SS ''Washington'' was a 24,189-ton luxury liner of the

United States Lines United States Lines was the trade name of an organization of the United States Shipping Board (USSB), Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) created to operate German liners seized by the United States in 1917. The ships were owned by the USSB and al ...

, named after the US capital city. On 6 June 1941, the ''Washington'' was commissioned as the troopship USS Mount Vernon. 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

The ''Washington'' was ordered by Transatlantic Steamship Company and laid down on 20 January 1931 in Shipway O at

New York Shipbuilding The New York Shipbuilding Corporation (or New York Ship for short) was an American shipbuilding company that operated from 1899 to 1968, ultimately completing more than 500 vessels for the U.S. Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United ...

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the 20 ...

. By the time the vessel was launched on 20 August 1932, Transatlantic Steamship's assets had been acquired by

International Mercantile Marine The International Mercantile Marine Company, originally the International Navigation Company, was a trust formed in the early twentieth century as an attempt by J.P. Morgan to monopolize the shipping trade. IMM was founded by shipping magnate ...

, and the ''Washington'' went into service for the

following delivery on 2 May 1933. At the time of their construction, ''Washington'' and her sister ship , 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''. ''Washington'' and ''Manhattan'' were two of the few pure

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). C ...

s built by New York Shipbuilding, which had previously built a large number of

cargo liner A cargo liner, also known as a passenger-cargo ship or passenger-cargoman, is a type of merchant ship which carries general cargo and often passengers. They became common just after the middle of the 19th century, and eventually gave way to conta ...

s. 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. This was a substantial cost in a depression era and considered a gamble by men in the passenger liner business. The Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation provided various types of haskelite plywood for the two ships.

Commercial career

''Washington'' joined her sister ship ''Manhattan'' on the New York-

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

route, a route she continued to serve with only one short break until December 1939, when Roosevelt invoked the 1939 Neutrality Act against Germany. Both ships then moved to the New York-

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

run until June 1940, when the

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

was raging. Its last voyage from Europe to America, made specifically to repatriate US citizens, departed from Genoa, Lisbon, Le Verdon-sur-Mer (near

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture ...

, France, 8 June) and

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a city in the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay, and is the sixth most populous city ...

(12 June), encountered a German U-boat off the coast of Portugal on the morning of 11 June and arrived in New York on 21 June. Austrian jurist

Hans Kelsen Hans Kelsen (; ; October 11, 1881 – April 19, 1973) was an Austrian jurist, legal philosopher and political philosopher. He was the author of the 1920 Austrian Constitution, which to a very large degree is still valid today. Due to the ris ...

and his family embarked ''Washington'' in Lisbon on 1 June.Ehs, Tamara and Gassner, Miriam
"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

On 6 June 1941, ''Washington'' was requisitioned and leased by the US Navy, and was subsequently commissioned as the troopship USS ''Mount Vernon''. 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'' ( USS ''Wakefield'') and SS ''America'' ( USS ''West Point''), most notably on a secret assignment carrying British troops to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

—a convoy mission which began a month before

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

. In January 1946, ''Mount Vernon'' was decommissioned and returned to the

U.S. Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 195 ...

, 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 Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the R ...

. Laid up in reserve in the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

in 1953, she was ultimately scrapped at

Kearny, New Jersey Kearny ( ) is a town in the western part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States and a suburb of Newark. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 40,684,Shipping Wonders of the World (1937) of chapter on The ''Manhattan'' and the ''Washington'' (pages=678-682) is illustrated description of these ships.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington Ocean liners 1932 ships Ships of the United States Lines Ships built by New York Shipbuilding Corporation