Ruth Alexander
1929
(Carlo Marquardt CM-229)
- Type: Passenger
- Displacement: 8,226 tons
- Dimensions: 439 x 56 ft.
- Machinery: twin screw = 13 knots
- Passengers: 1,740
- Crew:
- Builder: A. G. Vulcan, Stettin, Germany, 1913
- Service: Built as Sierra Cordoba for Nordeutscher Lloyd. Sailed between Bremen, Antwerp, Rio, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires. In Aug 1914 she sheltered at Montevideo after delivering prisoners from ships taken by the German raider Kronprinz Wilhelm. On 18 Jan 1915 she departed with a cargo of coal to rendezvous with SMS Dresden (sole German survivor of the Battle of the Falklands) near Tierra del Fuego. Proceeding to Valparaiso, she loaded coal again, departing 6 Mar for a second rendezvous at Juan Fernandez Island. (Dresden was later sunk there by HMS Glasgow.) Interned at Callao, Peru, she was seized by Peruvian authorities Sep 1917 and renamed Callao. Chartered by the U.S. Shipping Board Apr 1919 and turned over to Navy for use as a troop transport. Placed in commission as USS Callao. Returned to Shipping Board Sep 1919. Purchased by Dollar Steamship Lines 1922 and renamed Ruth Alexander. Transferred to President Terminal Steamship Co. in 1938. Trying to escape from Manila, she was bombed and sunk by Japanese aircraft 31 Dec 1941 off Borneo.
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