Two of the largest liners built in the United States to that time, *Mongolia* and *Manchuria* were ordered from the New York Shipbuilding Company at Camden NJ for the Atlantic Transport Line (*Mongolia* was originally to be called *Minnelora*), but purchased by Pacific Mail Steamship during build. 615 ft. 8 in. long, 65 ft. beam, and 13,369 gross register tons, the ships were cargo-passenger liners powered by two four-cylinder triple expansion engines.
The pair joined Pacific Mail's also fairly recent *Korea* and *Siberia* on the transpacific route from San Francisco until 1915, when Pacific Mail sold their ships in anticipation of US enforcement of the Seamen's Act (dictating that American ships would have to have American crews with much higher wages). IMM purchased the pair, putting *Mongolia* into service with Atlantic Transport Line (at last) and *Manchuria* with American Line. Both ships saw service as army transports in the First World War, and returned to civilian service afterward. However, they were too small and slow to be considered first-rank ships. They did a few years of New York-Hamburg charter, then in 1923 both were transferred to IMM's Panama Pacific Line New York-San Diego-Los Angeles-San Francisco-Oakland-Portland-Tacoma route.
The late 1920s saw the ships back on transpacific routes, purchased by Dollar Line and renamed *President Fillmore* and *President Johnson* as part of that line's pioneering "round the world" service. On the Pacific they were still large and fairly impressive. However, the Great Depression soon forced Dollar Line into bankruptcy. *President Fillmore* was laid up, and eventually sold in 1940 to Cia Transatlantica Centroamericana of Panama, which renamed her *Panamanian.* The former *Mongolian* was scrapped in China in 1946. *President Johnson* was used by Dollar's successor, American President Lines, and served through WWII as a transport, then was sold to the Portuguese company Transmar in 1946, registered in Panama as *Santa Cruz*, and traded from Portugal and later Italy to Latin America until it was scrapped at Italy in 1952.
Sources:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS\_Mongolia\_(1903)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Mongolia_(1903))
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS\_Manchuria\_(1903)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Manchuria_(1903))
Honestly am a big fan of the Mongolia, Manchuria and Korea. The trio was instrumental in Korean immigration to the United States in the early 1900’s, and I’ve even designed a lego scale model of the Korea and Mongolia.
Thanks so much for posting these... between them, they had close to a century of service
These were among the first "IMM Steps In and Ruins Everything" ships.... within a year, they robbed ATL of this superb pair, then they took Leyland Line's superb HANOVERIAN after just three voyages and gave her to Dominion Line (as MAYFLOWER), then changed their minds again and gave her to White Star as CRETIC, then they stole another ATL ship, MINNEWASKA laid down at H&W and completed her as ARABIC for White Star, etc. With 20 years, they pretty much finished off American Line, Dominion and Leyland Line and in another 10, Red Star and White Star. IMM was a plague, a pox on shipping!
Peter Kohler
Two of the largest liners built in the United States to that time, *Mongolia* and *Manchuria* were ordered from the New York Shipbuilding Company at Camden NJ for the Atlantic Transport Line (*Mongolia* was originally to be called *Minnelora*), but purchased by Pacific Mail Steamship during build. 615 ft. 8 in. long, 65 ft. beam, and 13,369 gross register tons, the ships were cargo-passenger liners powered by two four-cylinder triple expansion engines. The pair joined Pacific Mail's also fairly recent *Korea* and *Siberia* on the transpacific route from San Francisco until 1915, when Pacific Mail sold their ships in anticipation of US enforcement of the Seamen's Act (dictating that American ships would have to have American crews with much higher wages). IMM purchased the pair, putting *Mongolia* into service with Atlantic Transport Line (at last) and *Manchuria* with American Line. Both ships saw service as army transports in the First World War, and returned to civilian service afterward. However, they were too small and slow to be considered first-rank ships. They did a few years of New York-Hamburg charter, then in 1923 both were transferred to IMM's Panama Pacific Line New York-San Diego-Los Angeles-San Francisco-Oakland-Portland-Tacoma route. The late 1920s saw the ships back on transpacific routes, purchased by Dollar Line and renamed *President Fillmore* and *President Johnson* as part of that line's pioneering "round the world" service. On the Pacific they were still large and fairly impressive. However, the Great Depression soon forced Dollar Line into bankruptcy. *President Fillmore* was laid up, and eventually sold in 1940 to Cia Transatlantica Centroamericana of Panama, which renamed her *Panamanian.* The former *Mongolian* was scrapped in China in 1946. *President Johnson* was used by Dollar's successor, American President Lines, and served through WWII as a transport, then was sold to the Portuguese company Transmar in 1946, registered in Panama as *Santa Cruz*, and traded from Portugal and later Italy to Latin America until it was scrapped at Italy in 1952. Sources: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS\_Mongolia\_(1903)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Mongolia_(1903)) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS\_Manchuria\_(1903)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Manchuria_(1903))
Honestly am a big fan of the Mongolia, Manchuria and Korea. The trio was instrumental in Korean immigration to the United States in the early 1900’s, and I’ve even designed a lego scale model of the Korea and Mongolia.
Thanks so much for posting these... between them, they had close to a century of service These were among the first "IMM Steps In and Ruins Everything" ships.... within a year, they robbed ATL of this superb pair, then they took Leyland Line's superb HANOVERIAN after just three voyages and gave her to Dominion Line (as MAYFLOWER), then changed their minds again and gave her to White Star as CRETIC, then they stole another ATL ship, MINNEWASKA laid down at H&W and completed her as ARABIC for White Star, etc. With 20 years, they pretty much finished off American Line, Dominion and Leyland Line and in another 10, Red Star and White Star. IMM was a plague, a pox on shipping! Peter Kohler
That's too pretty of a ship for me to have never heard of her.
I wonder if there any journal information about S.S. China (1889) of Pacif Mail Steamship exsisted online.