President Roosevelt
1961
(Wirral Hein Muck WHM-402)
- Type: Passenger
- Displacement: 18,920 tons
- Dimensions: 622 x 75 x 27 ft.
- Machinery: De Laval geared turbines, twin screw, 18,700 shp = 20 knots
- Passengers: 456 (all first class)
- Builder: Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Kearny, New Jersey, 1944
- Service: Built as U.S. troopship General W. P. Richardson, AP-118 (type P2-S2-R2), commissioned 2 Nov 1944; one of eleven sisters with capacity for 5,000 troops. Transferred to US Army 14 Feb 1946. Converted to a passenger ship, 1948-49, sailing as La Guardia for American Export Lines. First voyage 27 May 1949 New York-Genoa. Handed to US Maritime Commission 13 Dec 1951 and laid up on the James River.
Sold to Hawaiian SS Co, Textron Inc, 1955 and refitted; renamed Leilani Jul 1956 and sailed on California-Hawaii service until Textron went bankrupt; laid up Dec 1958.
Sold to American President Lines, and rebuilt at Puget Sound Bridge & Dry Dock Co., Seattle, 1961-62; renamed President Roosevelt. In trans-Pacific service with first voyage 10 May 1962 San Francisco-Yokohama. Rebuilt as cruise ship Atlantis for Chandris Lines (Greek flag), 1970-71. Became Emerald Seas for Eastern Steamship Lines (Panamanian flag), 1972. Sold 1992 to Ambassador Cruises (Liberian flag); renamed several times. Renamed Sapphire Seas, late 1992. Eastern Mediterranean cruising, 1994. Renamed Ocean Explorer 1 for use at Lisbon as hotel ship for Expo 98. Made one round-the-world cruise for World Cruise Company (Canada) in 1999-2000.
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