It will not be probably the most dramatic query in our politically divided occasions, however as a measure of the place we discover ourselves now it’s maybe price pondering: Will there ever once more be an ocean liner or cruise ship named for a U.S. president?
There don’t appear to be any right now and to not have been any for nearly 50 years. But till the Seventies such ships proudly marketed themselves to world vacationers, assured that the dignity and stature of a presidential title could be nice for enterprise.
Grover Cleveland,
Herbert Hoover,
James Ok. Polk,
James Monroe—their names have been emblazoned on the hulls of round-the-world passenger ships that made stops at a few of the globe’s most glamorous ports. The American President Lines owned the vessels, and the enterprise technique was easy: What could possibly be extra thrillingly American than setting sail aboard a ship related to a president?
Each arrival and departure made passengers really feel as in the event that they have been in some way part of historical past—the headline within the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on June 3, 1950, when a type of ships pulled into port, was “
Woodrow Wilson
Arrives.” The company slogan: “Travel With the Presidents.”
In right now’s acrimonious occasions it probably could be deemed too dangerous. Name a passenger ship for a Republican president, you’d fear about alienating half of your potential clients. Name a ship for a Democratic president, similar headache. It wouldn’t matter how far again a cruise firm regarded—a sure variety of individuals would regard any president whose title graced the ship to be too far to the political left or too far to the political proper.
And touring by means of waters close to international locations unfriendly to the U.S. would make a passenger ship bearing a president’s title a straightforward goal for adversaries in search of assured publicity. Better to stay with the safely generic names of right now’s cruise ships: Jubilee, Summit, Equinox, Mardi Gras, Infinity, Elation, Apex and the remaining.
Warships are a unique matter: The U.S. Navy has loads of vessels named for presidents, together with Lincoln, Washington, Eisenhower, Truman and Ford.
Jimmy Carter
has a submarine. But nobody is being requested to purchase tickets for journeys on these ships—there aren’t any advertising and marketing booby traps.
The American President Lines was a mirrored image of the mid-Twentieth-century period during which its ships sailed, as evidenced by its promoting: “Only Father Pays Full Fare.” With breadwinner dad on board, wives and kids obtained a worth break. (And there was this promise: “350 pounds of luggage free.”)
When, in the course of the Nixon administration, the SS President Wilson steamed into San Francisco in April 1973, it was the top of the (passenger) line. The firm was offered to a agency in Singapore, after which to a French company that turned American President Lines right into a subsidiary known as APL, an operator of cargo ships. Some nonetheless carry the names of presidents, however you aren’t prone to encounter them in your leisure travels. Their decks now haul stacks of big containers, not vacationers.
As for that final American President Lines passenger ship, the SS President Wilson was offered to a Hong Kong businessman after the ultimate 1973 voyage and was renamed the Oriental Empress. “Hail to the Chief” was not performed.
Mr. Greene’s books embrace “Chevrolet Summers, Dairy Queen Nights.”
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Appeared within the May 11, 2022, print version.
Source: www.wsj.com”