SS Musa
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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]
United Fruit Company[1][2]
| History | |
|---|---|
| Panama, Honduras | |
| Name | SS Musa |
| Owner | |
| Operator | United Fruit Company[1][2] |
| Port of registry | |
| Builder | Workman, Clark and Company, Belfast[1] |
| Completed | 1930[1][2] |
| Identification | |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | |
| 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 | |
| Speed | 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h)[3] |
| Sensors & processing systems | echo sounding device[1] |
| Notes | sister ship: SS Platano |
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]