SS Kościuszko
SS Kościuszko entering the port of Gdynia
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| History | |
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 Poland
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| Name: | ORP Gdynia |
| Ordered: | 1914 |
| Launched: | 1915 |
| Commissioned: | 10 November 1939 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 June 1941 |
| Fate: | Sold, 1946; Scrapped, 1950 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: |
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| Length: | 138.80 m (455 ft 5 in) |
| Beam: | 16.20 m (53 ft 2 in) |
| Draft: | 7.42 m (24 ft 4 in) |
| Speed: | 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Capacity: | 712 passengers |
| Armament: |
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SS Kościuszko was a Polish passenger ship, named after Tadeusz Kościuszko. She was originally a liner Tsarina and later Lituania before becoming Kościuszko and afterwards Empire Helford.
The ship was ordered by the Russian American Line prior to the outbreak of World War I and was to serve as an ocean liner under the name SS Czaritza or Tsarina, operating with up to 1000 passengers between New York and Arkhangelsk. Launched in 1915 by Barclay, Curle & Co. Ltd., Glasgow, she served as a troop transport ship. Evacuated from Russia during the Russian Civil War, she was bought by Cunard Line in 1917 and was used as a troop transport between the United States and Europe and between Great Britain and Malta.
In 1920 she returned to Arkhangelsk, this time with the Allied expeditionary forces. In January 1921 she was bought by Danish Baltic-American Line and was renamed to SS Lituania.
She operated on various trans-oceanic lines, including a circulary Halifax-New York-Copenhagen-Gdańsk-Liepāja. In 1930 she was bought by the Polish Transatlantic Ship Association and renamed SS Kościuszko. She arrived at Gdynia on 8 June 1930 and on 20 June the Polish banner was raised. Initially with a mixed Polish-Danish crew, after 1931 the ship's was crew was entirely Polish. SS Kościuszko served on the Gdynia-Copenhagen-Halifax line, as well as a tourist ship for shorter cruises. In 1934 it came to Ellis Island-the website was wrong. In 1935 SS Kościuszko started to operate the Constanţa-Haifa line and in October 1936 on a line to South America. Rendered obsolete by the more modern MS Batory and MS Piłsudski, in early 1939 she was withdrawn from service.
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