John W. Anderson

Commodore John William Anderson (February 14, 1899 – February 15, 1976) was the longest serving captain of the , the fastest ocean liner in history. In 1952, he relieved Commodore Harry Manning as master of the superliner after the recordbreaking voyage on which she broke the translantic speed record previously held by the and captured the Blue Riband for the United States. Early life and career Anderson was born in 1899 in Jersey City, New Jersey, to parents of Norwegian and English descent. His grandfather spent twenty-five years at sea in Norwegian sailing ships. He entered the New York Nautical School (which later became the SUNY Maritime College) in 1915, and served as a cadet aboard the schoolship , formerly a gunboat in the Spanish–American War. After graduation he went to sea as a quartermaster and junior officer on several famous old liners like the and . He later sailed to Australia, India and China on freight ships and tankers as chief mate and obtained his first command in 1921. In 1934 he was appointed to command the American Importer, his first passenger ship for United States Lines, sailing between New York City, Plymouth, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Hamburg and Liverpool. One notable voyage took place in 1935, when he transported Colonel and Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh and their son Jon to Liverpool after the kidnapping of their younger child. World War II Following the outbreak of World War II, the Swedish motor liner Kungsholm was seized at New York City, placed under the American flag and purchased by the U.S. government. The United States Lines were appointed agents by the War Shipping Administration to run the ship as a troop transport and Anderson was selected to command her. The ship, renamed USAT John Ericsson, left New York at the end of January 1942 in convoy with a full complement of 6,000 U.S. soldiers for Australia and Noumea. Their ultimate mission was to garrison the island of New Caledonia. Returning to the Atlantic, the John Ericsson resumed her mission and by the close of the war had safely transported some 300,000 troops to various theaters of war, despite frequent attacks by enemy submarines and aircraft. In 1940 Anderson took command of the , the second largest U.S. passenger liner of the time, and in 1949 he was named master of the 34,000-ton luxury liner , then the nation's largest and finest passenger liner.