SS Callao (1913)
S.S. Callao made over from the old German steamer Sierra Cordoba.
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| Builder: | AG Vulcan Stettin |
| Fate: | Sunk December 1941 off Balikpapan |
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| Beam: | 55 ft 9 in (17.0 m) |
| Draft: | 26 ft 9 in (8.2 m) |
| Depth: | 37 ft 2 in (11.3 m) |
| Decks: | 4 |
| Propulsion: | 2 x Triple expansion steam engines |
| Speed: | 13 knots (15 mph; 24 km/h) |
SS Sierra Cordoba was a Norddeutscher Lloyd passenger and cargo ship completed 1913 by AG Vulcan Stettin. The ship operated between Bremen and Buenos Aires on the line's South American service and was equipped with wireless and "submarine sounding apparatus" with accommodations for 116 first class, 74 second class and 1,270 "between decks" passengers. A description after the ship had been seized and restored in 1919 noted she was among the fastest and best equipped ships of the line with accommodations for 115 first class passengers and 1,572 third and steerage class passengers as well as a crew of 179 officers and men.
During World War I Sierra Cordoba supplied German raiders, particularly SMS Dresden while hiding in the Straits of Magellan. After that ship and Sierra Cordoba moved northward in the Pacific, where the cruiser met British forces, the German liner interned herself in Callao, Peru, named Callao and later transferred to the United States Shipping Board, refurbished by Panama Canal personnel and briefly placed in commission with the United States Navy as USS Callao (ID-4036) to bring service people home from Europe. The ship was sold, renamed Ruth Alexander in 1923 and put into coastwise passenger and cargo service between Puget Sound and Mexico, typically calling at Seattle, Victoria, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and (by 1931) Ensenada, Mexico, until finally converted to a cargo ship in 1939.
On 9 December 1941 Ruth Alexander arrived in Manila the day after Manila had learned of the coming of war to the Pacific (8 December Manila time). The ship survived bombing raids in Manila harbor before attempting to escape on 28 December, as United States forces were retreating into Bataan, and being bombed and abandoned on 31 December. One crew member was lost, four wounded, and all survivors were picked up by a Dutch Dornier 24 bomber. The ship finally sank on 2 January.
During World War I Sierra Cordoba supplied German raiders in the South Atlantic and Pacific. On 23 November 1914 Sierra Cordoba had arrived in Montevideo with captured crews from the liner La Correntina and the French barque Union sunk by SS Kronprinz Wilhelm. The presence of German merchant vessels and the types of cargoes being loaded in neutral South American ports was taken as indication of German naval activity with Sierra Cordoba being loaded with coal at Montevideo on 22 November 1914 seen as significant.
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