S.S. Munamar under way in the Caribbean
Source: http://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/images/muns16.htm, also Bjorn Larsson collection and the blog http://cmgurney.blogspot.com/2011/09/merchant-navy-records-wreck-rescue.html
MAILBOAT NAME: S.S. Munamar
PAST NAMES:
DIMENSIONS: 3,477 gross registered tons, 7,500 tons displacement, 370 feet long, 45 feet wide, 30 feet deep. 50 first-class and 30 second-class passenger cabins plus cargo carrying capacity.
BUILDER: Bethlehem Steel in Sparrow’s Point, Maryland aka Maryland Steel in Baltimore MD
YEAR BUILT: 1915
EARLY CAREER:
BAHAMAS CAREER: served Nassau and possibly other islands like Long Cay with international mail
CAPTAINS: not known
OWNERS: Munson Steamship Line – also owners of the Royal Victoria and British Colonial hotels in Nassau. Cora Munson, wife of the Frank Munson, was originally a “Mallory of Mystic”
FATE: “She was sold in the early 1930’s when traffic declined following the depression”
“The Munson Steamship Line was founded in 1899 by Walter D. Munson, who built a freight line from New York to Havana into a line that encompassed eastern Cuba, Mexico, and ports on the Gulf of Mexico and operated over 60 freighters, and becoming the largest ocean freight company on the Eastern Seaboard. Walter Munson was succeeded first by his son Carlos, and, later, by his son Frank Munson shortly after the end of World War I.[1] The 3,477 GT (gross tonnage) Munamar, built by Maryland Steel in Baltimore,[2] became the first passenger liner and was employed on the eastern Cuba route”
Here is a colorful account of the rescue of Munamar passengers by the Athenic in Bahamas, 1920:
“The return journey was even more dramatic. On Sunday 2 May 1920, an American steamer, the SS Munamar, on a voyage from Antilla, Cuba to New York, ran aground on a reef off San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. The ship was in a very dangerous position and taking on water fast, so the passengers were all put into the lifeboats. Athenic was in the vicinity and received Munamar‘s SOS call about 9pm. The first Athenic‘s passengers knew of the incident was when her engines suddenly stopped. It was too dark to effect a rescue but fortunately it was a calm night, so the Munamar‘s passengers sat in their lifeboats, whilst the Athenic circled, waiting for dawn. At daybreak on 3 May the 83 passengers from the Munamar were rescued, and their baggage and the mails salvaged from the stranded ship. The whole operation took about two hours.”
Source: http://cmgurney.blogspot.com/2011/09/merchant-navy-records-wreck-rescue.html
See also http://maritimematters.com/2010/07/munson-steamship-line/ for the following about the Munargo:
“The depression resulted in severely reduced traffic and the MUNAMAR was sold and as Munson Line ran into financial troubles its ships were either laid up or scraped. The MUNARGO was transferred to a tourist service Miami, Nassau, Havana in 1937 but sold a year later when the company went bankrupt. The remaining passenger ships were taken over by the Maritime Commission.”