page_title: APL (shipping company)
section_title: Dollar Shipping Company
hierarchical_section_title: APL (shipping company) / History / Dollar Shipping Company
caption_attribution_description: English: Mae Dollar (ship)
context_page_description: APL, formerly called American President Lines Ltd., is a Singapore-based container and shipping company which is a subsidiary of French shipping company CMA CGM. It operates a container-ship fleet, including 153 container vessels.
  In 1938, the U.S. government took over the management of the Dollar Steamship Co. which was in financial difficulties and transferred their assets to the newly formed American President Lines. In the 1997, Neptune Orient Lines based in Singapore bought APL, eventually moving APL's headquarters to Singapore. In 2016 CMA CGM bought NOL, including APL.
context_section_description: Meanwhile, Captain Robert Dollar purchased his first ship, marking the beginning of his shipping empire. Dollar was born in Falkirk, Scotland in 1844, moving to Canada at the age of 11, where he worked in a lumber camp. Following this, in 1893, he purchased his own sawmill on the Pacific Coast. However, due to unreliable shipping timetables, he found it hard to ship his lumber from the Pacific Northwest down the coast towards California. Hence, in 1893 Dollar bought a 120-foot (37 m) steam schooner called Newsboy. This led to the establishment of the Dollar Steamship Company (commonly known as "Dollar Line") on August 12, 1900, which soon grew to have a large fleet of schooners transporting lumber to market.
  In 1902, Dollar sailed to Asia for the first time on a Pacific Mail ship, SS China, to prospect potential lumber markets on the other side of the Pacific. He began to acquire a number of ships, and began his trans-Pacific shipping with a chartered voyage to Yokohama, Japan and the Philippines, marking his entry into international shipping. During World War I, Dollar ordered the construction of $30 million worth of ships in China, and in 1923 bought seven "502 President Type" liners from the US Shipping Board, pioneering his round-the-world service, marked by the departure of President Harrison on January 5, 1924. These were all named after US presidents, a tradition that Dollar Shipping continued until its end.
  This was followed up in 1925 by the purchase of eight more "535 President Type" liners from the Shipping Board, which had previously been run by Pacific Mail. Dollar Shipping bid much lower than Pacific Mail for the ships—on the order of $1 million—but Pacific Mail's offer included stocks as well as cash. Thus, the Shipping Board declared that Pacific Mail was unable to meet the terms of tender, and awarded $30 million worth of ships to Dollar Shipping. This naturally caused troubles for Pacific Mail, and it was taken over by Dollar Shipping the same year, although Dollar had ordered his sons to begin buying stock of the company in 1920. In 1922 the Dollar Line also acquired the Admiral Oriental Line and renamed it the American Mail Line, making Dollar one of the most profitable shipping companies in the world.
  Dollar Line continued expanding its business in the late 1920s, buying five more "535 President Type" ships in 1926. In that year, Dollar Line carried over 45,000 passengers and had a gross revenue of $6 million. Dollar encouraged others to invest in Asia with his booklet, "Have You Investigated the Oriental Market for Your Product?", helping to open up Asia to 20th-century industry. The Merchant Marine Act of 1928 (also known as the Jones–White act) also helped Dollar Line, allowing it to sign a lucrative new mail contract and requiring it to build new ships to meet demand.
  On October 26, 1929, just as the Wall Street Crash of 1929 was beginning, Dollar Steamship Line (renamed that same year) ordered two 21,936-gross register ton (GRT) steam turbo-electric ocean liners—the largest yet built for a US shipping company. SS President Hoover was completed in 1930 and SS President Coolidge was completed in 1931. They were state-of-the-art, luxurious sister ships rivaling the best hotels of the era, but by then the Great Depression had deepened and the ships carried only half their capacity on their maiden voyages.
  On May 16, 1932 Robert Dollar died at the age of 88 and was succeeded by his son, Robert Stanley Dollar. Following Robert senior's death, the company began a steady decline. The faltering Dollar companies were now faced with sharply increased operating costs. In December 1937 President Hoover ran aground off the east coast of Taiwan, and was written off as a constructive total loss. By 1938 The company was $7 million in debt, with interest increasing this by $80,000 per day. In June 1938 President Coolidge was arrested (seized under admiralty law) in San Francisco for a £35,000 unpaid debt. In August that year, the United States Maritime Commission judged the company unsound and assumed control ove
caption: Mae Dollar
exif: {}