usl chapman flag

CHAPMAN TAKES OVER LEVIATHAN FOR $4,000,000

The S. S. Leviathan, pride of the United States Shipping Board, has officially changed hands. The new house flag of the United States Lines, Inc. a white field, [five-pointed] red star and blue triangle now flaps from its mainmast. Ceremonies on its hoisting attracted officials of the shipping board and the new Chapman syndicate yesterday morning when Miss Johanna Chapman [15 years old], daughter of Paul W. Chapman, president of the lines, tugged it aloft amid cheers. The blue triangle is a Chapman crest. Chapman handed a $4,000,000 check to T. V. O’Connor, chairman of the shipping board, thus closing one of the biggest marine deals in history in taking over the giant liner, once the Vaterland. Commodore H. A. Cunningham, commanding the old and the new line, lowered the old house flag which boasted a blue field, white circle with red USL inscribed. The next liner of the eleven to be transferred to the new company will be the American Farmer of the American Merchant line, now in port.

Daily News (New York, New York). April 9, 1929, p 50.


Wet Leviathan

On the hurricane deck of the S. S. Leviathan in Manhattan last week stood a 15-year-old girl in a dark sailor blouse, a white canvas hat and black shoes and stockings. To the mainmast peak she, Joanna Chapman, ran up a small triangular flag picked out with the letter Y. Her father, Paul Wadsworth Chapman, handed a $4,000,000 check to Chairman T. V. O’Connor of the U. S. Shipping Board. The biggest shipping deal in U. S. history thus completed, the Leviathan’s personnel was cut 10% and away she sailed with 1,398 passengers.

Time (New York, New York). April 22, 1929.

Or… the central device is a “trisected triangle” as described in July 1929.


References

“Chapman takes over Leviathan for $4,000,000.” Daily News (New York, New York). April 9, 1929, p 50.

“Wet Leviathan.” Time (New York, New York). April 22, 1929.

“Bremen expected to break world speed record.” Galveston Daily News (Galveston, Texas). July 21, 1929, p 32.