Built Blohm & Voss Hamburg, 1913 as VATERLAND
54,282 GRT
948 x 100 feet
Quadruple screw, 24 knots, turbines
752 first class, 535 second class, 850 third class, 1,772 passengers; 1,243 crew

The S.S. Vaterland, was built in Hamburg, Germany, as the second of three very large ships for the Hamburg-America Line’s trans-Atlantic route. Completed in the spring of 1914 she surpassed her slightly older near-sister, S.S. Imperator, as the World’s largest ship. Vaterland held this honor until 1922, when the last of the three big German liners, the 56,551 gross ton Bismarck, was delivered after a long delay and almost immediately became the British liner Majestic.

The three ships’ design emphasized luxury and comfort over speed, though their 23-knot service speed was fast enough for the North Atlantic trade. Vaterland had made only a few trips when, in late July 1914, she arrived at New York just as World War I broke out. With a safe return to Germany rendered virtually impossible by British dominance of the seas, she was laid up at her Hoboken, New Jersey, terminal, and remained immobile for nearly three years.

In April 1917, when the United States entered the war, Vaterland was seized and turned over to the U.S. Navy, which placed her in service later in the year under the name USS Leviathan. In October 1919, she was transferred to the U.S. Shipping Board and again laid up at Hoboken until plans for her future employment could be determined. These finally materialized and, in April 1922 the ship steamed to Newport News, Virginia, where she was completely refitted to suit American tastes and post-World War I standards.

As S.S. Leviathan, she was the “queen” of the United States’ merchant fleet, and operated in the trans-Atlantic trade into the early 1930s. She was not profitable, however, and, with the exception of several months of additional service in 1934, Leviathan was inactive until early 1938, when she made a final Atlantic crossing to Scotland, where she was broken up. No U.S. flag commercial ship approached her size until 1952, until the the S.S. United States was completed.