SS President Wilson was an American passenger ship originally ordered by the United States Maritime Commission during World War II, as one of the Admiral W. S. Benson-class Type P2-SE2-R1 transport ships, and intended to be named USS Admiral F.B.

The President Wilson and her sister ship the SS President Cleveland were originally planned to be commissioned by the United States Maritime Commission in a series of eight troopships of the type P2-SE2-R1 (Admirals) class ships.

The President Wilson was laid down on November 27, 1944 at the Bethlehem Steel shipyard in Alameda, California, but was cancelled on December 16,1944.

[3] The ship was finally launched on November 24,1947,[4] completed and delivered to the Maritime Commission on April 27, 1948.

By the late 1950s, passenger liners were being eclipsed by jet airplanes as the preferred mode of trans-oceanic travel, but APL redirected its marketing efforts to pleasure travelers and continued its liner service well past the retirement of many of President Wilson's contemporaries.