SS President Cleveland by LindsayD - Scale 1:15 - RESTORATION

[LindsayD]

 I acquired this unfinished model ship a few years ago and am finally making some progress to finish it. It is quite large measuring 40 feet long, 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide. This model was started in 1962 and ended up in a warehouse having been largely taken apart and a few superstructure elements ending up at other places. Over the last few years I was able to relocate most of the parts and reassemble the model to it's unfinished state. After studying the available online images, a trip to the San Francisco Maritime museum to copy their images, building the PYRO/Lindberg plastic kit of the ship and acquiring a few slides from past passengers, I am on my way building the missing elements. 

 

 I have managed to assemble several more sets of davits, made drawings of missing parts and started building the missing aft mast and aft superstructure. Still to build are lifeboats, deck and lifeboat winches, the second swimming pool, railings on all decks, the extended 1st class dining room, aft hull and lots of detail parts.

 

 I hope you all enjoy seeing this model   

[amateur]

Definitely not a model to display in your living (unless your living appears to be in something likethe White House)

For what purpose was it started (and where will it end up after you are finished? Not a warehouse agin, I hope)

 

Jan

[Bob Cleek]

Quite astounding. I also am interested to know the history of the model. I note that it's a waterline model and appears to have casters on the bottom. Might it have been built as a movie prop? There was a television series, The Gale Storm Show, which was about a cruise director on the Cleveland or Wilson, but I can't recall which. That show ended in 1960. She was later used in other films, as well. I remember my father mentioning when they would make movies aboard her. 

 

My father worked for Dollar Steamship before the war and then for Dollar's successor, American President Lines, in all for over forty years. He was an accountant in the home office in San Francisco. As was the custom of the time, he got me summer job working there as well in high school. I was aboard the President Cleveland, President Wilson, and President Roosevelt, APL's passenger liners, many times. When I was in grammar school, when my father had the "weekend duty" and one of the liners would come in, he'd go down to the ship and clear the purser's books on board and he'd often bring me along. An ice cream sundae in the galley was the highlight of those trips. When I worked in the summer for APL, another fellow and I would make the run from the foreign exchange bank to the ships and bring the foreign cash aboard for the foreign cruises. You might think it was a high security job with lots of armed guards, but in fact it was just two young guys pushing hand trucks with nondescript metal boxes on them from a van and up the gangway. It was very low key, so nobody really knew who we were or what we were doing until we were aboard. I still have a champagne ice bucket with the APL logo on it off of one of the liners.

 

As you probably know, the Cleveland and Wilson were laid down by Bethlehem Steel in Alameda during the war, designed as very high speed troop transports for the Navy. The builds were cancelled later and they were then redesigned as passenger liners. APL operated them on a charter for MARAD. They were great ships and, in my opinion, quite beautiful. 

 

Please do keep us up to date on your project !

 

 

As I remember her. She'd carry passengers' cars on the Hawaii runs, seen here parked on the dock after off loading from the forward cargo hold. Note the cargo nets over the side. This photo was in the days before intermodal cargo containers. 

[LindsayD]

Thank you for the comments and interest in this model. What I was told by the builder's family is that this was the second large model ship he built. As a young man he built a 28 foot long model ocean liner. It was completely finished and he would take it to a lake, launch it, climb inside and drive it around. This was also his plan I was told for this model. The hatch closest to the superstructure opens up and there is a large enough opening to enter the hull. The hull framing is stout enough I believe to allow the model to be put in the water. I was told the plan was to finish the top sides, then remove it as a unit, flip the hull over and complete the hull and running gear. I have no plans to make it operable as I feel it's too delicate to put in the water, and I already have a 42' wooden boat built in 1928 that is enough work ! I do have in mind a model ship museum that I think should have it and display it when it is all finished. This model would fit their space and focus I believe.

 

  Here are a couple more photos of finished areas and details.

 

   Thanks for looking and any advise is welcome !

[Jim Lad]

No excuses for not having super detail on that scale! 

 

what a fascinating project!

 

John

[paul moore]

I have the large scale model that was in the San Francisco American President Line Sales office.  If you are till working on this and would like photos of that let me know.

[KeithAug]

What a giant, i am amazed. The display case is going to cost a fortune.

[Bob Cleek]

On 9/17/2020 at 2:46 PM, paul moore said:

I have the large scale model that was in the San Francisco American President Line Sales office.  If you are till working on this and would like photos of that let me know.

That's a treasure! Photos, please!

 

I'd love to hear the story of how you came by it.

 

Is it the large "builder's model" or one of the models made for use in the travel agents' office windows? ("Travel agencies..." now there's another trade that the internet has pretty well obsolesced into oblivion.)

 

[yvesvidal]

Interesting thread. Welcome to the Giant models!!!

 

Yves

[Stu Boyer]

I was staff organist on the Cleveland from July 1970 to July 1972. If you need detail photos to complete this model I've probably got them. What a great and memorable time of my life.

Stu Boyer

[Roger Pellett]

In the mid 1050’s the BF Goodrich Company built a tire plant in the Philippines.   When the plant opened, my father, representing the Company attended the opening ceremonies and my mother went with him.

 

They then sailed on the President Wilson, either Manila- Hong Kong or Hong Kong- Tokyo,  I don’t remember which.  This was back in the day when getting there was half the fun and this was the highlight of their trip.

 

They brought me a bronze plaque with an engraving of the ship.  I don’t remember where it is.

 

Roger

[Stu Boyer]

Here are a few souvenirs from the S. S. President Cleveland passenger ship. The appreciation award is pretty heavy, don't know if it's pewter or lead. Second is a three inch square of Lucite. Ashtrays are almost obsolete now and the 'Smile' coasters were all the rage in the 70's. Passenger Lists were printed after each port of call and these are from voyage 195, my farewell voyage in 1972.