SS Musa

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]

History
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	(1930– )[1][3] (by 1964)[3]
Builder	Workman, Clark and Company, 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 & 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]