SS California was the World's first major ocean liner built with turbo-electric transmission. When launched in 1927 she was also the largest merchant ship yet built in the US, 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.