SS ''Aquila'' (originally SS ''Duke of Sparta'') was a

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...

built in Britain in 1940 for

Stavros Livanos Stavros George Livanos ( el, Σταύρος Λιβανός; 1891– May 28, 1963), was a Greek shipowner, native of Chios, and the founder of the Livanos shipping empire. He was also a rival as well as father-in-law to billionaire Greek shipping tyc ...

' Trent Maritime Co Ltd. by

William Gray & Company William Gray & Company Ltd. was a British shipbuilding company located in West Hartlepool, County Durham, in North East England. Founded in 1863 by John Denton and William Gray as a partnership, it became a private and then a public limited com ...

. An identical sister, ''Duke of Athens'', was built for Trent at the same time. In 1947–48 ''Duke of Sparta'' was involved in controversy over alleged treatment of Nigerian

stowaway A stowaway or clandestine traveller is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as a ship, an aircraft, a train, cargo truck or bus. Sometimes, the purpose is to get from one place to another without paying for transportation. In other cas ...

s. She was sold to Grimaldi Brothers of Naples, Italy, in 1951, who renamed her ''Aquila''. She was in the Moluccas in eastern Indonesia in April 1958 when a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

aircraft involved in a covert mission against the

Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of ...

government bombed and damaged her. She sank a month later. Her wreck off Ambon City is now a popular scuba diving site.

Building

William Gray & Company built ''Duke of Sparta'' in their yard at West Hartlepool on

Tees-side Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Historically a hub for heavy manu ...

. They launched ''Duke of Sparta'' in July 1940 and completed her that October. The ship had nine corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of that heating three single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of . These fed steam at 225 lb_f/in² to a three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine that developed 492 nominal horsepower. The engine was built by the Central Marine Engineering Works, which was part of Wm Gray & Co. The ship's navigation equipment included direction finding apparatus and an echo sounding device

Stowaways from Nigeria

On 24 or 25 December 1947 ''Duke of Sparta'' sailed from Apapa on a voyage ''via'' Las Palmas to Kingston upon Hull, England. Before she sailed, five stowaways were found aboard and were handed over to the police. After two days' sailing, when she was off the Gold Coast, two more stowaways were found. ''Duke of Sparta'' summoned the assistance of fishing canoes in the vicinity, and the stowaways were transferred to the canoes to be put ashore. Some days later ''Duke of Sparta'' called at Las Palmas in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

. Some days after she left Las Palmas a further five stowaways were found aboard, and these were kept aboard until ''Duke of Sparta'' docked at Hull. Early in 1948 a controversy was raised in Nigeria over the treatment of some of ''Duke of Sparta''s stowaways. A Mr Eusebius Tunde George of Lagos, Nigeria alleged that six stowaways were found aboard off Gold Coast, that the crew threw them all into the sea, and that only he and one other stowaway survived. Mr George's allegations were widely published in Nigerian newspapers on 13 February 1948 and subsequently repeated in the newspapers of other British colonies. On 28 April 1948 the British

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

MP Willie Gallacher raised Mr George's allegations in the

UK House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

. The Labour Government's Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Christopher Mayhew MP, replied refuting the allegations in detail. Mayhew's

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

colleague Will Nally MP added that on 17 February the '' Nigerian Review'' had published an article headlined ''"Fantastic story about stowaways is proved false"'', that also had refuted Mr George's claims.

Bombing

At the end of April 1958 ''Aquila'' was in ballast and anchored off Ambon City in Indonesia when she was attacked by a black, unmarked Douglas B-26 Invader ostensibly operated by right-wing Permesta rebels. The date is uncertain, either 28 April (according to one source) or 1 or 2 May (according to another). Damaged by a bomb blast, she stayed afloat for a month before sinking on 27 May 1958. In fact, the attack was part of a U.S.

covert operation A covert operation is a military operation intended to conceal the identity of (or allow plausible deniability by) the party that instigated the operation. Covert operations should not be confused with clandestine operations, which are performe ...

in support of Permesta in North Sulawesi intended to destabilise President

's Guided Democracy in Indonesia administration. The CIA pilots had orders to target foreign merchant ships in order to drive international trade away from Indonesian waters, thereby weakening the nation's economy in the belief this would topple the government. The B-26 was flown by former USAF pilot and CIA contractor

Allen Pope Allen Lawrence Pope (born October 20, 1928) is an American retired military and paramilitary aviator. He rose to international attention as the subject of a diplomatic dispute between the United States and Indonesia after the B-26 Invader aircraf ...

, who in the same sortie also bombed the Greek merchant ship and the Panamanian . On 18 May the Indonesian Navy and Air Force shot down Pope's aircraft and captured him, after which the US scaled back the CIA operation and in time revised its policy towards Indonesia.

Wreck

For many years the position of ''Aquila''s wreck was unknown. One source published in 1999 asserted that Pope had sunk her off the port of Donggala, near Palu in

Central Sulawesi Central Sulawesi (Indonesian: ''Sulawesi Tengah'') is a province of Indonesia located at the centre of the island of Sulawesi. The administrative capital and largest city is located in Palu. The 2010 census recorded a population of 2,635,009 for ...

. This now seems to be incorrect. For some years recreational

scuba divers This is a list of underwater divers whose exploits have made them notable. Underwater divers are people who take part in underwater diving activities – Underwater diving is practiced as part of an occupation, or for recreation, where t ...

knew the wreck of a cargo ship in Ambon Bay without knowing her name. In October 2009 divers penetrated the mystery wreck's engine room and recovered a maker's plate from one of her water heaters. This gave the maker as a company in West Hartlepool where SS ''Aquila'' had been built, which at last gave a clue to the wreck's identity. ''Aquila'' is on a slope on the seabed off Ambon, with her stern about below the surface and her bow about below the surface.

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aquila, SS Ships built on the River Tees Steamships of the United Kingdom Steamships of Italy 1940 ships Maritime incidents in 1958 Maritime incidents in Indonesia Central Intelligence Agency operations Guided Democracy in Indonesia Ships sunk by US aircraft False flag operations Merchant ships sunk by aircraft