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''Great Northern'' was a passenger ship built at Philadelphia by William Cramp & Sons under supervision of the Great Northern Pacific Steam Ship Company for the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Company, itself a joint venture of the Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railway. ''Great Northern'', along with sister ship , were built to provide a passenger and freight link by sea between the northern transcontinental rail lines via the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway terminal at Astoria, Oregon and San Francisco beginning in spring of 1915. The ship was acquired for military service in September 1917 and served as USS ''Great Northern'' (AG-9), USAT ''Great Northern'' and USS ''Columbia'' before returning to commercial Pacific Coast service as ''H. F. Alexander''. In 1942 the ship was acquired by the War Shipping Administration and again became an Army transport, USAT ''George S. Simonds''. After layup in the reserve fleet 5 March 1946 the ship was sold to Boston Metals Company on 25 February 1948 for scrapping. ==Construction and design== ''Great Northern'' and sister ship ''Northern Pacific'' were built by William Cramp & Sons for the Great Northern Pacific Steam Ship Company, Astoria, Oregon to the order of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Company to serve between Astoria and San Francisco. The Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway line itself was a joint venture between the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway that would give two ships their names. Contracts for both ships were let on 26 April 1913 with keel laying for ''Great Northern'' on 22 September 1913 and launch on 7 July 1914 with service due to start in March 1915. Both ships were designed for 856 passengers and 2,185 tons of freight with a 23 knot speed making possible the run between the ports in 25—26 hours, equal to the time for an overland route, under favorable conditions and thus allowing direct service to San Francisco from the east using the two northern rail lines. Both ships were classed A100 according to British Lloyds and met the latest requirements of the United States Steamboat Inspection Service. Design specifications were for a ship with length over all, length between perpendiculars, beam, full load draft, depth molded to A deck with and approximately 200,000 cubic feet of cargo space. The 856 passenger capacity was broken down into 550 first class, 108 second class and 198 third class served by a crew of 198. The double bottomed hull was divided into eleven watertight compartments with ten extending to the bottom of the second deck above full load waterline. Twelve Babcock & Wilcox water tube boilers provided steam for Parsons turbines on three shafts with a requirement that the 23 knot speed be available with steam from only ten boilers. One high pressure turbine long with diameter rotor drum with four stages of expansion and two low pressure turbines, with integrated astern and each long with ahead and astern diameter rotor drums, develop about 25,000 shaft horsepower at 325 revolutions. Four 35 kilowatt, 110 volt steam driven Diehl Manufacturing Company generators provided electric power for lighting and auxiliary electric machinery. 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 Great Northern (1914)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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