The SS President Arthur: The Zionist Mayflower Part VI: A Very Late Arrival

Despite the drumbeat of hype about the President Arthur's speed, the ship did not arrive in Haifa until Tuesday, March 31, not a week early but a week late, and the day before the dedication ceremonies for Hebrew University. It was too late for the anticipated “special trains . . . from Jerusalem . . . with delegations to welcome the President Arthur.”[i] 

When the ship arrived, Jacob Drapekin’s coffin, "draped in the American flag . . . was placed on deck. The last rites were performed in Hebrew and English by Rabbi Ashinsky. The Captain also said a few words” and Drapekin's body was taken across the road to be buried in Haifa's cemetery.[ii] 

Then, according to Herman Hirsch:

all was confusion on the ship. It seems that there was no system prepared for the departure of the passengers. The Arabs swarmed on the ship to take the baggage. I was almost the last to leave the ship. A fleet of small boats rowed by Arabs received the passengers from the ship to deliver to the shore. The Arabs demanded one dollar from each passenger for this service. I paid the dollar, but others refused to do so for the reason that it was an outrage and the amount was exorbitant. The result was that the Arabs refused to propel the boat further. Seeing the difficulty a tug boat was dispatched from the shore and we were pulled in. The next difficulty was in getting our baggage. I appealed to an Arab policeman who had to almost fight to get my baggage. The baggage was then taken to the custom house for inspection. Arrangements had been made by me previously for passage on the special train to Jerusalem, but, while being detained in the Customs House, at which place I was unable to exchange my money, the train pulled out, leaving me, a stranger, in a strange city, surrounded by Arabs with whom I could not make myself understood. I at last succeeded in making myself understood that I wanted a Jewish hotel, and I was shown to the Hotel Tel Aviv.[iii] 

Hebrew University Founding, Mount Scopus

Both Ha’aretz and the Palestine Bulletin reported that “the Arab oarsmen in the port of Haifa have decided to boycott [the ship] as a protest against the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine.”[ix]

The cable the Times printed from the New York office of the American Palestine Line, however,  described the scene quite differently:

It seems as if all of Palestine crowded down to the waterfront at Haifa to witness the arrival of the first ship bearing the flag of Zion.

As far as the eye could see every available inch of space along the shore was thronged with eager humanity. Some had commandeered crafts . . . and so crowded was the harbor that the Arthur had difficulty in picking its way so as not to upset some of the smaller craft. . . .

So great was the crowd that swarmed to the vessel, all eager to get aboard to see the first ship to fly the Jewish flag, that the passengers had difficulty in alighting. . . .

It was noticed that among the crowds that came down . . . were a goodly number of Arabs, who, whatever their political ideas might be, seemed glad at this closer linking of their land with America and the closer commercial relations that will undoubtedly result.”[iv]

Once the ship had landed, good news continued to emanate from the offices of the American-Palestine Line. In its April 3, 1925, issue, the Chicago Sentinel, reported that

A special effort to enlist the interest of the future preachers and teachers of Israel will be made in connection with the Palestine Vacation Tour, which the American-Palestine line is projecting this summer. . . . delegations from the Hebrew Union College, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Yeshivah, Dropsie and other Jewish rabbinical and teacher institutions” would be encouraged to experience “the renaissance of Jewish life . . . and the chance of attending at least a few of the sessions of the Hebrew University.[x]

The next cable that Strahl shared with the Times recounted “messages of congratulation and good wishes” sent “by King George V of England, King Victor Emmanuel III, of Italy and Premier Mussolini.” The "special ten-day cruise of the Mediterranean" was an obvious bit of puffery, given that the ship already had been scheduled to pick up freight in those same ports between landing in Haifa and departing on April 17.[xii]

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[i]  “Zion Liner Due at Haifa.”

[ii]  Hirsch, op.cit.

[iii]  Hirsch, op.cit.

[iv]  “Holy Land Greets New York Steamer,” New York Times, April 2, 1925, 8.

[v]  “American-Palestine Line,” Palestine Bulletin, March 12, 1925.

[vi]  “Quicker American mail to Palestine,” Palestine Bulletin, March 16, 1925, 3.

[vii]  “’President Arthur’ Delayed,” Palestine Bulletin, March 22, 1925, 3.

[viii]  “S.S. ‘President Arthur,’” Palestine Bulletin, March 29, 1925, 1.

[ix]  “’President Arthur’ and the Arabs,” Ha’aretz, March 31, 1925, 31; “Oarsmen Boycotting S.S. ‘President Arthur,’” Palestine Bulletin, March 31, 1925, 3.

[x]  “Plan Tour of Rabbinical Students to Palestine,” Sentinel, April 3, 1925, 4.

[xi]  “Kings Greet Zionist Ship,” New York Times, April 4, 1925, 7.

[xii]  “Zion Flag Aloft as 400 Sail to Promised Land.”

The SS President Arthur: The Zionist Mayflower, Part I

Once I tracked down the story of my great-grandfather's death at sea and burial in Haifa (see June 19, 2012, blog entry), I was determined to learn as much as I could about the circumstances surrounding his voyage. 

In fact, it was an historic voyage for many reasons, many "firsts," but I never have been able to determine why he was on it.  Was he a fervent Zionist?  Was he planning to make aliyah?  Though he had a round-trip ticket, that may have been a requirement of the British mandate government.  Was he planning to go, as were so many of his fellow travelers, to the opening ceremonies of Hebrew University?  At almost 70, was he looking for a thrill:  to be on the first ship to display the "Zionist flag"?  Or was it simply the next ship leaving for the Middle East?  Alas, no one will ever know.

The ship itself, however, and its voyage, prove to be irresistibly interesting to me.  While a Wikipedia entry gives an outline of its story, I found so many more details to fill in.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone interested in publishing it, so I will take the route of many and tell the story here in several installments.

For Jews in the United States and around the world, Wednesday, April 1, 1925, marked a watershed moment, the founding of Hebrew University on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. The institution fulfilled the dreams of many Jews, including – among the most prominent – Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, and the first president of the State of Israel, Chaim Weizmann.

Many American Jews attending the ceremonies had arrived only the day before on a steamship that deserves its own place in Jewish and Zionist history. Its story is more than a footnote to the many forms the Zionist dream has taken over centuries; at the same time, its short life demonstrates how a group of entrepreneurs appropriated that dream until it literally went up in smoke.

Jacob S. Strahl

Jacob S. Strahl, an active Zionist and municipal court judge from Brooklyn, headed a syndicate of owners of the new American Palestine Line and its ship, the S.S. President Arthur. On October 9, 1924, these owners announced their intent to operate regular passenger service between New York and Palestine.[i]

For what they said was “the first of the ships to be operated by the new line,”[ii] they purchased a 25-year-old ship built by A. G. Vulkan of Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland). Originally a passenger ship for the Hamburg-American Line to be named the Borussia, and then the Teutonia, it was finally launched as the Kiautschou. The North German Lloyd Company bought it and changed its name to the Princess Alice. 

The U.S. captured it in 1914 and renamed it the Princess Matoika before using it as a troop transport through the rest of World War I.  In 1920, the Matoika was a last-minute substitute that carried some members of the U.S. Olympic team to Antwerp. They found conditions on the ship, which by then had been converted to a mail carrier, so terrible that they “mutinied.” After a total reconstruction, the Matoika made nearly a dozen trips from Europe, bringing immigrants to the U.S. It had two more owners and finally was renamed the President Arthur to conform with the names of other ships owned by the United States Lines company. [iii]

Strahl clearly was a master at publicity. Prior to his announcement on October 9, 1924, he had traveled to Palestine, and while passenger lists routinely appeared in the New York Times, his name always had a modifier. Among the passengers departing on the Paris on July 23, 1924, was Strahl, on his way “to Jerusalem to organize a Jewish life insurance company.”[iv] When Strahl returned on the France, the Times described him as “one of America’s leading Zionists.”[v]

 

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[i]  “Zionists to Run a Fleet,” New York Times, October 10, 1924, Sports/Automobiles section, 21.

[ii]  Ibid.

[iii]  A complete history of the ship appears on rootsweb.ancestry.com. Joe Hartwell, “USS Princess Matoika,” http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacunithistories/Princess_Matoika.html. Accessed March 18, 2009.

[iv]  “Ocean Travelers,” New York Times, July 23, 1924, 6. The company became the Judea Industrial Corporation, which Strahl and others ran from 1927 to 1929.  “Celebrate Stock Sale,” New York Times, August 15, 1927, 11; “Start New Fire Insurance Company,” New York Times, July 6, 1928, 32; “ “To Invest Funds in Palestine,” New York Times, August 16, 1928, 33; “Judge Strahl Feted in Jerusalem,” New York Times, August 17, 1928, 5; “Asks Judea Accounting,” New York Times, April 13, 1929, 14; “Fight Adding Stock in Judea Company,” New York Times, July 6, 1929, 14; “Judea Directors Upheld,” New York Times, May 9, 1930, 24.

[v]  “Jusserand Due to Arrive Today,” New York Times, October 3, 1924, 11. Accessed December 10, 2009.