SS Musa

Last updated
History
Panama, Honduras
NameSS Musa
Owner
  • Balboa Shipping Co. (1930– ) [1] [2]
  • Empressa Hondurena de Vapores (by 1964) [3]
Operator United Fruit Company flag.svg United Fruit Company [1] [2]
Port of registry
Builder Workman, Clark and Company, Belfast [1]
Completed1930 [1] [2]
Identification
General characteristics
Tonnage
Length416.4 ft (126.9 m) [1]
Beam56.3 ft (17.2 m) [1]
Depth30.9 ft (9.4 m) [1]
Propulsion
Speed15.5 knots (28.7 km/h) [3]
Sensors &
processing systems		 echo sounding device [1]
Notes sister ship: SS Platano

SS Musa was a refrigerated banana boat of the United Fruit Company. [1] She was built in 1930 and still in service in 1945. [4]

Contents

Building

Musa was built by Workman, Clark and Company of Belfast, Northern Ireland and completed in 1930. [1] United Fruit had a sister ship, SS Platano, built in the same year by Cammell Laird of Birkenhead, England. [5]

Musa had turbo-electric transmission built by British Thomson-Houston of Rugby, Warwickshire. [1] Her oil-fired boilers supplied steam to a turbo generator that fed current to a propulsion motor on her single propeller shaft. [1]

Career

Musa was owned by a United Fruit subsidiary, Balboa Shipping Co, Inc, which registered her under the Panamanian flag of convenience. [1] [2] In the Second World War the US War Shipping Administration allocated Musa and Platano to the United States Army Transportation Corps. [6]

On 18 February 1943 the Director of the Naval Transportation Service approved acquiring the two ships as United States Navy auxiliary ships and on 1 March the Auxiliary Vessels Board endorsed the decision. [6] Soon the plan was changed, with an older banana boat, SS Ulua, being substituted for Musa. [6] The Navy's acquisition of Platano was deferred and in May 1944 it was finally canceled. [6]

By 1964 United Fruit had transferred Platano from Balboa Shipping to another subsidiary, Empressa Hondurena de Vapores, which registered her under the Honduran flag of convenience. [3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Lloyd's Register, Steamers & Motorships (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1934. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Harnack 1938, p. 596.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Harnack 1964, p. 633.
  4. ↑ Lloyd's Register, Steamers & Motorships (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1945. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  5. ↑ Lloyd's Register, Steamers & Motorships (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1934. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Roberts, Stephen S (15 September 2001). "Class: Pictor (AF-27)". U.S. Navy Auxiliary Vessels 1884–1945. Retrieved 23 May 2013.

Sources

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