 Aerial port side view of the Australian cargo vessel SS Mareeba.
(Australian War Memorial Negative #303588) | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Australia | |
| Launched | 6 July 1921 |
| Completed | November 1921 |
| Fate | Sunk by the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran in the Bay of Bengal on 26 June 1941. |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 3,472 |
The SS Mareeba was an Australian freighter built in 1921[1] and named after the town of Mareeba in Far North Queensland, Australia. She was a 3,472-ton Australasian United Steam Navigation Company vessel.[2]
The Mareeba was attacked and sunk[3] in the Bay of Bengal on 26 June 1941 by the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran.[4][5] She was carrying 5000 tons of sugar from Batavia to Colombo[2] when she picked up the Yugoslav freighter Velebit's distress signal. Instead of immediately stopping the Mareeba radioed her position and ran for it, presumably because at 8 o'clock that morning she had spotted the British light cruiser HMS Durban, in the Ten Degree Channel.[6] She received nine shots to her hull,[5] several of which hit her engine-room, and, although she was slowly sinking, it took a team of German boarding party placing demolitions to sink her quickly. It would later be said that the Mareeba would have made a fine auxiliary minelayer[2] because of her durability. All 48 of the crew of the Mareeba were captured and spirited away on the Kormoran which travelled at top speed through the night and most of the following day[2] to avoid retaliation for the sinkings.
