SS Ypiranga

S.S. Ypiranga was a German-registered passenger/cargo steamer owned and operated by Hamburg-America Line (Hapag-Lloyd) shipping company. It was built in 1908 by Germaniawerft and was 448.4’ x 55.3’, and measured 8,142 gross register tons.[1] After launch Ypiranga was found to be notoriously unsteady at sea. This was remedied by installing two water tanks near the fore and after masts on the upper deck, connected by a flying bridge. The flow of water between the tanks, controlled by regulating the movement of the air in the side branches, served to steady the ship in rough water, and it gained the reputation of being particularly steady after installation. Ypiranga's sister ship Corcovada was similarly outfitted.[2]

Deck shot of the SS Ypiranga showing the anti-rolling tanks to the left of the officer (1911).
History
Germany
Name:	Ypiranga
Owner:	Hamburg-America Line (Hapag)
Operator:	Hamburg-America Line (Hapag)
Port of registry:	Hamburg
Builder:	Germaniawerft
Launched:	May, 3rd 1908
Christened:	May, 3rd 1908
Completed:	October 14, 1908
Maiden voyage:	October 14, 1908
Out of service:	1919
Fate:	Transferred to United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Name:	Assyria
Owner:	Anchor Line
Operator:	Anchor Line
Port of registry:	Liverpool
Route:	Transatlantic route
Maiden voyage:	1921
Out of service:	1929
Fate:	Sold to Companhia Colonial de Navegação
Portugal
Name:	Colonial
Owner:	Companhia Colonial de Navegação
Operator:	Companhia Colonial de Navegação
Port of registry:	Lisbon
Route:	Lisbon–Mozambique
Maiden voyage:	1929
Out of service:	1950
Fate:	Sold to British Iron & Steel Corporation
Status:	Stranded near Campbeltown
General characteristics
Type:	Ocean liner
Tonnage:	8,103 gross register tons
Length:	138.2 m (453 ft)
Beam:	16.76 m (55.0 ft)
Draft:	9.07 m (29.8 ft)
Installed power:	4 800 hp driving two propellers
Propulsion:	Quadruple expansion steam engines
Capacity:	1311 passengers
Crew:	136 crew

In September 1910, Ypiranga carried the German crews from the battleships SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm and Weissenburg back from the Ottoman Empire, after the ships had been sold to the Ottoman Navy.[3] The ousted Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz, accompanied by his family, boarded Ypiranga at the docks of Veracruz, on Wednesday, May 31, 1911, bound for Europe. He went into exile in France. On April 15th, 1912, Ypiranga was one of the many ships in contact with the RMS Titanic as Titanic was sinking.

Ypiranga’s 26th voyage in April 1914 was the most notable; from Hamburg to the Mexican port of Veracruz, where it was detained by the United States for delivering arms and ammunition to the government of Victoriano Huerta in an event coined the "Ypiranga Incident".[4]

Ypiranga served until 1919, when it was ceded to the United Kingdom as a war reparation and placed under management of the White Star Line. In 1921 Anchor Line assumed control of the ship and renamed it Assyria, used in their Bombay run. A Portuguese company, Companhia Colonial de Navegação, purchased the ship in 1929 and renamed it Colonial for use in their Lisbon-Angola/Portuguese East Africa run. In 1950 there were plans to scrap the ship, but during the trip to the scrapyard under tow it broke free of her tug and wrecked near Campbeltown.[5][6]