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Ahamo - (1933-1941)
See also : Plume
"Ahamo", ex. "Plume", was built in 1931. Lost during WW2.SS Ahamo ex Plume - 1931
LOA 477'3" Beam 62'6" Depth 36'6", 13,560DWT 96,690 bbls Triple expansion engine 54" stroke 11.0 knots
Built 1926 at Lithgow's, Glasgow, Scotland, as Plume for the Vacuum Oil Company. Entered Socony's British-flag fleet with the merger of 1931.
Vacuum Oil Company had a product which it marketed as Plume Motor Spirit - hence the origin of the former name of this ship.
As Ahamo, this vessel engaged in Far Eastern trade out of San Francisco at first but later out of the Dutch East Indies. In October 1939,
Ahamo was requisitioned for WWII by the British Ministry of War Transport and put in the supply train which bridged the North Atlantic.
On 8 April 1941, while serving as the Commodore's ship of a convoy leaving England, she struck a mine in the swept channel out of Grimsby.
The explosion, occurring on the port side aft, wrecked and flooded the engine-room and adjacent crew quarters, sinking Ahamo in shallow water with her bow still buoyant. Fearing the possibility of an air or E-boat attack at daylight. Captain T. Potts gave orders to abandon ship.
The survivors were picked up and returned to Grimsby the same day. Attempts to salvage Ahamo were unsuccessful and she was declared a total loss. Thirteen men lost their lives.
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Additional information Starke & Schell registers :
Plume - 1926 BR 1T (aft) (11)
8,621 Grt for Vacuum Oil Co., Ltd., London 460.0 x 62.8
Tanker build by Lithgows, Ltd., Port Glasgow (9) #790 149709
1933 - Ahamo Standard Transportation Co., Ltd., Hong Kong
Mined and sunk, 8 April 1941, in 53.22 N-00.59 E, voyage London - Curaçao, in ballast