SS West Conob shortly after completion in 1919. She was renamed Mauna Loa in 1934.
History
Name
West Conob
1928: Golden Eagle
1934: Mauna Loa
Namesake
Mauna Loa
Owner
1919: USSB
1928: Oceanic and Oriental Navigation Co.[3]
1934: Matson Navigation Company
Operator
1921: Pacific Mail Steamship Co.[4]
1925: Swayne & Hoyt Lines[5]
1928: Oceanic and Oriental Navigation Co.[3]
1934: Matson Navigation Company
1941: War Department
Builder
Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.
San Pedro, California
Yard number
14[2]
Launched
1 December 1918
Completed
May 1919[2]
Identification
US Official number: 218048[1]
Fate
Bombed and sunk 19 February 1942 in the Bombing of Darwin[6]
General characteristics
Type
Design 1013 ship
Tonnage
1919: 5,899 GRT[1]
1939: 5,436 GRT[7]
8,600 DWT[7]
Length
410 ft 1 in (124.99 m) (LPP)[1]
423 ft 2 in (128.98 m) (overall)[7]
Beam
54 ft 6 in (16.61 m)[1]
Draft
24 ft (7.3 m)[7]
Propulsion
1 × triple-expansion steam engine[1]
1 × screw propeller[1]
Speed
10.5 knots (19.4 km/h)[1]
SS Mauna Loa was a steam-powered cargo ship of the Matson Navigation Company that was sunk in the bombing of Darwin in February 1942. She was christened SS West Conob in 1919 and renamed SS Golden Eagle in 1928. At the time of her completion in 1919, the ship was inspected by the United States Navy for possible use as USS West Conob (ID-4033) but was neither taken into the Navy nor commissioned.
West Conob was built in 1919 for the United States Shipping Board (USSB), part of the West series of ships—steel-hulled cargo ships built on the West Coast of the United States for the World War I war effort—and was the 14th ship built at Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in San Pedro, California. She initially sailed for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and had circumnavigated the globe twice by 1921. She began sailing to South America for Swayne & Hoyt Lines in 1925, and then, to Australia and New Zealand. When Swayne & Hoyt's operation was taken over by the Oceanic and Oriental Navigation Company a few years later, she sailed under the name Golden Eagle until 1934, when she was transferred to Oceanic and Oriental's parent, the Matson Navigation Company. Matson renamed her Mauna Loa, after the large shield volcano on the island of Hawaii, and put her into service between Hawaii and the U.S. mainland.
Shortly before the United States' entry into World War II, Mauna Loa was chartered by the United States Department of War to carry supplies to the Philippines. The ship was part of an aborted attempt to reinforce Allied forces under attack by the Japanese on Timor in mid-February 1942. After the return of her convoy to Darwin, Northern Territory, Mauna Loa was one of eight ships sunk in Darwin Harbour in the first Japanese bombing attack on the Australian mainland on 19 February. The remains of her wreck and her cargo are a dive site in the harbor.
^ abColton, Tim. "Todd Pacific Shipyards, San Pedro CA". Shipbuildinghistory.com. The Colton Company. Archived from the original on 22 September 2008. Retrieved 23 September 2008. Colton refers to the ship as West Cohob. (Todd Pacific Shipyards bought the Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in 1945.)
^ abDrake, Waldo (15 March 1930). "Case-oil rush to Australia underway". Los Angeles Times. p. 6.
^"Tribute to ship built at harbor". Los Angeles Times. 17 April 1921. p. I-7.
^"Shipping and Los Angeles Harbor news". Los Angeles Times. 15 December 1925. p. 19.
^Cite error: The named reference DANFS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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