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- [S326] Unknown author. In possession of Joyce Leming., Manuscript: Rock Smith Family including hand written notes and addendum giving the descendents of John Ellis Smith. (Joyce Leming suggested that the document may have originally been obtained from t.
- [S24] article, New York Times, New York, NY, 4 Mar 2004.
L. J. Alexanderson, 93, Liner’s Last Captain, Dies
By WOLFGANG SAXON Published: March 4, 2004
Commodore Leroy J. Alexanderson, the last master of the S.S. United States, the fastest Atlantic liner, died on Sunday in Hampton, Va., near the vessel's birthplace, Newport News. He was 93.
His death was announced by his son, John Alexanderson of Concord, Mass.
Commodore Alexanderson skippered the United States for the last 5 of its 17 years in service. Decommissioned in 1969, the towering hulk is now moored in Philadelphia, still awaiting its fate.
It was bought last year by Norwegian Cruise Lines, which said it planned to refit it as a United States-registered cruise liner. Robert Hudson Westover, chairman of the S.S. United States Foundation, which works to celebrate the ship as a seagoing monument, said this week that he had received no further word from the company.
Commodore Alexanderson spent more than 40 years at sea in war and peace. After the United States, flagship of United States Lines, foundered in the jet age, he remained in overall charge of the line's fleet.
In 1976 he came ashore to retire because of his wife's declining health. His wife, Dorothea Ranken Alexanderson, died three years later after 45 years of marriage.
In 1983, he married Elizabeth Meade Dougherty, who survives him, along with his son, John; two daughters, Barbara Helmus of Garden City, N.Y., and Linda Butler of Charlottesville, Va.; a stepdaughter, Linda D. Smith of Summit, N.J.; a stepson, William J. Dougherty of Hampton; a brother, Howard, of Utica, N.Y.; nine grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
Leroy John Alexanderson was born to Swedish immigrant parents in Brooklyn. In 1930, he graduated from the New York Merchant Marine Academy at Fort Schuyler in the Bronx, now the S.U.N.Y. Maritime College, and was commissioned in both the Naval Reserve and the Maritime Service.
He shipped out on freighters and in 1934 transferred to United States Lines. With war approaching, he volunteered for destroyer escort duty and got his first command, an attack transport, the Gage. The Gage landed Marine elements on Okinawa and saw heavy action. Later, it carried thousands of homebound soldiers through the Suez Canal.
Returning to the Merchant Marine Service at United States Lines, he served on various ships before becoming executive officer and then, in 1955, captain of the S.S. America.
Construction of the United States was heavily underwritten by the federal government not only to enhance the country's prestige but also to bolster its military readiness. At 51,988 tons and 990 feet long, it could carry 1,650 passengers. But it was also outfitted as a naval auxiliary that could be converted into a military transport, and its 241,000-horsepower steam engines could move a fully equipped division halfway around the world, nonstop, without refueling.
On its maiden voyage in 1952 it captured the Atlantic Blue Riband speed trophy for the fastest crossing of that ocean: 3 days, 10 hours and 42 minutes. The ship averaged 35.59 knots, or 40.96 land miles, an hour. Its top speed of 43 knots, just shy of 50 miles an hour, was an official secret until after it was decommissioned.
In 1966, the United States Lines made Mr. Alexanderson its fleet commodore, even then a nearly extinct rank. He was put in overall command of the line's ships — 52 at that time — and was entitled to run the commodore's silk ensign up the halyard to the radar mast of any of the line's ships he happened to be on.
After leaving the United States, he commanded the container ship American Legion for seven years. When he retired, he was one of the last active merchant mariners of fleet rank in the country; he also retired as a two-star rear admiral of the Naval Reserve.
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