Military Wiki
SS Musa
Career (Panama, Honduras)
Name: SS Musa
Owner:

Balboa Shipping Co. (1930– )[1][2]

Empressa Hondurena de Vapores (by 1964)[3]
Operator: United Fruit Company[1][2]
Port of registry:

Panama (1930– )[1][3]

Honduras (by 1964)[3]
Builder: Workman, Clark & Co, Belfast[1]
Completed: 1930[1][2]
Identification:

call sign HPCF (from 1934)[1]

General characteristics
Tonnage: 5,833 GRT[1][2]
tonnage under deck 5,016[1]
2,974 NRT[1]
Length: 416.4 ft (126.9 m)[1]
Beam: 56.3 ft (17.2 m)[1]
Depth: 30.9 ft (9.4 m)[1]
Propulsion: turbo-electric transmission,[2]
single screw[1]
Speed: 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h)[3]
Sensors and
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]

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. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 Lloyd's Register, Steamers & Motorships. London: Lloyd's Register. 1934. http://www.plimsollshipdata.org/pdffile.php?name=34b0589.pdf. Retrieved 22 May 2013. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Harnack 1938, p. 596.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Harnack 1964, p. 633.
  4. Lloyd's Register, Steamers & Motorships. London: Lloyd's Register. 1945. http://www.plimsollshipdata.org/pdffile.php?name=45a0743.pdf. Retrieved 22 May 2013. 
  5. Lloyd's Register, Steamers & Motorships. London: Lloyd's Register. 1934. http://www.plimsollshipdata.org/pdffile.php?name=34b0669.pdf. Retrieved 22 May 2013. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Roberts, Stephen S (15 September 2001). "Class: Pictor (AF-27)". U.S. Navy Auxiliary Vessels 1884–1945. http://www.shipscribe.com/usnaux/AF/AF27.html. Retrieved 23 May 2013. 

Sources[]

  • Harnack, Edwin P (1938) [1903]. All About Ships & Shipping (7th ed.). London: Faber and Faber. 
  • Harnack, Edwin P (1964) [1903]. All About Ships & Shipping (11th ed.). London: Faber and Faber. 
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