Dollar Steamship Line President Liners
"Robert Dollar (1844-1932) was born in Scotland. His family immigrated to Canada when he was young. After learning the lumber business from logging to accounting, he moved first to Michigan and then to California, where he prospered. Soon, he acquired lumber interests up and down the West Coast. He acquired his first ship in 1895 for use in moving his lumber from the Pacific Northwest to markets in California. He soon acquired more ships and founded the Dollar Steamship Company, headquartered in San Francisco. His fleet plied waters of the Pacific, from the United States and Canada to Japan and China. In 1922, he acquired the American Mail Line and, in 1923, the Pacific Mail Steamship Line (previously the Grace Line). In 1923, he also purchased from the US Government the seven “President” ships, inaugurating round-the-world passenger service. By the time he died in 1932, his companies had investments on the West Coast, the East Coast, the Great Lakes, the Far East, North Africa, and Europe. He was one of the wealthiest men in America. He was also a philanthropist, donating large amounts to orphanages, seminaries, and civic groups. His son, Robert Stanley Dollar, took over the business following Mr. Dollar’s death at age 88. The Great Depression stifled trade and US shipping companies were going bankrupt. The US Shipping Board engineered the merger of several, including the Dollar Line, into the United States Line, headed by Robert Stanley Dollar. The United States Line eventually became the American President Line (APL)."
--Dennis Bryant for Maritime Logistics Professional (December 18, 2015)
"The Dollar Steamship company was the largest and most successful steamship company in the world during the 1920s... If you search through the SAFR memorabilia, you will see many Dollar Steamships are named for presidents of the United States... SAFR holds lots of other Dollar Steamship ephemera in their online museum collections, including shipboard schedule covers and one of my favorite Dollar SS. Co. objects in the collections, a handbill depicting a woman in extravagant evening wear that states "Now Your Going-to-Europe Worries are Over", which makes the clientele the Dollar SS. Co. catered to pretty evident. If passengers could afford to "worry" about going to Europe they must have had it made! ... To me, the collection of Dollar SS. Co. material in the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park collections conveys the desire for adventure and exotic realms that underlay American imperialism and commerce in the early 20th century."
