Talk:USAHS Marigold

The history of the USAHS Marigold has some ownership and date discrepancies. Some sources state that she was first operated by the United States Lines, but that company was not a legal entity at the time she entered service. It appears that she operated as Old North State only briefly under United States Mail Steamship Company and only as President Van Buren for the United States Lines. Second, I only found one reference that the ship was laid up 1936-1940 and that came from the commander of the hospital ship. Finally, there are two different dates cited for her decommissioning as a hospital ship and I don’t know which one to believe. Maybe somebody with access to military records can sort this out. In searching for a free image, there is a discrepancy in the Ellis Island image labeled  President Van Buren – a zoom in on the image shows the APL spread eagle wings and stars on the funnel. In that case, she would have had the name President Fillmore and operating under APL when the image was taken. There is an image of the vessel as the hospital ship but the use requires permission. Mariepr (talk) 06:28, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Old North State name change
A search of early United States Lines timetables show that it ship did indeed sail under the name Old North State under their operation in 1922. It would appear that somewhere in the 1923 timeframe the ship name was changed to President Van Buren when she was converted from a 78 first class passenger vessel to one carring all Cabin Class. Mariepr (talk) 17:31, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

These ships were never commonly known as the "522" type—very commonly the "502" type
Contemporary industry references use "502" Type, the "502s" or the 502-foot class through the 1930s. This was in contrast to their larger "sisters" the "535" Type, the "535s" or the 535-foot class. Just a few references:
 * McKellar: Steel Shipbuilding under the U. S. Shipping Board, 1917-1921, Part V, Contract Steel Ships
 * EFC Design 1095: Illustrations
 * Emergency Fleet Orders
 * Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Maritime Industry

About the only place the "522" confusion is mentioned appears to be the modern reference USSB 502/522 Class at GlobalSecurity.org from which some of the existing text appears to be lifted. The registered length, Lloyd's (President Taylor) for example, tended to be Length between perpendiculars and in the case of Lloyd's 502 ft. Palmeira (talk) 19:35, 25 July 2015 (UTC)