American Palestine Line
After refurbishing the liner, the company inaugurated service between New York and Mandatory Palestine in March 1925, when President Arthur sailed on her maiden voyage.
Financial difficulties included unpaid bills and resultant court actions as well as accusations of fraud against company officers that were leveled in the press.
[2] Strahl also publicly announced American Palestine's intent to acquire President Fillmore at the same time;[2] plans for that acquisition and that of Mount Clay, however, never materialized.
[5] SS President Arthur was formerly Kiautschou, a Barbarossa-class ocean liner launched in September 1900 for the Hamburg America Line's Far East passenger and mail service.
After some post-war use as a passenger liner and yet another name change—this one in honor of the 21st U.S. President, Chester A. Arthur—she was taken out of service when changes in U.S. laws severely curtailed the number of immigrants that could enter the country in the early 1920s.
[8] After undergoing reconditioning at Morse Dry Dock & Repair in Brooklyn, President Arthur was taken out for a 100-nautical-mile (190 km) shakedown cruise on March 7, 1925.
[12] Cantor Josef Rosenblatt sang to the crowd and a telegram from New York merchant Nathan Straus, unable to attend the event, was read aloud.
[11] The ship, with Stars of David painted on her funnels,[13] pulled away from the dock at eight minutes before noon, nearly an hour later than her planned departure time, and headed to Haifa, with an intermediate stop in Naples.
[15] Herman Hirsch, a Jewish male from Chicago on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, kept an account of President Arthur's maiden voyage.
After arrival in Haifa, his flag-draped coffin was placed on deck and services were conducted in English and Hebrew by Rabbi Ashinsky before the body was taken ashore for interment.
[26] On May 12 President Arthur sailed on her second voyage to Palestine, counting Hemda Ben-Yahuda, the widow of Hebrew linguist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, among her passengers.
On July 10, the company had to post an indemnity bond to avoid the impoundment of President Arthur for a disputed bill owed to Morse Dry Dock for the ship's 1924 refit.
[30] American Palestine Line was placed in receivership on September 11 by federal judge Thomas D. Thacher of the U.S. District Court after suit was brought by a creditor.
[32] By the time all the legal wrangling was finished, President Arthur was back in the hands of the USSB,[33] and the furniture and fixtures of the American Palestine offices were sold at public auction by the company's receiver in early March 1926.
