SS Peten
| History | |
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| Name: |
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| Namesake: | Ariel in Shakespeare's The Tempest |
| Owner: |
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| Operator: |
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| Builder: | Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co |
| Laid down: | 9 March 1931 |
| Launched: | 15 August 1931 |
| Acquired: | by bareboat charter, 24 March 1942 |
| Commissioned: | 14 May 1942, as USS Ariel (AF-22) |
| Decommissioned: | 21 June 1946 |
| Struck: | 3 July 1946 |
| Fate: | scrapped 1969 |
| Notes: | Ship delivered: 24 February 1933 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Store ship |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 446 ft 10 in (136.19 m) |
| Beam: | 60 ft 3 in (18.36 m) |
| Draft: | 26 ft (7.9 m) |
| Propulsion: | turbo-electric transmission, twin screws, 11,000 shp (8,203 kW) |
| Speed: | 18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph) |
| Capacity: | 2,615 long tons deadweight (DWT) |
| Complement: | 238 |
| Armament: |
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USS Ariel (AF-22) was built as SS Peten, later renamed Jamaica, as United Fruit Company cargo and passenger liner that served as a United States Navy Mizar-class stores ship in World War II. The US Navy renamed her after the "airy and playful spirit" Ariel in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest. The ship was returned to United Fruit in 1946 and operated for that company until sold to a German company in 1957.
The Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Newport News, Virginia built the ship as SS Peten for United Fruit Company's United Mail Steamship Co subsidiary. Peten was one of six UFC sister ships with General Electric turbo-electric transmission, the others being Talamanca and Chiriqui from Newport News Shipbuilding and Antigua, Quirigua and Veragua from Bethlehem Shipbuilding's Quincy, Massachusetts, plant, built under the Merchant Marine Act of 1928. The prospective name for the ship had been Segovia, hull #345, but that hull had been burned at the outfitting pier as it neared completion in 1931 and was rebuilt as hull #354 with the new name of Peten.Peten's keel was laid 9 March 1931 with launch on 15 August 1931 and delivery on 24 February 1933. On 2 March 1933 Peten made her maiden voyage from New York to Caribbean ports. In 1937 she was transferred to United Fruit's direct ownership and renamed Jamaica. The ship's peacetime service was in carrying fruit, passengers and mail on regular liner services between Central America and the USA.
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