SS Santa Paula (1932)
SS Santa Paula was a passenger and cargo ocean liner built for the Grace Line. She was the second of four sister ships ordered in 1930 from the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Kearny, NJ. Her regular service route included inter-coastal service between the east coast and the west coast of the US via the Caribbean and the Panama Canal. She later sailed on cruises from New York to the Caribbean and South America. She was the second of three vessels to bear the name Santa Paula for Grace Line service.
Design and construction
Designed by Gibbs & Cox, Santa Paula and her sisters featured their signature winged funnel. The ships were exceptionally powerful and could achieve with only three boilers in use. The main engines were twin steam turbines, double reduction geared to twin screws. The screws turned inward, which made the ships awkward to maneuver. The dining room was on the promenade deck between the two funnels and had a retractable roof to let passengers dine under the tropical sky. All public rooms were on the promenade deck. The dining room formed an atrium stretching up two and a half decks to the retractable dome. Grace Line employed female dining room waitresses instead of male stewards. First class cabins were outside and had twin beds and private baths.Santa Paula was registered with official number 232005 and call letters WKEK at, registered length with home port of San Francisco.
Pre-war Grace Line service
Santa Paula started her maiden voyage on 30 January 1933 from Seattle, WA and made 12 port calls en route to New York via the Panama Canal. The new Santas offered 19-day cruises every two weeks between Seattle, WA along the California, Mexico, Latin America, through the Panama Canal to Havana en route to New York. In the late 1930s until WWII Santa Paula made 16-day cruises to the Caribbean and South America, and later 12-day Caribbean cruises.World War II service
Santa Paula was acquired by the US War Shipping Administration on 27 November 1941 from Grace Line for wartime service with Grace Line as operating agent for WSA. The ship was operating under an agreement with United States Army until 24 January 1942 when the form of charter was changed WSA bareboat charter. After conversion she carried approximately 2,209 troops. Single or double occupancy cabins were modified to hold six to nine officers while the enlisted men slept in bunks stacked four to six high.Santa Paula began war service sailing to Australia through the Panama Canal. She next sailed from Charleston, SC to Freetown, Karachi, Cape Town and then to New York. In November 1942 she sailed to Casablanca, Morocco in Operation Torch. 1943 sailings saw trips to Oran, Gibraltar, Casablanca, Argentina, Liverpool, Cardiff, Belfast, Firth of Clyde Palermo and Portsmouth. Voyages of 1944 included a round trip from Boston to Swansea, New York to Cardiff and return to Boston, New York and Norfolk to Naples, New York to Cherbourg and the UK, New York to Leghorn and Naples, and Boston to Avonmouth with a return to New York. In early 1945 Santa Paula visited Naples, Oran, Port Said, Suez, Massaua, Bahrein, Abadan, Naples, and Marseille. From April to December 1945 she made five round trips between New York and Europe as well as a trip to Karachi via the Suez Canal. In her four years of war service she made 28 overseas trips from the United States.
After the war Santa Paula transported war brides and their children from Europe to the US.
Santa Paula and sister ship Santa Rosa survived the war and were returned to the Grace Line with Santa Paula being returned on 30 April 1947. Santa Lucia and Santa Elena were sunk during war service.