The President Wilson was a passenger ship that entered service in 1948 for the American President Lines . The ship remained in service for the shipping company until 1973. It was then sold to Asia, where it was retired in 1975. In 1984 the ship was scrapped in Hong Kong . Originally the President Wilson was supposed to be completed as a transport ship. It takes its name from Woodrow Wilson , the 28th President of the USA.
The ship was originally commissioned by the United States Maritime Commission in a series of eight MARCOM type P2-SE2-R1 troop carriers and supply ships. All ships of this series were designed to be used as combined ships in the South American service after the end of the war . The units of the type P2-SE2-R1 were given names of American admirals, with the later President Wilson initially being called Admiral FB Upham . After the ship was laid down on November 27, 1944, the US Maritime Commission canceled the construction contract on December 16, 1944. The unfinished hull of the ship remained laid up until the end of the war. In 1946 the American President Lines decided to take over the ship together with its also still unfinished sister ship President Cleveland in bareboat charter. The President Wilson was launched on November 24, 1947 and entered service on April 27, 1948 on the route from San Francisco to Hong Kong.
American President Lines
The ship remained in service until 1960 without major incidents. It was then modernized in San Francisco. In 1962, President Wilson moved from San Francisco to Yokohama . In 1970 the ship was decommissioned and sold due to falling passenger numbers.
Further whereabouts
The new owner was the Hong Kong-based shipowner CY Tung (1912–1982), who renamed the ship Oriental Empress . The ship was used as a passenger ship across Asia for two years until it was retired in 1975. Despite a change of ownership in 1976, the now obsolete ship never returned to service. In 1984 it was sold to Loy Kee Shipbreakers in Hong Kong, where it was scrapped.
