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Young John Law worked a while as a seaman, serving at different times with the Dollar Steamship Co. and the U.S. Lines aboard its UUS Leviathan (shown above).
Leviathan was built in 1913 as SS Vaterland, Germany's largest passenger liner. It was seized in an American port by the U. S. Shipping Board upon U. S. entry into WWI. Converted into a troopship renamed USS Leviathan, she completed 10 trips carrying troops to Europe, and 9 trips returning them home postwar. Decommissioned in 1919 and returned to the Shipping Board, she was reconditioned at Newport News during 1922-1923 and was operated by the U.S. Lines on the transatlantic route from 1923 to 1934. For more on the Leviathan and its serving as America's first floating broadcaster, visit its web page in The Broadcasting Fleet section of Dr. Martin van der Ven's impressive site about Off Shore Radio (source of the above information and image) at In 1893 Dollar purchased a U.S. sawmill on the Pacific coast. Within a year or so he acquired his first vessel, a single steam schooner called Newsboy to move his lumber to markets down the coast and, in the process, established the Dollar Steamship Co. In 1902, the company moved into international shipping. In 1923 he purchased seven ex-WWI "502 President type" liners from the US Shipping Board.
Thus, Dollar Steamship Company was now able to start a around the world service. For more on the interesting life of Robert Dollar and on his shipping line, visit
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Robert Dollar (shown left in a Christmas 1928 photo) was born in 1844 in Falkirk, Scotland. By age 11 he reportedly was a shore boy in a lumber camp where he endured many hardships. He moved to Canada where he developed a set of rules to which he adhered all his life: 1. Do not cheat. 2. Do not be lazy. 3. Do not abuse. 4. Do not drink.