SS Mongolia was a steam turbine-driven twin-screw passenger-and-cargo ocean liner launched in 1922 for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) for service from the United Kingdom to Australia. Later in P&O service she sailed for New Zealand, and in 1938 she was chartered to a P&O subsidiary, the New Zealand Shipping Company, as SS Rimutaka. In 1950 she was sold to become the SS Europa, carrying immigrants to the United States from Europe; later, she became a Bahamas cruise ship, the SS Nassau. Its final incarnation was under a Mexican flag as a Los Angeles to Acapulco cruise liner, SS Acapulco, making her the only ocean liner to ever fly the Mexican flag. The ship was scrapped in 1964.[2]
Mongolia, 1922–1938
The P&O ordered Mongolia from Sir W G Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. Ltd. of Newcastle upon Tyne on 22 November 1918, but construction was delayed by postwar refits of existing ships and she was not launched until 24 August 1922. After fitting out and sea trials the Mongolia was delivered to P&O on 26 April 1923. The ship cost an estimated £1 million.[1]