| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Namesake |
|
| Owner |
|
| Operator | S. Livanos (1940–51) |
| Port of registry |
|
| Builder | Wm. Gray & Co,West Hartlepool, UK[2] |
| Yard number | 1104[1] |
| Launched | 9 July 1940[1] |
| Completed | October 1940[1] |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Bombed byCIA aircraft 28 April or 2 May 1958; sank 27 May 1958 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Cargo ship[2] |
| Tonnage | 5,397 GRT; 3,161 NRT[2] |
| Length | 441.1 ft (134.4 m)[2] |
| Beam | 57.8 ft (17.6 m)[2] |
| Draught | 25.4 ft (7.7 m)[2] |
| Installed power | 492NHP[2] |
| Propulsion | 3-cylindertriple-expansion engine[2] |
| Sensors & processing systems |
|
| Notes | sister ship:Duke of Athens |
SSAquila (originallySSDuke of Sparta) was acargo ship built in Britain in 1940 forStavros Livanos' Trent Maritime Co Ltd. byWilliam Gray & Company.[2] An identicalsister,Duke of Athens, was built for Trent at the same time.
In 1947–48Duke of Sparta was involved in controversy over alleged treatment ofNigerianstowaways. She was sold toGrimaldi Brothers ofNaples, Italy, in 1951, who renamed herAquila.[1]
She was in theMoluccas in easternIndonesia in April 1958 when aCIA aircraft involved in acovert mission against theSukarno government bombed and damaged her. She sank a month later. Her wreck offAmbon City is now a popularscuba diving site.
William Gray & Company builtDuke of Sparta in their yard atWest Hartlepool onTees-side.[2] They launchedDuke of Sparta in July 1940[1] and completed her that October.[2]
The ship had nine corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 145 square feet (13 m2) that heating three single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 7,020 square feet (652 m2).[2] These fed steam at 225lbf/in2 to a three-cylindertriple-expansion steam engine that developed 492nominal horsepower.[2] The engine was built by the Central Marine Engineering Works, which was part of Wm Gray & Co.[2]
The ship's navigation equipment includeddirection finding apparatus and anecho sounding device[2]
On 24 or 25 December 1947Duke of Sparta sailed fromApapa on a voyageviaLas Palmas toKingston upon Hull, England.[3] Before she sailed, five stowaways were found aboard and were handed over to the police.[3] After two days' sailing, when she was off theGold Coast, two more stowaways were found.[3]Duke of Sparta summoned the assistance of fishing canoes in the vicinity, and the stowaways were transferred to the canoes to be put ashore.[3] Some days laterDuke of Sparta called atLas Palmas in theCanary Islands.[3] Some days after she left Las Palmas a further five stowaways were found aboard, and these were kept aboard untilDuke of Sparta docked at Hull.[3]
Early in 1948 a controversy was raised in Nigeria over the treatment of some ofDuke of Sparta's stowaways.[3] A Mr Eusebius Tunde George ofLagos, Nigeria alleged that six stowaways were found aboard off Gold Coast, that the crew threw them all into the sea, and that only he and one other stowaway survived.[3] Mr George's allegations were widely published in Nigerian newspapers on 13 February 1948 and subsequently repeated in the newspapers of other British colonies.[3]
On 28 April 1948 the BritishCommunist MPWillie Gallacher raised Mr George's allegations in theUK House of Commons.[3] TheLabour Government'sUnder-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,Christopher Mayhew MP, replied refuting the allegations in detail.[3] Mayhew'sLabour colleagueWill Nally MP added that on 17 February theNigerian Review had published an article headlined"Fantastic story about stowaways is proved false", that also had refuted Mr George's claims.[3]
At the end of April 1958Aquila was in ballast and anchored offAmbon City in Indonesia[1] when she was attacked by a black, unmarked[4]Douglas B-26 Invader ostensibly operated by right-wingPermesta rebels. The date is uncertain, either 28 April (according to one source)[5] or 1 or 2 May (according to another).[6] Damaged by a bomb blast,[5] she stayed afloat for a month before sinking on 27 May 1958.[1]
In fact, the attack was part of a U.S.CIAcovert operation in support of Permesta inNorth Sulawesi intended to destabilise PresidentSukarno'sGuided Democracy in Indonesia administration. The CIA pilots had orders to target foreign merchant ships in order to drive international trade away from Indonesian waters, thereby weakening the nation's economy in the belief this would topple the government.[7]
The B-26 was flown by formerUSAF pilot and CIA contractorAllen Pope, who in the same sortie also bombed the Greek merchant shipSS Armonia and the PanamanianSS Flying Lark.[5] On 18 May theIndonesian Navy andAir Force shot down Pope's aircraft and captured him,[8] after which the US scaled back the CIA operation and in time revised its policy towards Indonesia.
For many years the position ofAquila's wreck was unknown.[1] One source published in 1999 asserted that Pope had sunk her off the port of Donggala, nearPalu inCentral Sulawesi.[5] This now seems to be incorrect.
For some years recreationalscuba divers knew the wreck of a cargo ship in Ambon Bay without knowing her name. In October 2009 divers penetrated the mystery wreck's engine room and recovered a maker's plate from one of her water heaters. This gave the maker as a company in West Hartlepool where SSAquila had been built, which at last gave a clue to the wreck's identity.Aquila is on a slope on the seabed off Ambon, with her stern about 15 metres (8 fathoms) below the surface and her bow about 35 metres (19 fathoms) below the surface.[1]
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1958 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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