SS El Estero
SS El Estero with a full load of ammunition resting on the bottom of New York Harbor after being filled with water to put out a fire that threatened a major explosion. She is still flying the red signal flag B indicating dangerous cargo.
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| Name: | SS El Estero |
| Operator: | US Lines Inc. |
| Builder: | Downey Shipbuilding |
| Yard number: | 12 |
| Completed: | July 1920 |
| Acquired: | September 1920 |
| Out of service: | April 24, 1943 |
| Fate: | Scuttled due to onboard fire, expended as Naval Gunnery target. |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 4,219 GRT |
| Length: | 102 m (335 ft) |
| Beam: | 14.4 m (47 ft) |
| Installed power: | 2,500 Horsepower |
| Propulsion: | Triple expansion steam engine |
| Speed: | 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
SS El Estero was a ship filled with ammunition that caught fire at dockside in New York Harbor in 1943, but was successfully moved away and sunk by the heroic efforts of tug boats and fireboats, averting a major disaster.
The El Estero was built as a general cargo steamship for the Southern Pacific Steamship Lines at the Downey Shipbuilding Yard in Staten Island, New York and delivered for service in September 1920. The first of three sister ships built for the line, El Estero was operated by the Morgan Line in the Coastwise trade primarily between the ports of New York City, Baltimore and Galveston for much of her commercial service life.
Acquired by the US Maritime Commission on June 10, 1941 as part of an effort to increase US-Flag merchant marine shipping capacity, El Estero was purchased from Southern Pacific and placed operation with United States Lines under a Panamanian registry. Pressed into service carrying war supplies from the United States to Europe during World War II, the ship made several Atlantic crossings in convoys which frequently came under U-Boat attack, including Convoy PQ 13 in March 1942. Continuing this duty into 1943, El Estero put into New York Harbor in early April 1943 where she waited her turn to load munitions at the long finger pier of the New York Port of Embarkation's Caven Point Terminal off Jersey City, New Jersey.
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Wikipedia