SS Tuxpam

SS Tuxpam can refer to

SS Flying Lark

SS Flying Lark was a ship built in Fredrikstad, Norway in 1915 as the banana boat SS Honduras. Over a 43 year career that spanned oceans and seas the world over she had 10 owners, eight names and a succession of different managers.

She is best known today as the Flying Lark, given to her by her final owners in 1957. That is the name she bore in the Moluccas in eastern Indonesia in April 1958 when a CIA aircraft involved in a covert mission against the Sukarno government attacked and sank her, killing at least nine of her crew.

Construction

Fredrikstad Mekaniske Verksted of Fredrikstad, Norway built the ship as the banana boat SS Honduras. She had two fire tube boilers with a combined heating surface of 3,943 square feet (366 m²) that supplied steam at 180 lb_f/in² to a three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine. There is some discrepancy over her nominal horsepower: a Norwegian source claims that her engine produced 258 NHP but Lloyd's Register records it as 188 NHP.

Service history

SS Tuxpam (Mexican oil tanker)

The SS Tuxpam was an oil tanker, in the service of Petroleos Mexicanos, that was sunk on 27 June 1942 by U-129.

She was completed in November 1903 as SS Prometheus for Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum GmbH, Hamburg. In 1914 she was laid up at New York and, in December of that year, sold and renamed SS Cushing for Standard Oil of New Jersey, Bayonne. In September 1918, she was requisitioned by the US Navy as USS Chinampa (SP-1952) for the Naval Overseas Transportation Service and returned to her owners in May 1919.

In 1924 she was sold to Italian owners and renamed Americano for Cia Nav. Cisterna SA, Genoa, before her eventual sale, in 1937, to Ditta G.M. Barbagelata, also of Genoa. After being laid up in Tampico, from June 1940 onwards, she was seized by the Mexican government and renamed SS Tuxpam on 8 Apr, 1941.

While sailing unescorted, on 27 June 1942, about 40 miles southeast of Gutiérrez Zamora, Veracruz, she was attacked with two torpedoes by U-129. However, one torpedo malfunctioned and the U-boat had to dive to evade it. The tanker settled by the stern, after being hit by the other torpedo, but did not sink, so the U-boat surfaced and opened fire with deck guns. Tuxpam caught fire and sank after 52 rounds had been fired.

Tuxpan

Tuxpan (or Túxpam, fully Túxpam de Rodríguez Cano) is both a municipality and city located in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The population of the city was 78,523 and of the municipality was 134,394 inhabitants, according to the INEGI census of 2005, residing in a total area of 1,051.89 km² (406.14 sq mi). The municipality includes many smaller outlying communities, the largest of which are Alto Lucero and Santiago de la Peña. A local beachside community is also nearby.

Overview

Tuxpan or Túxpam, pronounced [ˈtuʃpan] in Nahuatl, the language of the ancient Aztecs, literally means "Place of Rabbits", a compound of tochtli "rabbit" and -pan "place".

The city is located on the banks of the Tuxpan River, which reaches the Gulf of Mexico a few kilometers downstream (11 km). Being the nearest port to Mexico City, Tuxpan is an important commercial link for Mexican imports and exports. Tuxpan is now primarily a grain port, with emphasis on soybeans and maize. Off-shore links to oil pipelines are used to transfer petroleum products to and from tanker ships operated by Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company. As part of the Pemex operations and infrastructure in the city, a facility on the river manufactures and maintains oil rigs for use in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tuxpam (disambiguation)

Tuxpam may refer to