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SS ''Mauna Loa'' was a steam-powered cargo ship of Matson Navigation Company that was sunk in the bombing of Darwin in February 1942. She was christened SS ''West Conob'' in 1919 and renamed SS ''Golden Eagle'' in 1928. At the time of her completion in 1919, the ship was inspected by the United States Navy for possible use as USS ''West Conob'' (ID-4033) but was neither taken into the Navy nor ever commissioned. ''West Conob'' was built in 1919 for the , part of the ''West'' series of ships—steel-hulled cargo ships built on the West Coast of the United States for the World War I war effort—and was the 14th ship built at Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in San Pedro, California. She initially sailed for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and circumnavigated the globe twice by 1921. She began sailing to South America for Swayne & Hoyt Lines in 1925, and then, to Australia and New Zealand. When Swayne & Hoyt's operation was taken over by the Oceanic and Oriental Navigation Company a few years later, she sailed under the name ''Golden Eagle'' until 1934, when she was taken over by the Matson Navigation Company for service between Hawaii and the U.S. mainland and renamed ''Mauna Loa'', after the large shield volcano on the Island of Hawaii. Shortly before the United States' entry into World War II, ''Mauna Loa'' was chartered by the United States Department of War to carry supplies to the Philippines. The ship was part of an aborted attempt to reinforce Allied forces under attack by the Japanese on Timor in mid-February 1942. After the return of her convoy to Darwin, Northern Territory, ''Mauna Loa'' was one of eight ships sunk in Darwin Harbour in the first Japanese bombing attack on the Australian mainland on 19 February. The remains of her wreck and her cargo are a dive site in the harbor. ==Design and construction== The ''West'' ships were cargo ships of similar size and design built by several shipyards on the West Coast of the United States for the for emergency use during World War I. Some 40 ''West'' ships were built by Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company of Los Angeles,〔 all given names that began with the word ''West''.〔Crowell and Wilson, pp. 358–59.〕 ''West Conob'' (Los Angeles Shipbuilding yard number 14)〔 was completed in May 1919.〔 ''West Conob'' was , and was long (between perpendiculars) and abeam.〔 She had a steel hull and a deadweight tonnage of .〔 Sources do not give ''West Conob''s other hull characteristics, but , a sister ship also built at Los Angeles Shipbuilding had a displacement of 12,225 t with a mean draft of , and a hold deep. ''West Conob''s power plant consisted of a single triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine with cylinders of 28½, 47, and 78 inches (72, 120, and 200 cm) with a stroke. She was outfitted with three Foster water-tube boilers, each with a heating area of and containing 52 and 827 tubes.〔Andros, p. 164.〕 Her boilers were heated by mechanical oil burners fed by two pumps, each 6 by 4 by 6 inches (15 × 10 × 15 cm) with a capacity of per minute.〔Andros, pp. 164–65.〕 Fully loaded, the ship could hold of fuel oil. ''West Conob''s single screw propeller was in diameter with a pitch and a developed area of .〔〔The ''developed area'' of a propeller is the surface area of all blades combined. See: Eliasson and Larsson, pp. 174–75, 179.〕 The ship was designed to travel at ,〔 and averaged during her first voyage in June 1919.〔Andros, p. 162.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「SS Mauna Loa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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