Safe passage

The SS President Coolidge evacuated hundreds from Honolulu after the attack on Pearl Harbor

By James F. Lee / Special to the Star-Advertiser

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 02, 2012

~~<p>On the morning of Nov. 26, 1941, the same day the First Air Fleet of the Japanese Imperial Navy left Hitokappu Bay for its fateful journey to Pearl Harbor, the SS President Coolidge took on cargo and passengers in Manila Harbor.</p>
<p>Easily recognizable by its sleek black sides with white upper decks and two smokestacks, the ship could reach a speed of 20 knots and carry nearly 1,000 passengers and more than 300 crew members. Its two funnels bore the colors of American President Lines: black with a red band and a white eagle and four stars.</p>
<table width="50%" align="right" class="infoboxright_table">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<h4>ABOUT THE AUTHOR</h4>
James F. Lee teaches journalism at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. His mother was an evacuee from Hawaii after the Pearl Harbor attack, although she left on the SS Lurline a week after the SS President Coolidge sailed from Honolulu. Her first husband, Andrew Marze, was a gunner's mate first class killed aboard the USS Pennsylvania during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack.
~~

On the morning of Nov. 26, 1941, the same day the First Air Fleet of the Japanese Imperial Navy left Hitokappu Bay for its fateful journey to Pearl Harbor, the SS President Coolidge took on cargo and passengers in Manila Harbor.

Easily recognizable by its sleek black sides with white upper decks and two smokestacks, the ship could reach a speed of 20 knots and carry nearly 1,000 passengers and more than 300 crew members. Its two funnels bore the colors of American President Lines: black with a red band and a white eagle and four stars. ABOUT THE AUTHOR James F. Lee teaches journalism at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. His mother was an evacuee from Hawaii after the Pearl Harbor attack, although she left on the SS Lurline a week after the SS President Coolidge sailed from Honolulu. Her first husband, Andrew Marze, was a gunner's mate first class killed aboard the USS Pennsylvania during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack. Login for more...