Washington (ship, 1933)

Washington

Ship data flag  United States other ship names Mount Vernon (1941-1946) Ship type Passenger steamer , liner class America Class home port New York City Shipping company United States Lines Shipyard New York Shipbuilding , Camden, New Jersey building-costs 21 million US dollars Order May 24, 1930 Keel laying January 20, 1931 Launch August 20, 1932 Commissioning May 2, 1933 Decommissioning 1953 Removal from the ship register 1965 Whereabouts scrapped

Ship dimensions and crew length 214.96 m ( Lüa ) width 26.21 m measurement 24,289 GRT   crew 565

Machine system machine Parsons turbine Machine performance 30,000 PS (22,065 kW) Service speed 20.5 kn (38 km / h) propeller 2 propellers

Transport capacities Permitted number of passengers up to 1941: 750 cabin class 400 second class 150 third class from 1948: 1106 second class

Rigging and rigging Number of masts 2

The Washington was a turbine ship of the United States Lines .

history

The ship was built in 1932/33 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation and began its maiden voyage on May 10, 1933 in New York . This led via Southampton to Hamburg . During the Second World War , the Washington went to Bordeaux twice to bring Americans back to their homeland. Their trips to France ended with the signing of the neutrality pact. On January 13, 1940, the Washington and her sister ship Manhattan were supposed to start a passenger and cargo traffic between the USA and Italy ( Genoa and Naples ), which the Naval Commission had allowed, but after Italy had entered the war, this traffic also ended .

In 1940, the Washington almost was torpedoed by a German submarine off the Portuguese coast .

The Washington as Mount Vernon before San Francisco . Photo taken from a US Navy rigid airship .

After further voyages on behalf of the State Department , the Washington and her sister ship were taken over by the United States Navy . The Washington was used as a troop transport and drove to Manila in April 1941 . On July 16, 1941, it was named USS Mount Vernon (ID: AP-22), and on September 26, 1942, it was bought by the US government. A renovation followed. In 1945 she got her old name back, and on January 18, 1946 her service with the troops ended.

In the post-war period she drove on the New York-Southampton route. In 1948 the renovation was partially reversed. The ship now offered space for 1,106 passengers in the tourist class. In 1949 it was redesigned again. It operated between the USA and Europe until 1951; after that it was to be used again for military purposes. From 1953 it lay in the Hudson River ; on June 30, 1964 it was sold to Union Metals & Alloys in New York for demolition. The ship was scrapped by Lipsett Inc. in 1964.

The incident off Portugal

The Washington , which had American passengers on board, was stopped by a German submarine at 5 a.m. on June 11, 1940, 180 miles off the Portuguese coast . The crew and passengers were given ten minutes to leave the ship, after which it should be torpedoed. Captain Harry Manning let the people get into the boats and instructed his radio operator William O'Reilly to repeat the words american and Washington or american ship continuously with flashing signals to make it clear to the crew of the German submarine that the ship was not assigned belonged to the warring nations. This message was apparently not understood at first on the German ship, because it only repeated the instruction ten minutes . However, the flashing contact delayed the planned torpedoing until the visibility changed. The 1020 passengers and 570 crew were already in the boats when the submarine suddenly signaled at dawn: Thought you were another ship; please go on, go on! The fully-lit American liner had been mistaken for a Greek ship. As a precaution, Captain Manning left the people in the boats until the Washington was far enough away from the submarine. At 6.53 on the same day, the Washington had another encounter with a submarine, which was less dramatic. On June 12th it arrived undamaged in Galway , where more passengers boarded, and on June 21st in New York. There were 1,787 passengers on the overcrowded ship, including about 700 children. Harry Manning and his crew were later recognized for their level-headed behavior.

Known passengers

Thomas and Katia Mann embarked on June 29, 1938 in New York on the Washington , to return to Europe one last time before moving to the USA and to dissolve their household there.

Web links

• AP-22 Mount Vernon. In: NavSource Online. Retrieved on October 28, 2017 (English, pictures of the interior and report on the use as a troop transport). 
• Hoag Levins: New York Shipbuilding Corp. In: HistoricCamdenCounty.com. Retrieved on October 28, 2017 (English, picture from the smoking salon at the end of a text about the shipyard). 

Footnotes

1. ↑ Ten minutes to abandon ship! SS Washington Meets U-Boat. Retrieved October 28, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Thomas Mann: Sea trip with Don Quixote. S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 2002, ISBN 3-10-048513-0 , p. 51.