SS President Coolidge continued from Manila via Singapore, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea, New York City, the Panama Canal and thence back to San Francisco. "President Hoover" and "President Coolidge" were aimed at holiday makers seeking sun in the Pacific and Far East. Passenger luxuries included spacious staterooms and lounges, private telephones, two saltwater swimming pools, a barbers' shop, beauty salon, gymnasium and soda fountain. "President Coolidge" broke several speed records on her crossings between Japan and San Francisco. In December 1937 "President Hoover" ran aground on the Taiwanese coast and was declared a total loss. Dollar Steamship Lines was increasingly in
The Man Who Knew Coolidge digressions how he came to know the then-President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge. He describes a visit to the White House, undertaken to look in on "Cal". Early in the narrative, Schmaltz's character acknowledges what will be a key characteristic of the remaining five sections of the novel when he states: "I'm afraid I'm getting a little off the subject of Coolidge, and if there's anything I hate it's a fellow that if he starts to talk about a subject he can't stick to it" (p. 17). Schmaltz recounts his youth in Fall River, Massachusetts, where his father, according