SS Penelope Barker

SS Penelope Barker
Career (United States)
Name:	Penelope Barker
Namesake:	Penelope Barker
Builder:	North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, Wilmington, North Carolina
Yard number:	46
Way number:	1
Laid down:	28 October 1942
Launched:	1 December 1942
Fate:	sunk January 1944
General characteristics
Type:	Liberty ship
Tonnage:	7,000 long tons deadweight (DWT)
Length:	441 ft 6 in (134.57 m)
Beam:	56 ft 11 in (17.35 m)
Draft:	27 ft 9 in (8.46 m)
Propulsion:	Two oil-fired boilers Triple expansion steam engine Single screw 2,500 hp (1,864 kW)
Speed:	11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Capacity:	9,140 tons cargo
Complement:	41
Armament:	1 × Stern-mounted 4 in (100 mm) deck gun AA guns

SS Penelope Barker (MC contract 868) was a Liberty ship built in the United States during World War II. She was named after Penelope Barker, American Revolution activist and organizer of the Edenton Tea Party boycott in 1774.

The ship was laid down by North Carolina Shipbuilding Company in their Cape Fear River yard on October 28, 1942, then launched on December 1, 1942. Penelope Baker was operated by the North Atlantic and Gulf Steamship Company for the War Shipping Administration when she was struck by two torpedoes and sunk in the Barents Sea. Five men were killed and five men missing, the rest making it safely to a Russian port.