USS Mount Vernon ( AP - 22 ) USS " Mount Vernon " ( AP - 22 ) was a troop transport that served with the United States Navy during World War II . Prior to her military service , she was a luxury ocean liner named SS " Washington " . " Washington " was launched in May 1933 by the New York Shipbuilding Company of Camden , New Jersey , and operated as a passenger liner from New York City to Plymouth , England , and Hamburg , Germany . Renamed " Mount Vernon " 6 June 1941 , the liner was acquired by the Navy 16 June 1941 and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard the same day , Captain Donald B . Beary in command . Converted for naval use by Philadelphia Navy Yard , " Mount Vernon " trained along the east coast while mounting tension in the Far East drew the United States toward participation in World War II . In the fall , the new transport joined a convoy at Halifax , Nova Scotia , and sailed for Cape Town , South Africa . As " Mount Vernon " steamed toward Cape Horn , word arrived that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor . World War II . The transport , part of convoy DM . 1 , reached Singapore 13 January 1942 . Here she debarked British and Canadian troops , watched dogfights between Japanese and British planes over the city , and underwent an air attack before sailing 16 January for Aden , where she embarked Australian veterans of the Mediterranean Theatre for transportation to Ceylon and Fremantle . " Mount Vernon " was the lead ship in Operation Stepsister , the movement of Australian troops from North Africa and the Middle East to Southeast Asia , the Dutch East Indies and Australia in response to war in the Pacific , and was carrying 4 , 668 of those troops in waters south of the Dutch East Indies even as allied naval forces were withdrawing in the face of Japanese attacks . On 9 March " Mount Vernon " delivered the returning Australian Imperial Force ( A . I . F . ) troops to Adelaide . In Australia she embarked civilian and military escapees from the Philippines , including Mrs . F . E . Sayre , wife of the U . S . High Commissioner to the Philippines and daughter of President Woodrow Wilson , and naval survivors from ships sunk in the Battle of Makassar Strait . After calls in Adelaide , South Australia and Wellington , New Zealand , " Mount Vernon " sailed for San Francisco , arriving 31 March . For the next two years , " Mount Vernon " plied from San Francisco to ports in Australia , New Zealand , New Caledonia , and Hawaii , carrying the soldiers , marines , and sailors who would build the bases , then fight from them , bringing the ultimate victory over Japan . Her last such voyage began from San Francisco 21 February 1944 . Steaming via Melbourne , she proceeded to Bombay , India , to debark Army personnel . She returned to Melbourne , and sailed for Boston by way of the Panama Canal , arriving 22 May . On 4 June 1944 , " Mount Vernon " began a series of voyages to British Isles ports and the Mediterranean , carrying men for the massive buildup on the European continent which would bring Germany to her knees . Her crossings continued after the war , as she carried occupation troops over and brought veterans home . Decommissioning . Returning from the last voyage 3 January 1946 , " Mount Vernon " decommissioned 18 January 1946 , was delivered to the Maritime Commission , and again named " Washington " . She was struck from the Naval Register in 1959 and sold for scrap in 1965 .