SS Manoa
SS Manoa was an American freight and passenger steamer that sailed for the Matson Line from San Francisco to Hawaii. Unusual for her time, her engines and funnel were aft, minimizing vibration felt by the passengers and soot on deck. The aft design was considered ugly by passenger ship purists.
SS Manoa in 1928 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United States | |
| Name | SS Manoa |
| Owner | Matson Navigation Company |
| Builder | Newport News Shipbuilding |
| Launched | November 1, 1913 |
| Completed | December 13, 1913 |
| Maiden voyage | March 1, 1914 |
| Out of service | 1969 |
| Renamed | Balkhash (1942) |
| Homeport | San Francisco, later Vladivostok |
| Fate | Scrapped in Vladivostok, Russia (1975); possibly repair base afterward |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 6,805 gross register tons (GRT) (1913) |
| Length | 446.2 ft (136.0 m) |
| Beam | 54 ft (16 m) |
| Draught | 33.3 ft 7 in (10.33 m) |
| Decks | Bridge (officer's quarters), Promenade (10 deluxe passenger cabins), Main (20 passenger cabins) |
| Propulsion | Steam qauadruple expansion, reciprocating steam engine, single screw |
| Capacity | 90 passengers |
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, 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.