SS Argentina (1929)

History
Artist's impression of SS Argentina, 1938–41 or 1948–58
United States
Name:	SS Pennsylvania (1929–38) SS Argentina (1938–64)
Namesake:	Pennsylvania Argentina
Owner:	American Line Steamship Corp (1929–38) US Maritime Commission (1938–64)
Operator:	Panama Pacific Line (1929–37) American Republics Line (1938–42, 1946–58) War Shipping Administration agents (1942–46)
Port of registry:	New York
Route:	New York – Havana – Panama Canal – Los Angeles – San Francisco (1929–37) New York – Barbados (outbound)/Trinidad (return) – Rio de Janeiro – Santos – Montevideo – Buenos Aires (1939–41, 1948–58)
Builder:	Newport News Shipbuilding
Yard number:	329
Launched:	10 October 1929
Completed:	1929
In service:	1929
Out of service:	5 August 1958
Renamed:	SS Argentina (1938)
Refit:	1938
Homeport:	New York
Identification:	official number 229044 code letters MHNR (until 1933) call sign WMDS (from 1934)
Fate:	scrapped 1964
General characteristics
Tonnage:	as Pennsylvania: 18,200 GRT, 9,702 NRT as Argentina: 20,614 GRT, 11,324 NRT
Length:	613 ft (187 m) o/a 586.4 ft (178.7 m) p/p
Beam:	80.3 ft (24.5 m)
Depth:	20.5 ft (6.2 m)
Propulsion:	turbo-electric transmission, twin screw
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h)
Capacity:	as built: 184 first class & 365 tourist class passengers; after 1938 re-fit: 500 passengers; after 1946–47 re-fit: 359 first class and 160 cabin class cargo: 450,000 pounds (200 tonnes), with 95,000 pounds (43 tonnes) refrigerated
Crew:	as built: 350; after 1938 re-fit: 380
Sensors and processing systems:	direction finding equipment; gyrocompass (from 1934)
Notes:	sister ships: SS California, SS Virginia

SS Argentina was a US turbo-electric ocean liner. She was completed in 1929 as SS Pennsylvania, and refitted and renamed as SS Argentina in 1938. From 1942 to 1946 she was the War Shipping Administration operated troopship Argentina. She was laid up in 1958 and scrapped in 1964.

Pennsylvania was the last of three sister ships built by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Newport News, Virginia for the American Line Steamship Corporation, which at the time was part of J. P. Morgan's International Mercantile Marine Co. Pennsylvania was launched on 10 October 1929. She joined SS California (launched in 1927) and SS Virginia (launched in 1928) in the fleet of American Lines' Panama Pacific Lines subsidiary.

Pennsylvania was a steamship, with oil-fired furnaces heating her boilers to power two General Electric steam turbo generators supplying current for her electric propulsion motors.

Pennsylvania was equipped with submarine signalling apparatus and wireless direction finding equipment, and from about 1934 she was equipped with a gyrocompass.

Some of Pennsylvania's first class cabins had en suite bathrooms.

With Panama Pacific Lines, Pennsylvania's two funnels would have been red with a blue top, with a white band dividing the blue from the red.

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