SS Manoa
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 Manoa in 1928 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United States | |
| Name | Manoa |
| Owner | Matson Navigation Company |
| Port of registry | San Francisco, later Vladivostok |
| Builder | Newport News Shipbuilding |
| Launched | November 1, 1913 |
| Completed | December 13, 1913 |
| Maiden voyage | March 1, 1914[1] |
| Out of service | 1969 |
| Renamed | Balkhash (1942)[2] |
| Identification | US official number 211832 |
| Fate | Scrapped in Vladivostok, USSR (1975);[2] possibly repair base afterward |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 6,805 GRT (1913) |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 54.0 ft (16.5 m) |
| Depth | 33.3 ft (10.1 m) |
| Decks | Bridge (officer's quarters), Promenade (10 deluxe passenger cabins), Main (20 passenger cabins) |
| Propulsion | Steam quadruple expansion, reciprocating steam engine, single screw[3] |
| Capacity | 90 passengers |
SS Manoa was an American freight and passenger steamship that sailed for the Matson Line from San Francisco to Hawaii.[4] Unusual for her time, her engines and funnel were aft, minimizing vibration felt by the passengers and soot on deck.[5] The aft design was considered ugly by passenger ship purists.[6]
After the Attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, she was put into military service and transferred to the Soviet Union under terms of Lend-Lease. They renamed her Balkhash. She was used to transfer Estonian prisoners to the Gulag during World War II and later transferred to the Far East Company. She remained in service through at least 1967, and her hull was used for a while afterward as a service vessel for repairing navigation systems. She was reportedly scrapped in 1975, though she may have been used for many years more.
The ship was built by Newport News Shipbuilding[2] and launched on November 1, 1913. She arrived in Honolulu on March 24, 1914, on her maiden voyage.[1] Her bridge deck held the officer's quarters, the promenade deck 10 deluxe passenger cabins, and the main deck 20 passenger cabins. One-way fares in 1920 were $350–$500 for a cabin on the promenade deck with a private bathroom, $90 to $100.00 for a cabin on the promenade deck without a private bathroom, and $90 for a cabin on the main deck.[7][8]
She carried about 90 passengers and seven officers[9] on week-long trips from Pier 32 in San Francisco [10] to Honolulu, Hawaii, and thence to Kahului, Maui, before returning to Honolulu. The Manoa served this route from 1913 to 1942. Passengers could transfer to other Matson ships for passage to the South Pacific Islands. In 1926, the ship served as a waymarker for the Dole Air Derby air race from the Oakland, California to Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii.[11]