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SS ''Catalina'', also known as ''The Great White Steamer'', was a 301-foot steamship built in 1924 that provided passenger service on the 26-mile passage between Los Angeles and Santa Catalina Island from 1924 to 1975. According to the Steamship Historical Society of America, ''Catalina'' has carried more passengers than any other vessel anywhere. From August 25, 1942 until April 22, 1946 the ship served as the Army troop ferry U.S. Army ''FS-99'' at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation transporting more than 800,000 troops and other military personnel between embarkation camps and the departure piers. After a period of service as a floating discotheque, the ship ran aground on a sandbar in Ensenada Harbor in 1997 and remained there half-submerged and decaying for more than a decade. In January 2009 it was announced that the ship would be cut up for scrap, which has been completed. ==Design and construction== ''Catalina'' was constructed by the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock Company for the Wilmington Transportation Company which had long served Catalina Island and was purchased with the island by William Wrigley Jr., the chewing gum and confectionery magnate. The ship was to join the steamers , and ''Hermosa'' already serving the island and designed to make the trip from Los Angeles Harbor to Avalon of in one and a half hours. ''Catalina'' was designed as a twin screw steel steamer for daylight operation with a glass enclosed, except for open areas forward and aft, saloon deck with a ballroom with a promenade deck exclusively for passengers.〔 There were ten staterooms on the main deck and four staterooms plus an owners suite on the promenade deck.〔 The ship was in length overall, length between perpendiculars, beam moulded at the main deck, beam at the waterline with a mean draft of at load displacement of 2,390 tons.〔 The hull was double bottomed with tanks for fuel and water ballast with six transverse watertight bulkheads extending to the main deck.〔 A unique feature of the ship was the arrangement of the lifeboats which were stowed on the main deck in order to provide best arrangement for the passenger decks above and quick and efficient launching.〔 Propulsion was by two triple expansion steam engines with cylinders of , and with stroke of fed by four forced draft boilers and designed for 3,600 i.h.p. at 100 revolutions.〔 Two 40 kilowatt generators provided electrical power.〔 Keel laying for ''Catalina'' was on December 26, 1923, with launching on May 3, 1924 with company and Los Angeles city officials present and delivery on July 1, 1924.〔 The ship was reportedly built in at a cost of $1 million. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「SS Catalina」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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