SS Washington
{{Short description|Transatlantic luxury liner (1932–1965)}}
{{about|the passenger screw steamship|the States Steamship Company cargo liner|SS Washington (1941)|the paddle steamboat|Washington (steamboat 1851)}}
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=The SS Washington.jpg |Ship caption=SS Washington in the United States Lines livery colors. }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United States|civil}} |Ship name= |Ship namesake= |Ship owner= |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered=24 May 1930 |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N. J. |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=20 January 1931 |Ship launched=20 August 1932 |Ship maiden voyage=10 May 1933 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= 1933–1940, 1947–1957 |Ship out of service=1962 |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= 1947, 1955 |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= New York, New York |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= "President Washington's Ship" |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Sold for scrap, 1965 |Ship notes= Flagship from 1934–1940 |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= Manhattan Class |Ship type= |Ship tonnage={{GRT|24,289}} |Ship displacement= |Ship length={{convert|705|ft|3|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|86|ft|0|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draft= |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= 8 |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=B&W boilers, Parsons steam turbines (30,000 shaft HP) - twin screw |Ship speed=20.5 knots |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship troops= |Ship complement= 1130 passengers: 580 in cabin class, 400 in tourist, and 150 in third class |Ship crew= 565 |Ship armament=(as Mount Vernon) four 5" guns, four 3" guns |Ship notes= }} |
SS Washington was a 24,189-ton luxury liner of the United States Lines, named after the US capital city. On 6 June 1941, the Washington was commissioned as the troopship {{USS|Mount Vernon|AP-22|6}}. In 1947 one deck was restored to prewar condition and the ship resumed commercial service. In 1951 the ship was again used by the U.S. Government transporting soldiers and their families. The ship was laid up in 1953 and scrapped in 1965.
Construction
File:SS Washington construction.jpg
The Washington was ordered by Transatlantic Steamship Company and laid down on 20 January 1931 in Shipway O at New York Shipbuilding in Camden, New Jersey. By the time the vessel was launched on 20 August 1932, Transatlantic Steamship's assets had been acquired by International Mercantile Marine, and the Washington went into service for the United States Lines following delivery on 2 May 1933.
At the time of their construction, Washington and her sister ship {{SS|Manhattan|1931|6}}, also built by New York Shipbuilding, were the largest liners ever built in the United States, a status they held until the 1939 launch of {{SS|America|1940|6}}. Washington and Manhattan were two of the few pure ocean liners built by New York Shipbuilding, which had previously built a large number of cargo liners. Accommodations were 580 in Cabin class, 400 in Tourist, and 150 Third class. Both ships were to garner a reputation for a very high standard of service and luxury.
United States Lines signed contracts in 1931 for the Manhattan and Washington for approximately $21 million each.[https://books.google.com/books?id=u-IDAAAAMBAJ&dq=Popular+Mechanics+1931+curtiss&pg=PA275 "Uncle Sam Enters The Atlantic Race", February 1931, Popular Mechanics] article on the new construction in the 1930s
Commercial career
Washington joined her sister ship Manhattan on the New York–Hamburg route, a route she continued to serve with only one short break until December 1939, when President Franklin Roosevelt invoked the 1939 Neutrality Act against Germany. Both ships then moved to the New York–Naples–Genoa run until June 1940, when the Battle of France was raging. Its 'next-to-the-last' voyage from Europe to America, made specifically to repatriate US citizens,[https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/36375 "Notice to American passengers aboard SS Washington" (June 7, 1940)] U.S. Consulate, Bordeaux, France (archived at East Carolina University). departed from Genoa, Lisbon, Le Verdon-sur-Mer[http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675032333_American-passengers-SS-Washington_staircase_ropes_ocean "American passengers boarding U.S. Ocean Liner SS Washington shortly before fall of France to Nazi Germany in World War II"], June 1940 (video archived at criticalpast.com) (near Bordeaux, France, 8 June) and Galway (12 June), encountered a German U-boat off the coast of Portugal on the morning of 11 June[http://www.usmm.org/washington.html "Ten minutes to abandon ship! SS Washington in Stand-Off With U-Boat!"], American Merchant Marine at War (accessed April 3, 2019). and arrived in New York on 21 June. Austrian jurist Hans Kelsen and his family embarked Washington in Lisbon on 1 June.Ehs, Tamara and Gassner, Miriam. [https://www.transatlanticperspectives.org/entry.php?rec=132 "Hans Kelsen (1881–1973) Legal scholar between Europe and the Americas"], University of Vienna (November 8, 2012). With the increasing danger from German submarines, Washington and Manhattan were shifted to the New York–San Francisco service via the Panama Canal.
Military career
{{main article|USS Mount Vernon (AP-22)}}
On 6 June 1941, Washington was requisitioned and leased by the US Navy, and was subsequently commissioned as the troopship {{USS|Mount Vernon|AP-22|6}}. The conversion was performed by the Philadelphia Navy Yard. In Navy service, Mount Vernon frequently sailed in company with the other United States Lines fast liners {{SS|Manhattan|1931|6}} (as {{USS|Wakefield|AP-21|6}}) and {{SS|America|1939|6}} (as {{USS|West Point|AP-23|6}}), most notably on a secret assignment carrying British troops to Singapore—a convoy mission which began a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
In January 1946, Mount Vernon was decommissioned and returned to the U.S. Maritime Commission, regaining the name Washington at that time. Her luxurious appointments had been carefully removed and stored, and she returned to commercial service in February 1947. Only one deck was restored to its pre-war standards, however, and the ship provided accommodations for 1106 passengers in a single class. United States Lines returned her to the U.S. government in October 1951, and the final phase of her career found her transporting soldiers and their families between New York and Bremerhaven. Laid up in reserve in the Hudson River in 1953, she was ultimately scrapped at Kearny, New Jersey in 1965.
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- Gibbs, C.R. Vernon (1957). Passenger Liners of the Western Ocean (2nd ed). London: Staples Press Limited. LCCN 57001880
- {{cite book|last=Marine_Engineering|title=Marine Engineering|year=1933|publisher=Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation}}
- New York Shipbuilding Corporation (1948). 50 Years: New York Shipbuilding Corporation. Camden:house publication
- Newell, Gordon (1963). Ocean Liners of the 20th Century (1st ed.). Seattle: Superior Publishing Company. LCCN 63-18494
External links
- [http://www.shippingwondersoftheworld.com/manhattan.html Shipping Wonders of the World (1937) of chapter on The Manhattan and the Washington (pages 678–682) is illustrated description of these ships.]
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