SS Leviathan

SS Leviathan steaming out of New York Harbor, circa the mid-1920s.
History
Germany
Name:	Vaterland
Owner:	HAPAG Line
Port of registry:	Germany 1911–1917
Builder:	Blohm & Voss at Hamburg, Germany
Launched:	3 April 1913
Maiden voyage:	14 May 1914
In service:	14 May 1914-July 1914
Out of service:	July 1914 to 6 April 1917
Fate:	Seized by the United States to be used in the US Navy.
United States
Name:	USS Leviathan
Owner:	United States
Acquired:	6 April 1917
Commissioned:	July 1917
Decommissioned:	29 October 1919
Notes:	Used as a troop ship during World War I
United States
Name:	SS Leviathan
Owner:	United States Lines
Port of registry:	New York
Acquired:	29 October 1919
In service:	June 1923 to 1933, some service in 1934
Out of service:	1933 to 1937
Fate:	Sold for scrapping and broken up 6 June 1938
General characteristics
Class and type:	Imperator class ocean liner
Tonnage:	54,282 gross tons
Length:	950 ft (289.6 m)
Beam:	100 ft 4 in (30.6 m)
Draft:	37 ft 9 in (11,51 m)
Speed:	26 knots (30 mph)
Capacity:	1,165 as originally configured 14,000 as a troop transport
Armament:	World War I Navy Service: 8 × 6 in 2 × 1-pounder gun 2 × machine gun

SS Leviathan, originally built as Vaterland, was an ocean liner which regularly crossed the North Atlantic from 1914 to 1934. The second of three sister ships built for Germany's Hamburg America Line for their transatlantic passenger service, she sailed as Vaterland for less than a year before her early career was halted by the start of World War I. In 1917, she was seized by the U.S. government and renamed Leviathan. She would become known by this name for the majority of her career, both as a troopship during World War I and later as the flagship of the United States Lines.

SS Vaterland, a 54,282 gross ton passenger liner, was built by Blohm & Voss at Hamburg, Germany, as the second of a trio of very large ships of Imperator class for the Hamburg-America Line's trans-Atlantic route. She was launched 3 April 1913 and was the largest passenger ship in the world upon her completion, superseding SS Imperator, but later being superseded in turn by the last ship of this class, SS Bismarck, later the RMS Majestic.

Vaterland had made only a few trips when, in late July 1914, she arrived at New York City just as World War I broke out. With a safe return to Germany rendered questionable by British dominance of the seas, she was laid up at her Hoboken, NJ, terminal and remained immobile for nearly three years.

She was seized by the United States Shipping Board when the United States entered World War I, 6 April 1917; turned over to the custody of the U.S. Navy in June 1917; and commissioned July 1917 as the USS Vaterland, Captain Joseph Wallace Oman in command. Redesignated SP-1326 and renamed Leviathan by President Woodrow Wilson on 6 September 1917.