SS President Coolidge Newport News, Virginia built the two ships, completing "President Hoover" in 1930. The keel for "President Coolidge" was laid 22 April 1930 and the ship was delivered 1 October 1931. They were the largest merchant ships built in the United States up to that time. Each ship had turbo-electric transmission, with a pair of steam turbo generators generating current that powered propulsion motors on the propeller shafts. Westinghouse built the turbo generators and propulsion motors for "President Coolidge" but General Electric built the turbo generators and propulsion motors for "President Hoover". In the "President Coolidge" twelve Babcock & Wilcox superheater
Calvin Coolidge W. Case, using the Phonofilm sound-on-film process he developed for Lee DeForest, filmed Coolidge on the White House lawn, making Coolidge the first president to appear in a sound film. The title of the DeForest film was "President Coolidge, Taken on the White House Grounds". When Charles Lindbergh arrived in Washington on a U.S. Navy ship after his celebrated 1927 trans-Atlantic flight, President Coolidge welcomed him back to the U.S. and a sound-on-film record of the event exists. Calvin Coolidge John Calvin Coolidge Jr. (; July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was an American politician and the 30th President