S.S. President Cleveland

The S.S. President Cleveland was originally built as S.S. Golden State for the United States Shipping Board (USSB), one of the planned World War I troop transports converted before construction into passenger and cargo vessels. The ship was launched on July 17th, 1920 in Newport News, Virginia by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company. The ship was renamed President Cleveland by May 1921 and was eventually owned and operated as a passenger liner by the American President Lines. By December 1923, the ship, now S.S. President Cleveland, was operating with sailings every 14 days from San Francisco to Honolulu, Japan, China, and the Philippines in a route dubbed "The Sunshine Belt to the Orient" with S.S. President Lincoln, S.S. President Pierce, S.S. President Taft, and S.S. President Wilson. As late as May 1925, the ships were seen as USSB vessels of the California Orient Line operated by Pacific Mail Steamship Company, but the next month those vessels were seen in an advertisement headed "Now serving the transpacific and round-the-world fleets of Dollar Steamship Line. S.S. President Cleveland and the other former USSB ships of Pacific Mail's fleet continued to operate in this service until 1938 when the United States Maritime Commission, successor to the USSB, judged the Dollar company unsound and took over the assets including the ships to be operated by a new company, American President Lines.

The American President liner S.S. President Cleveland was chartered by the U.S. Army in July 1941 and renamed U.S.A.T. Tasker H. Bliss for General Tasker H. Bliss, who was Army Chief of Staff in 1917 to 1918. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, reinforcement of Hawaii was extremely urgent and shipments were hurriedly organized. A convoy of composed of U.S.A.T. Bliss and U.S.A.T. President Garfield departed December 17th with troops, aircraft, and supplies. The ship was transferred to the U.S. Navy on the 19th of August 1942 at Baltimore, where she was converted for use as a Navy transport by the Maryland Drydock Company and commissioned on the 15th of September 1942 as U.S.S. Tasker H. Bliss designated as transport AP-42. On the evening of November 12th, 1942, she was riding at anchor in Fedhala Roads when the Nazi submarine U-130 commanded by Ernst Kals slipped in among the ships and fired five torpedoes at three transports. All torpedoes hit their targets, and they burst into flames. The U.S.S. Tasker H. Bliss burned until the next morning until finally sinking. There were 31 casualties.

• Length: 163 m (535 ft)
• Beam: 22 m (72 ft 2 in)
• Draft: 8.43 m (27 ft 8 in)
• Propulsion: Steam turbine engines,
• Speed: 16.5 knots (19 Mph)
• Capacity: 12,770 tons
• Occupancy: 1,888 passengers

Mildred Mathes (Born: 1902) was on this vessel in May of 1934 with her daughter Doris Helmkamp (Born: 1922) while sailing from San Francisco to New York.