SS Both
From Our Contribution
 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | SS Both |
| Builder/Built | 1931 Rotterdam, Holand |
| Type | cargo steamer |
| Displacement | 2,608 tons |
| Speed | unknown |
Contents
Remarks
Owned by the Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (Dutch for Royal Packet Navigation Company), better known as KPM Line. The company was a dominant small ship operator in the Indonesia archipelago during the last 50 years of Dutch colonial rule. Following the fall of the Dutsh East Indies to Japan, many of these small ships were chartered by the US Army.
The SS Both helped transport the Australian troops of "Gull Force" to Ambon in December 1941, and later took part in the Operation Lilliput supply convoys to New Guinea in 1943.
During 1942 she came under quarantine jurisdiction at Fremantle, but little detail is available as to why.