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SS Helena Modjeska

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SS Helena Modjeska
SS Helena Modjeska.jpg
The SS Helena Modjeska is shown off the coast of Kent in England after breaking in two during a heavy storm - photo - US National Archives
SS Helena Modjeska 1.jpg
Tugs attempting to free Helena Modjeska
History
Name SS Helena Modjeska
Owner US Maritime Commission - War Shipping Administration
Builder Delta Shipbuilding Co., New Orleans
Launched 6 Nov 1944
Completed November 1944
In service late 1944
Out of service 12 Sep 1946
Fate wrecked on Goodwin Sands 1946 and scrapped 1947
General characteristics
Type Liberty cargo EC2-S-C1
Tonnage 7,176 tons
Length 128.9 m
Beam 17.4 m
Depth 10.6 m
Propulsion 2 oil fired boilers, single screw
Speed 11 knots (20.4 kmh)



Remarks

Commissioned on Nov. 6, 1944, as the SS Helena Modjeska, with a civilian crew of about 70 and a 20-man naval armed guard in charge of its deck guns and anti-aircraft batteries, she plied the world’s oceans during and following the end of WW II, delivering and receiving troops and heavy cargoes such as tanks, trucks, aircraft and railroad stock. She saw service in the Pacific and Far East


On 16 Nov 1946, 13 months after the end of WW II, SS Helena Modjeska’s life was to end ingloriously less than two years after its launching and commissioning. Carrying a full cargo of Army trucks and tanks lashed to her deck and stored in the hold, the ship struck an underwater reef on the treacherous Goodwin Sands off England’s Kent coast during a heavy storm and became dead in the water, listing badly. A dozen German prisoners who had escaped from a prisoner of war camp in England and had stowed away in the Helena Modjeska’s hold managed to escape during the storm and they were rounded up two days after the ship broke in two.


Soon, the ship's two sections floated away from one another. The crew members on each section were rescued by nearby fishing boats, with the Captain later dying of a heart attack in his hotel room. Both sections of SS Helena Modjeska were towed to port and broken up for scrap.

Soldiers carried

Sydney to Morotai via Finschhafen, Hollandia and Biak 6 - 20 Mar 1945