SS California (1928)

Artist's impression of the ship as SS Uruguay, 1938–41 or 1948–54
History
United States
Name:	SS California (1928–38) SS Uruguay (1938–1964)
Namesake:	California Uruguay
Owner:	American Line Steamship Corp (1928–38) US Maritime Commission (1938–64)
Operator:	Panama Pacific Line (1928–38) American Republics Line (1938–42) War Shipping Administration agents (1942–46) Moore-McCormack Line (1947–54)
Port of registry:	New York
Route:	New York – Havana – Panama Canal – Los Angeles – San Francisco (1928–37) New York – Barbados (outbound)/Trinidad (return) – Rio de Janeiro – Santos – Montevideo – Buenos Aires (1939–41, 1948–54)
Builder:	Newport News Shipbuilding
Yard number:	315
Launched:	1 October 1927
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Roland Palmedo
Completed:	January 1928
In service:	1928
Out of service:	29 March 1954
Renamed:	SS Uruguay in 1938
Refit:	1938, 1942, 1947
Homeport:	New York
Identification:	official number 227115 code letters MGRH (until 1933) call sign WMCM (from 1934)
Fate:	scrapped 1964
General characteristics
Type:	ocean liner (1928–38; 1946–54) troopship (1942–46)
Tonnage:	as California: 17,833 GRT, 9,511 NRT as Uruguay: 20,183 GRT, 11,743 NRT
Displacement:	as Uruguay: 32,450 tons
Length:	574.4 ft (175.1 m) p/p
Beam:	80.3 ft (24.5 m)
Depth:	20.5 ft (6.2 m)
Installed power:	2,833 NHP 17,000 shp
Propulsion:	turbo-electric transmission, twin screw
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h); record 19.95 knots (36.95 km/h) (1951)
Range:	3,300 nautical miles (6,100 km)
Capacity:	4,473 troops; 212,325 cubic feet (6,012 m3) cargo
Sensors and processing systems:	direction finding equipment; gyrocompass (from 1934)
Notes:	sister ships: SS Pennsylvania, SS Virginia

2,833 NHP

4,473 troops;

SS California was the World's first major ocean liner built with turbo-electric transmission. When launched in 1927 she was also the largest merchant ship yet built in the USA, although she was a modest size compared with the biggest European liners of her era.

In 1938 California was renamed SS Uruguay. From 1942 to 1946 she was operated through agents by the War Shipping Administration as the troopship Uruguay. She was returned to civilian service as SS Uruguay in 1948, laid up in 1954 and scrapped in 1964.

California was the first 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. California was launched on 1 October 1927 and delivered to American Line on 13 January 1928. Mrs. Roland Palmedo, wife of the businessman Roland Palmedo, sponsored the launch. California's sister SS Virginia was launched in 1928 and the third of the trio, Pennsylvania, was launched in 1929. All three sisters entered the fleet of American Lines' Panama Pacific Lines subsidiary.

California was a steamship, with oil-fired furnaces heating her boilers to power two steam turbo generators that ran at a constant 2,800 RPM. These supplied current to her 18-foot (5 m)-high electric propulsion motors, which had a combined rating of 2,833 NHP or 17,000 shp. The turbo-generators and propulsion motors were built by General Electric, which was the world pioneer of turbo-electric propulsion, having supplied the turbo-generators and electric motors for USS New Mexico, the World's first turbo-electric ship, a decade earlier.