SS ''Washington'' was a 24,189-ton luxury

liner A low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER) is a type of galactic nucleus that is defined by its spectral line emission. The spectra typically include line emission from weakly ionized or neutral atoms, such as O, O+, N+, and S+. ...

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 all ...

, 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 2020 ...

. 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 magnates ...

, 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). Ca ...

s 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. This was a substantial cost in a depression era and considered a gamble by men in the passenger liner business. The

Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation (19171956) was a conglomerate of Michiganbased companies. It was located on Broadway Avenue in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They manufactured haskelite plywood for a wide variety of applications and vehicles. T ...

provided various types of

haskelite Haskelite is the brand name of a plywood, once made by the Michigan-based Haskelite Manufacturing Corporation. It was made from waterproof glue developed by Henry L. Haskell. The moldable plywood was originally called Ser-O-Ply. It was used in ...

plywood for the two ships.

Commercial career

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

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

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 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 the 2011 Italian ce ...

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 Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

Le Verdon-sur-Mer Le Verdon-sur-Mer (, literally ''Le Verdon on Sea'') is a commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Population See also *Communes of the Gironde department The following is a list of the 535 communes o ...

(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 prefectur ...

, France, 8 June) and

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

(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 rise ...

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 Re ...

. 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 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 Riv ...

. 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 N ...

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