownsville, Texas. I hope to post a full news item on this soon, but have been gone for several weeks and have yet to find the time. Scrapping had not begun at Vallejo on the PRESIDENT as I erroneously mentioned in my previous comment. Would love to see those pictures of it passing through the Panama Canal.