43" SS George Washington Display Wooden Ship Model

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 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—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.

HISTORY

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Development of steamboat navigation

In December 1835, the merchant Casimir Friedrich Knörr surprised the people of Lucerne with his announcement that he intended to found a steamboat company. The proud "Stadt Luzern" was the first steamboat to make its maiden voyage on 24 September 1837. The shipping guilds feared for their existence, however, and pressured the government officials from the canton of Uri into prohibiting the landing of the steamboat. After one year, a compromise was finally made. Thereafter, various other steamboat companies were founded, which led to strong competition between them and price cutting. In 1870, the two oldest companies merged to form the "United Steam Ship Company of Lake Lucerne". In 1885, the company name was changed to "Steamship Company of Lake Lucerne" (DGV). Subsequent to the two World Wars, when shipping was suspended, DGV generally experienced an upward swing. In 1960, the company was finally renamed "The Lucerne Navigation Company " (SGV).

Since 1931, nine diesel motor boats have been built and five paddle steamers, previously heated with coal, have been converted to oil-fired vessels in SGV’s own wharf. In 1972, the "Friends of Steamboat Navigation" association was formed. Since then, it has supported SGV financially and ideologically with the refurbishing of the steamboats. In 1997, SGV and Friends of the Steamboats celebrated the two anniversaries "160 Years of Steamboat Navigation" and "25 Years of Steamboat Friends" with an impressive steamboat parade".