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SS ''California'' was the World's first major ocean liner built with turbo-electric transmission. When 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. ==Building== ''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 and the third of the trio, ''Pennsylvania'', was .〔 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 -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 , the World's first turbo-electric ship, a decade earlier. ''California'' was equipped with submarine signalling apparatus and wireless direction finding〔 equipment, and from about 1934 she was equipped with a gyrocompass.〔 ''California''s first class accommodation was air conditioned and some first class cabins had ''en suite'' bathrooms.〔 With Panama Pacific Lines, ''California''s two funnels would have been red with a blue top, with a white band dividing the blue from the red. 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 California (1928)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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