SS George Washington SS " George Washington was an ocean liner built in 1908 for the Bremen - based North German Lloyd and was named after George Washington , the first President of the United States . The ship was also known as USS " George Washington " ( ID - 3018 ) and USAT " George Washington in service of the United States Navy and United States Army , respectively , during World War I . In the interwar period , she reverted to her original name of SS " George Washington " . During World War II , the ship was known as both USAT " George Washington " and , briefly , as USS " Catlin " ( AP - 19 ) , in a short , second stint in the U . S . Navy . When " George Washington " was launched in 1908 , she was the largest German - built steamship and the third - largest ship in the world . " George Washington " was built to emphasize comfort over speed and was sumptuously appointed in her first - class passenger areas . The ship could carry a total of 2 , 900 passengers , and made her maiden voyage in January 1909 to New York . In June 1911 , " George Washington " was the largest ship to participate in the Coronation Fleet Review by the United Kingdom ' s newly crowned king , George V . On 14 April 1912 , " George Washington " passed a particularly large iceberg south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and radioed a warning to all ships in the area , including White Star Line ocean liner , which sank near the same location . Throughout her German passenger career , contemporary news accounts often reported on notable persons — typically actors , singers , and politicians — who sailed on " George Washington " . At the outbreak of World War I , " George Washington " was interned by the then - neutral United States , until that country entered into the conflict in April 1917 . " George Washington " was seized by the United States and taken over for use as a troop transport by the U . S . Navy . Commissioned as USS " George Washington " ( ID - 3018 ) , she sailed with her first load of American troops in December 1917 . In total , she carried 48 , 000 passengers to France , and returned 34 , 000 to the United States after the Armistice . " George Washington " also carried U . S . President Woodrow Wilson to France twice for the Paris Peace Conference . " George Washington " was decommissioned in 1920 and handed over the United States Shipping Board ( USSB ) , who reconditioned her for passenger service . SS " George Washington " sailed in transatlantic passenger service for both the United States Mail Steamship Company ( one voyage ) and United States Lines for ten years , before she was laid up in the Patuxent River in Maryland in 1931 . During World War II , the ship was re - commissioned by the U . S . Navy as USS " Catlin " ( AP - 19 ) for about six months and was operated by the British under Lend - Lease , but her old coal - fired engines were too slow for effective combat use . After conversion to oil - fired boilers , the ship was chartered to the U . S . Army as USAT " George Washington " and sailed around the world in 1943 in trooping duties . The ship sailed in regular service to the United Kingdom and the Mediterranean from 1944 to 1947 , and was laid up in Baltimore after ending her Army service . A fire in January 1951 damaged the ship severely , and she was sold for scrapping the following month . Design and construction . SS " George Washington " was an ocean liner built in within two years ( 1907 – 1908 ) by AG Vulcan of Stettin , Germany ( present - day Szczecin , Poland ) , for North German Lloyd ( or NDL ) . Intended for Bremen – New York passenger service , the ship was named after George Washington , the first President of the United States as a way to make the ship more appealing to immigrants , who then made up the majority of transatlantic passengers and believed formalities on arrival would be easier on a ship with an American name . " George Washington " was launched on 10 November 1908 by the United States Ambassador to Germany , David Jayne Hill . At the time of her launch , she was the third - largest ocean liner in the world , behind only Cunard Line ships and . " George Washington " also became the largest German - built steamship , surpassing the Hamburg America Line ' s , and held that distinction until the 1913 launch of Hamburg America ' s . After " George Washington " was completed , she was reported in contemporary news accounts as being , though present - day sources agree on a figure of . Her displacement was reported as being approximately , more than twice the 18420 t displacement of the British battleship . She was powered by two quadruple - expansion steam engine s that generated and propelled her considerably faster than the guaranteed by her builders . Because she was designed to emphasize comfort over speed , " George Washington " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s engines consumed an economical of coal daily , or about one - third as much as the Cunard speedsters " Lusitania " and " Mauretania " . By using less coal , and , consequently , needing less space to carry it , the liner was able to carry up to of cargo . The liner also featured the Stone - Lloyd system of hydraulically operated bulkhead doors for her thirteen watertight compartments . " George Washington " had accommodations for nearly 2 , 900 passengers , with 900 divided between first and second class and the balance as third class or steerage . The ship had only eight decks rather than a more typical nine , which gave her passenger accommodations a spacious feel . The first - class passenger section included 31 cabins with attached baths , and the liner ' s imperial suites were designed by German architect Rudolf Alexander Schröder . The second - class , third - class , and steerage compartments were fitted out in a " comfortable manner " suitable for each class . The first class public rooms were " sumptuously appointed " , and included murals by German fresco artist Otto Bollhagen that commemorated the life and times of George Washington . First - class passengers could visit a separate lounge , a reading room decorated by Bruno Paul , a two - story smoking room , and their own dining room that spanned the width of the ship . The upper and lower floors of the smoking room were joined by a broad staircase which helped , according to a report in " The New York Times " , make it " one of the most attractive parts " of the first - class areas . The dining saloon seated 350 diners at small tables designed for between two and six diners in " roomy and moveable " red Morocco chairs . The dining room was decorated in white and gold , with a gilded dome rising above , while its walls featured floral designs executed against a blue background . Other first - class passenger amenities aboard " George Washington " included a gymnasium with machines for " Swedish exercises " , and two electric elevators for those who didn ' t want to exercise at all . There was also a darkroom open to amateur photographers ; 20 dog kennels , along with a kennel master ; a solarium decorated with green and gold tapestry , palms , and flowers of all kinds ; and an open air cafe on the awning deck for taking after - dinner coffee . Second - class passengers had a separate dining room , a drawing room , and a smoking room , and third - class passengers had similar amenities . North German Lloyd passenger service . " George Washington " began her maiden voyage on 12 June 1909 , sailing from Bremen to New York via Southampton and Cherbourg . On board were 1 , 169 passengers which included a German press contingent ; Philipp Heineken , the " Generaldirektor " of North German Lloyd ; and a chimpanzee named Consul , billed as " his Darwinian Highness " , the " Almost Monkey - Man " , who was coming to America under contract for the William Morris Vaudeville circuit . Upon her arrival in New York on 20 June , " George Washington " was greeted by the unfurling of the official banner of the League of Peace from the Singer Building , and docked at 18 : 30 at the North German Lloyd piers in Hoboken , New Jersey . Coincidentally , , an ocean liner of the unrelated Austro - American Line , was in port when " George Washington " docked in New York for the first time . On 22 June , the liner hosted a press luncheon , and , the next afternoon , hosted some 3 , 000 members of the Daughters of the American Revolution who presented a commemorative bronze tablet . Stewart L . Woodford , a former Congressman and ambassador , spoke at the ceremony dedicating the tablet , which was placed at the base of the staircase in the first - class smoking room . Beginning 24 June , the North German Lloyd opened " George Washington " to the public for five days of viewing of the new ship . Sailing on her first eastbound journey on 1 July , " George Washington " commenced regular service between Bremen and New York with intermediate stops in Southampton and Cherbourg . North German Lloyd considered the " Washington " , as her crew affectionately called her , such a success that they soon ordered another liner of similar , but slightly larger , size . On 24 June 1911 , " George Washington " participated in the Coronation Fleet Review by the United Kingdom ' s newly crowned king , George V . Stationed at the head of the second row of merchant ships , " George Washington " — full dress ed for the occasion — was reported by " The Times " as " by far the largest ship present " . While headed to New York on the morning of 14 April 1912 , crew aboard " George Washington " observed a large iceberg as the ship passed south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland . By noon the ship passed within a half mile ( 900 m ) of the iceberg , estimated by the crew at above the waterline and long . After recording the ship ' s position , " George Washington " radioed a warning to all ships in the area . The White Star steamship , some east of " George Washington " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s position , acknowledged receipt of the warning , one of several her radio operators received . On 15 April , " George Washington " received garbled transmissions that informed that " Titanic " had struck an iceberg less than twelve hours later , and in nearly the same position as the one that " George Washington " had reported . Edwin Drechsel , in his 2 - volume chronicle of North German Lloyd , draws comparisons between the iceberg photographed by " George Washington " ( and first published in his book ) , and a taken from the Hamburg America Line ship , purportedly of the " Titanic " iceberg . Drechsel suggests that the iceberg photographed and reported by " George Washington " may have been one and the same . Notable passengers . Throughout her Lloyd transatlantic career " George Washington " carried some notable and interesting passengers to and from Europe . In August 1909 Sigmund Freud sailed from Bremen bound for New York on his one and only trip to the US . He was accompanied by his colleagues Carl Jung and Sándor Ferenczi . In February 1910 , banker Edgar Speyer , a Privy Counsellor appointed by Edward VII of the United Kingdom , arrived for a visit to the United States . Prince Tsai Tao , the uncle of the Emperor of China , departed in one of " George Washington " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s imperial suites after a four - day visit to New York in May ; the flew from the mainmast in his honor as the ship departed . In October , Henry W . Taft , brother of U . S . President William Howard Taft returned from a visit to Europe . In December , disgraced Arctic explorer Frederick Cook arrived on the liner ; conflicting opinions on the veracity of his claims of reaching the North Pole nearly caused a fight to erupt on board . On the same voyage as Cook , German actor Ernst von Possart arrived for his first stage performances in New York in over 20 years . Composer Engelbert Humperdinck , after attending the debut of his opera " Königskinder " at the Metropolitan Opera , sailed on " George Washington " in early January 1911 in order to attend the opera ' s Berlin premiere . American sculptor George Grey Barnard returned to New York in April amidst controversy over some of his works . An organization called the National Society for Protection of Morals was protesting the presence of nude figures in sculptures he executed for the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg . July saw " George Washington " transporting a menagerie of sorts . The liner was carrying a shipment from India of 6 white peacocks , 2 lions , 2 elephants , 150 monkeys , and some 2 , 000 canaries destined for the recently organized Saint Louis Zoological Park . In August , two men of note — both headed for Berlin — sailed on " George Washington " . Nathan Straus , co - owner with his brother Isidor of R . H . Macy & Company , sailed as the U . S . delegate to the third world congress for the protection of infants held in Berlin . Congressman Richard Bartholdt , charged by President Taft to deliver a statue of Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben to the German government , sailed with the statue , which was a gift from the American people . Financier and philanthropist J . P . Morgan , Jr . returned from a two - month trip to Europe in November 1912 ; his wife followed him home the next month . Also arriving on " George Washington " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s November crossing was Mary Garden , a Scottish - born soprano , who was returning from a sabbatical in Scotland . The next month , opera singers Frieda Hempel and Leon Rains , both headed for appearances with the Metropolitan Opera , arrived on the same voyage as Mrs . Morgan . Hempel , a German soprano , was with the Berlin Royal Opera , and American tenor Rains was with the Saxon Royal Opera of Dresden . Newlyweds Francis B . Sayre , an assistant district attorney in New York , and Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre , the daughter of U . S . President Woodrow Wilson , sailed in November 1913 for a European honeymoon . The couple , wed at the White House , traveled in one of " George Washington " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s imperial suites . The following January , English playwright W . Somerset Maugham quietly slipped out of New York on " George Washington " . Maugham had arrived in New York in mid November to see Billie Burke in the New York premiere of his play , " The Land of Promise " . World War I . " George Washington " continued operating on the Bremen – New York route until World War I when she sought refuge in New York , a neutral port in 1914 . With the American entry into the war in 1917 , " George Washington " was taken over 6 April and towed to the New York Navy Yard for conversion into a transport . She commissioned 6 September 1917 , with Captain Edwin T . Pollock in command . " George Washington " sailed with her first load of troops 4 December 1917 and during the next 2 years made 18 round trip voyages in support of the American Expeditionary Forces . During this period she also made several special voyages . President Woodrow Wilson and the American representatives to the Paris Peace Conference sailed for Europe in " George Washington " 4 December 1918 . On this crossing she was protected by , and was escorted into Brest , France , 13 December by ten battleship s and twenty - eight of destroyer s in an impressive demonstration of American naval strength . After carrying 4000 soldiers back home to the U . S . , " George Washington " carried Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt and the Chinese and Mexican peace commissions to France in January 1919 . On 24 February , she returned President Wilson to the United States . The President again embarked on board " George Washington " in March 1919 ; arriving France 13 March , and ( see picture ) returned at the conclusion of the historic conference 8 July 1919 . During the fall of 1919 , " George Washington " carried another group of distinguished passengers — King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of Belgium and their party . Arriving New York 2 October , the royal couple paid a visit before returning to Brest 12 November . Subsequently , the ship was decommissioned 28 November 1919 after having transported some 48 , 000 passengers to Europe and 34 , 000 back to the United States . The ship was turned over to the United States Shipping Board on 28 January 1920 . " The Hatchet " newspaper . Started in February 1918 ; as a means to relieve the stress the troops , sailors , and officers were under aboard a ship in the danger zone ; it was written by officers who had previous literary experience and produced by men who had printing and publishing experience . It was printed on a small hand press – 5 , 000 copies with the first issue but this was increased to 7 , 000 – and titled " The Hatchet " ( a reference to the tale about George Washington and the cherry tree ) . News from the ship and news received by radio were in the single - sheet newspaper . The masthead in 1919 listed the ship chaplain as managing editor and three reporters — one each from the Associated Press , International News Service and the United Press as " associate editors " . The newspaper pages , printed on a shipboard press , measured about . The newspaper ' s motto : " We Cannot Tell a Lie " . Its front page claimed it had " The Largest Circulation On The Atlantic Ocean " . Interwar passenger service . After her delivery to the United States Shipping Board ( USSB ) , " George Washington " was used to transport 250 members of the American Legion to France as guests of the French Government in 1921 . The vessel was then reconditioned by USSB for transatlantic service , and chartered by the U . S . Mail Steamship Company , for whom she made one voyage to Europe in March 1921 . The company was taken over by the government August 1921 and its name changed to the United States Lines . " George Washington " served the Line on the transatlantic route until 1931 when she was laid up in the Patuxent River , Maryland . World War II . " George Washington " was reacquired for Navy use from the United States Maritime Commission on 28 January 1941 and commissioned as USS " Catlin " ( AP - 19 ) on 13 March 1941 . She was named in honor of Brigadier General Albertus W . Catlin , USMC . It was found , however , that the coal - burning engines did not give the required speed for protection against submarine s , and she was decommissioned on 26 September 1941 . Because of their great need for ships in 1941 , Great Britain took the ship over under Lend - Lease on 29 September 1941 as " George Washington " , but they found after one voyage to Newfoundland that her aging boilers could not safely maintain sufficient steam pressure to drive her otherwise servicable engines . A secondary contributing factor was the difficulty in manning her with sufficient skilled stokers – the role having been supplanted with the steady introduction of oil fired ships in the 1930s . With the ship unfit for combat service the British returned her to the War Shipping Administration ( WSA ) on 17 April 1942 . The ship was next operated under General Agency Agreement by the Waterman Steamship Co . , Mobile , Alabama , and made a voyage to Panama . After her return on 5 September 1942 the WSA assigned " George Washington " to be converted to an oil - burner at Todd Shipbuilding ' s Brooklyn Yard . When she emerged on 17 April 1943 , the transport was chartered by the United States Army and made a voyage to Casablanca and back to New York with troops between April and May 1943 . In July , " George Washington " sailed from New York to the Panama Canal , thence to Los Angeles and Brisbane , Australia . Returning to Los Angeles , she sailed again in September to Bombay and Cape Town , and arrived at New York to complete her round - the - world voyage in December 1943 . In January 1944 " George Washington " began regular service to the United Kingdom and the Mediterranean , again carrying troops in support of the Allies in Europe from . She made frequent stops at Le Havre , Southampton , and Liverpool . " George Washington " was taken out of service and returned to the Maritime Commission 21 April 1947 . She remained tied to a pier at Baltimore , until a fire damaged her 16 January 1951 . She was subsequently sold for scrap to the Boston Metals Corporation of Baltimore on 13 February 1951 .