SS Pennsylvania was a combination ocean liner

Ocean liner

An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...

 and merchant ship built by Harland & Wolff, Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

and launched in 1896 for the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 Hamburg America Line

Hamburg America Line

The Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Actien Gesellschaft was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, Germany during...

 for the transatlantic trade, particularly German emigration to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. She took refuge in the United States upon the outbreak of the First World War and upon the U.S. joining hostilities was seized and renamed the SS Nansemond. She was briefly commissioned as in 1919,
following which she was laid up in the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...

 before scrapping in 1924.

Pennsylvania was the first in a four-ship "P class" built for the Hamburg America Line; the other ships were SS Pretoria

USS Pretoria (1897)

USS Pretoria was a United States Navy troop transport in commission in 1919.SS Pretoria, a sister ship of SS Graf Waldersee and SS Patricia, was built in 1897 as a commercial passenger ship at Hamburg, Germany, by Blohm + Voss for Hamburg-Amerikanische Paketfahrt A.G.. The U.S...

, and SS Patricia

USS Patricia (1899)

USS Patricia was a troop transport of the United States Navy immediately after World War I.She was originally the German steamship SS Patricia, a 14,446 gross ton passenger liner built in 1899 by Aktiengesellschaft Vulkan, Stettin, Germany, for the Hamburg-America Packet Steamship Company.-Service...

.

Rescue and accident

The Pennsylvania rescued the 13-man crew of the sinking barque

Barque

A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...

 Bothnia on September 24, 1902, while on March 8, 1910, near the mouth of the Elbe river, SS Pennsylvania rammed and sank the Hamburg-registered schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

 Gertrud, with the loss of five of the schooner's crew of six.

U.S. Navy service

SS Nansemond was commissioned on January 20, 1919, as USS Nansemond, ID # 1395. She made several voyages to Europe as a cargo carrier and troop transport, returning many servicemen to U.S. soil. The ship was decommissioned on September 16, 1919, and returned to the U.S. Shipping Board.

Laid up and scrapped

Following its service, the SS Nansemond was laid up in the lower Hudson River along with many other vessels of the U.S. Shipping Board; over 250 ships were laid up in Eastern estuary waters. Many of these ships were found to have been extensively vandalized during this period. The vessel was broken up in 1924, having seen no further service.