MS Tampa (1920)
.jpg)
.jpg)
MS Tampa prior to becoming USS Orvetta (IX-157)
The Tampa was a single-screw ship built by the Oscar Daniels Corporation of Tampa, Florida, and it was originally fitter with steam machinery. The vessel was entirely reconditioned during her conversion to Diesel power at the yard of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co, which firm removed the steam machinery replacing the same by the Worthington two-stroke, double-acting Diesel oil engine. The engine was of four-cylinder, double-acting, two-stroke type, designed to develop 2950 shaft hP at 95 revolutions per minute. [1]
The dimensions of the Tampa were as follows:[2]
- Overall length - 416ft.
- Length between perpendiculars - 492ft.
- Breadth moulded - 54ft.
- Depth, moulded to main deck - 33ft 9inches.
- Mean displacement, loaded draught - 13,010 tons.
- Estimated gross tonnage - 5959 tons.
- Net tonnage - 3703 tons.
- Normal mean load draught - 26ft. 10.75inches.
- Deadweight capacity on above draught - 9120 tons.
Read more about the first voyage of The Tampa, and her dimensions etc. in The Engineer 1926/12/31, p 720-721.
Engineers of The Tampa:
- L. H. Hirschy - Chief Engineer.
- W. C. Dove - First Assistant Engineer.
- C. H. Colburne - Second Assistant Engineer.
- A. F. Jones - Third Assistant Engineer.
- J. W. Christiansen - Fourth Assistant Engineer.
- C. J. Ruzika - Electrician.
1944 Acquired by the United States Navy on a bareboat charter from the Maritime Commission 4 April 1944. She was renamed Orvetta and converted for military service as a barracks ship by the Matson Navigation Co., San Francisco; and commissioned 7 June 1944, Lt. Comdr. G. L. Armstrong, in command.[3]