Builder : A.G. Vulkan, Stettin, Germany.
Completed : June 1909..
Gross tonnage: 25,570.
Dimensions: 723ft x 78ft. Depth 50ft.
Engines: Two four-cylinder, quadruple expansion.
Screws: Twin.
Watertight bulkheads: Twelve.
Decks: Six
Normal speed : 19 knots
Passenger accommodation: 568 first, 433 second and 1226 steerage.
Maiden voyage: Bremen–Southampton-Cherbourg–New York on June 12, 1909
The George Washington had a promenade deck 328ft long. Employed in the Bremen–Southampton–Cherbourg–New York run with a call at Plymouth eastbound in place of Southampton. In 1913 Mr Ferencz Vaszily purchased the ten-millionth ticket from the North German Lloyd on the George Washington and was given a special accommodation by the Line.
Interned at New York on June 9, 1914, and seized by the United States on April 4, 1917.
She was converted to a transport without a change in name. In 1919 she was used to carry President Wilson and his staff to
the Versailles Peace Conferences. Turned over to the United States Shipping Board in 1919 and managed by the United States Mail Line from August 1920 until August 31, 1921, when the company went bankrupt and she was released to the newly born US Lines.
Taken over by the British in 1940 and renamed Catlin in 1941 after having been laid up since September 1932 and converted to a transport.She proved unsatisfactory, however, being unable to steam more than an uncertain 11 knots. Later, one of her funnels was removed and, after new boilers had been fitted and the engines over hauled, she was again used for trooping. Returned to the United States the following year and recovered her own name. Sold for scrap in January 1951 after having been destroyed by fire at Baltimore on January 16.
SG R502 Sea Breezes 9/52 and North Atlantic Passenger Liners since 1900 by N T Cairis