Panama

1938

(Albatros AL-238)

Type: Passenger / general cargo
Displacement: 10,241 tons
Dimensions: 494 x 64 x 26 ft.
Machinery: Steam turbines, twin screw = 16 knots
Passengers: 202 (all first class)

Builder: Bethlehem Steel Co, Quincy, MA, 1938

Service: First of three sisters built for the U.S. government-owned Panama Rail Road Company. Designed for the vital passenger, mail, and cargo links between the United States and the Panama Canal Zone, running between New York and Cristobal. Interiors designed in Art Deco style by Raymond Loewy, "the king of streamline." Taken over as US Army transport James Parker from Jun 1941 to May 1946. Returned to commerical service once again as Panama. Sold to American President Lines, 1957; renamed President Hoover and based at San Francisco for sailings to Hawaii and the Far East. Sold to Chandris Lines (Greek flag), 1964, becoming the Mediterranean cruise ship Regina, later Regina Prima. After a long layup she was broken up in Turkey in 1985.
Sister Ancon was completed in 1939. Taken into service in Jan 1942 as a US Army transport, then transferred to Navy as transport (AP-66) and finally converted to communications ship (AGC-4), acting as a command ship at Sicily, Salerno, and then Omaha beach during the Normandy invasion. Transferred to the Pacific she was the communications ship for the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. Returned to commerical service in 1946, she sailed from New York until 1961, when she was sold to the Maine Maritime Academy. As the State of Maine she was used as the cadet training ship until broken up in 1973.
Sister Cristobal was also completed in 1939. She served as a US Army transport from Jan 1942 to Jun 1946. Following the war she continued sailing for the Panama Line, but from New Orleans and in "official only" service with twelve passenger berths. She was withdrawn in 1981 and scrapped.