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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 the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and radioed a warning to all ships in the area, including White Star Line ocean liner Titanic, which sank near the same location. Throughout her German passenger career, contemporary news accounts often reported on notable persons—typically actors, singers, and politicians—that 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 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 1908 by AG Vulcan of Stettin, Germany (present-day Szczecin, Poland), for North German Lloyd (German: Norddeutscher 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 Lusitania and Mauretania. George Washington also became the largest German-built steamship, surpassing the Hamburg America Line's Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, and held that distinction until the 1913 launch of Hamburg America's Vaterland.

After George Washington was completed, she was reported in contemporary news accounts as being 27,000 gross register tons (GRT), though present-day sources agree on a figure of 25,570 GRT. Her displacement was reported as being approximately 37,000 long tons (38,000 t), more than twice the 18420 t displacement of the British battleship Dreadnought. She was powered by two quadruple-expansion steam engines that generated 20,000 horsepower (15,000 kW) and propelled her considerably faster than the 18.5 knots (34.3 km/h) guaranteed by her builders. Because she was designed to emphasize comfort over speed, George Washington's engines consumed an economical 350 long tons (360 t) 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 13,000 long tons (13,000 t) 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 70-by-50-foot (21 m × 15 m) 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, Martha Washington, 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 King

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