Cargo ship
|
|
| History |
|---|
 Panama |
|---|
| Name |
- MV La Marea[1] (1924–29)
- SS Darien (1930– )[1]
|
| Owner | Balboa Shipping Co, Inc.[2] |
| Operator |  United Fruit Company[2] |
| Port of registry |  [2] |
| Builder | Cammell Laird, Birkenhead[2] |
| Completed | April 1924[2] |
| Identification | |
| General characteristics |
|---|
| Tonnage |
- as built:
- 3,689 GRT[1]
- tonnage under deck 3,183[1]
- 2,148 NRT[1]
- after lengthening:
- 4,281 GRT[2]
- tonnage under deck 3,533[2]
- 2,276 NRT[2]
|
| Length | as built: 325.2 ft (99.1 m)[1]
after lengthening: 352.7 ft (107.5 m)[2] |
| Beam | 48.1 ft (14.7 m)[2] |
| Draught | as built: 22 ft 5.5 in (6.85 m)[1]
after lengthening: 22 ft 6.5 in (6.87 m)[2] |
| Depth | 28.3 ft (8.6 m)[2] |
| Installed power |
- as built: 981 NHP[1]
- as re-engined: 839 NHP[2]
|
| Propulsion | |
SS Darien was a refrigerated cargo ship of the United Fruit Company. Cammell Laird of Birkenhead, England built her as MV La Marea, completing her in 1924.[1] She had been renamed Darien by 1930[1] and had been re-engined from diesel to steam by 1931.[2]
The ship was owned by a United Fruit subsidiary, Balboa Shipping Co, Inc, which registered her under the Panamanian flag of convenience.[1] She was still in service in 1945.[4]
Building
La Marea was built as a diesel-electric motor vessel, with four four-cylinder single-acting two-stroke diesel engines.[1] They powered electric generators that supplied current to a single electric propulsion motor rated at 981 NHP that turned a single propeller shaft.[1] She was equipped with both submarine signalling and wireless.[1]
Rebuilding
By 1930 Darien had been lengthened by 27.5 feet (8.4 m), which increased her gross register tonnage by 592 tons.[1] By 1931 she had been converted from diesel-electric to steam turbo-electric propulsion.[2] Her four diesel engines and four electric generators were replaced with two water-tube boilers and a single British Thomson-Houston turbo generator.[2] Her boilers had a combined heating surface of 8,660 square feet (805 m2)[2] and a working pressure of 400 lbf/in2.[2] The conversion reduced Darien's power output to 839 NHP.[2]
Darien was not United Fruit's first turbo-electric ship. As early as 1921 Workman, Clark and Company of Belfast had completed SS San Benito for Balboa Shipping, again using a BT-H turbo generator and propulsion motor.[5]
References
