SS Eurana
American steam cargo ship, active 1916-1942 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eurana was a steam cargo ship built on speculation in 1915 by Union Iron Works of San Francisco. While under construction, the ship was acquired by Frank Duncan McPherson Strachan to operate in the Atlantic trade for his family's Strachan Shipping Company. The vessel made several trips between the Southeast of the United States and Europe before being sold to the Nafra Steamship Company in 1917. The freighter then entered the Mediterranean trade where she remained until September 1918 when she was requisitioned by the Emergency Fleet Corporation and transferred to the United States Navy to transport military supplies prior to the end of World War I, and as a troop transport after the war's end. In October 1919, the ship was returned to Nafra, which was then being reorganized to become the Green Star Steamship Company. In 1923, Eurana and twelve other ships passed to the Planet Steamship Company, newly formed to receive them from Green Star's bankruptcy. The ship remained principally engaged in the West Coast to East Coast trade for the next seven years. In 1930, together with several other vessels, Eurana was purchased by the Calmar Steamship Corporation, and renamed Alamar. The ship continued carrying various cargo between the East and West Coasts of the United States through 1941. On 27 May 1942, while en route from Hvalfjord to Murmansk carrying lend-lease war materiel to the Soviet Union during World War II as part of Arctic convoy PQ-16, she was fatally damaged by German aircraft bombs and was consequently scuttled by a British submarine to prevent her from becoming a menace to navigation.
SS Eurana, wearing neutrality markings, prior to U.S. entry into World War I | |
History | |
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United States | |
Name |
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Namesake | Eurana Schwab |
Owner |
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Operator |
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Port of registry | |
Builder | Union Iron Works, San Francisco |
Cost | $750,000[1] |
Yard number | 121 |
Laid down | 4 June 1915 |
Launched | 11 September 1915 |
Sponsored by |
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Maiden voyage | 3 February 1916 |
Identification |
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Fate | Sunk, 27 May 1942 |
United States | |
Name | USS Eurana |
Operator | U.S. Navy (1918–1919) |
Acquired | 13 September 1918 |
Commissioned | 13 September 1918 |
Decommissioned | 9 October 1919 |
Identification | SP-1594 |
Fate | Returned to owners 9 October 1919 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Cargo ship |
Tonnage | |
Length | 399.7 ft (121.8 m) |
Beam | 56.2 ft (17.1 m) |
Depth | 30.5 ft (9.3 m) |
Installed power | 2,600 ihp (1,900 kW), 498 Nhp |
Propulsion | General Electric steam turbine, double reduction geared to one screw |
Speed | 12+1⁄2 knots (23.2 km/h; 14.4 mph) |
Armament |
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