S.S. Antigua
S.S. Antigua was a United Fruit Company passenger and refrigerated cargo liner built at Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation of Quincy, Massachusetts. Completed in 1932, she was owned by a United Fruit subsidiary, United Mail Steam Ship Company. She carried bananas from Central America to the US and passengers in both directions. She shared the same basic design a the Chiriqui, Peten (Segovia), Talamanca, Quirigua and Veragua built under the American Merchant Marine Act of 1928. They were designed with specialized cooling and handling arrangements for transporting bananas with Babcock & Wilcox boilers and General Electric turbo-electric transmission. She was 447'10" long and displacement of 10,928 gross tons. The cargo capacity included 240,070 cubic feet refrigerated space in two holds forward, two aft and two special low temperature holds aft with 5,370 cubic feet of mail and baggage storage. Normal service speed was 17.5 knots. A crew of 112 served the ship and carrying up to 113 passengers. On delivery Antigua was placed in the Pacific coastal passenger and banana trade between San Francisco and Armuelles, Panama. Between 1935 and 1936 the ship's schedules changed from Pacific service to service from New York to Cuba and Puerto Barrios, Guatemala with that service continuing through 1941. Between December 26, 1941 and March 17, 1947 Antigua was operated by United Fruit Company for the War Shipping Administration carrying troops and refrigerated stores. Afterwards, she resumed service between New Orleans and destinations in Cuba, Guatemala and Honduras. Seven years before she was scrapped in 1964, Antigua was sold to Swedish owners who renamed her Tortuga.
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