9,739 grt; 13,554 dwt
Operated by CGT – Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (The French Line). Port of registry: Nantes
Built 1949 by Chantiers et Ateliers de St Nazaire (Penhoët), St Nazaire, France. Yard no. K11.
Propulsion: twin-screw with 2 x eight-cylinder, two-stroke Sulzer diesels (715 mm bore x 1,250 mm stroke). Total power 11,200 hp. Speed: 16.5 knots.
Sold September 1968 to Guan Guan Shipping (Pte) Ltd , Singapore, renamed GOLDEN SUMMER.
Scrapped Hsinkiang, China January 1974.
Photographed Gravesend 4th February, 1968 inward bound for London.
WASHINGTON was the lead ship in a quartet of cargo ships ordered in 1941, after the German occupation of France, for German owners. Her original intended name was OLINDA.
Due the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the French shipyard workers for building ships for the Germans, plus repeated allied bombing in the years 1942 to 1944, WASHINGTON, ex OLINDA wasn’t launched until March, 1947. Due to shortages of materials immediately after the war, it wasn’t until 1949 that the first two – WASHINGTON and WYOMING were finally delivered to CGT. WINNIPEG followed in 1950 but the intended fourth one was not built.