Hanks for posting this article.
I read FDR’s Declaration of War speech on Dec. 8, 1941 yesterday and noted his line “In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.” When I read that, I was wondering about what shipping was attacked outside Pearl between SF and Honolulu. This timely article answered that question.
We have a minor coincidental connection. This summer, my sisters were visiting and we took them to the Filoli Mansion in Woodside, CA. The mansion was built by Willaim Roth and his wife Lurline Matson Roth.
Her father, William Matson, had first come to appreciate the name “Lurline” in the 1870s while serving as skipper aboard the Claus Spreckels family yacht Lurline out of San Francisco Bay. Matson met his future wife, Lillie Low, on a yacht voyage he captained to Hawaii; the couple named their daughter Lurline Berenice Matson.
Lurline Matson married William P. Roth in 1914; in 1927 Roth became president of Matson Lines, the shipping company started by her father.
In 1932, the last of four smart liners designed by William Francis Gibbs and built for the Matson Lines’ Pacific services was launched: the SS Lurline christened on 12 July 1932 in Quincy, Massachusetts by Lurline Matson Roth.
That was the ship that took the SOS call. The Lurline made it to San Fran on Dec 10 and was quickly converted to a troop ship. It sailed in the very first Pacific convoy from San Fran on Dec 16, 1941. Talk about a fast conversion!
Interesting, when I was a kid I had the good fortune to travel between Hawaii and the Mainland on both the Lurline and her sister ship, the Matsonia. (Also once on the P&O liner, the Oronsay.) Back then it was not that unusual. They had airline flights, but back then it was either turbo-prop or maybe early jets, and it was a pretty uncomfortable and long plane trip. (Plus of course everyone dressed up in suits and nice dresses to travel in those days!)
