SS Usoga

SS Usoga is a disused cargo and passenger Lake Victoria ferry in East Africa.

SS Usoga loading coffee at Bukoba Port in Tanzania.
History
Name: SS Usoga
Namesake: the kingdom of Busoga in Uganda
Operator: Uganda Railway 1913–29; Kenya and Uganda Railways and Harbours 1929–48; East African Railways and Harbours Corporation 1948–75
Port of registry: Kisumu
Builder: Bow, McLachlan & Co,[1] Paisley, Scotland
Yard number: 284[1]
Launched: 1913[1]
In service: 1915[1]
Out of service: 1975[1]
Status: derelict at Kisumu as of 2007[2]
General characteristics
Type: troop ship, then passenger & cargo ship[1]
Tonnage: 800 GRT; 1,300 tons displacement[1]
Length: 220 ft (67 m)[1]
Beam: 35 ft (11 m)[1]
Installed power: One 400 hp triple expansion engine
Propulsion: screw[1]

History

Bow, McLachlan and Company of Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland built Usoga and her sister ship SS Rusinga in 1913.[1] They were "knock down" vessels; that is, they were bolted together in the shipyard at Paisley, all the parts marked with numbers, disassembled into many hundreds of parts and transported in kit form by sea to Kenya for reassembly.

Usoga entered service on the lake in 1915 and was a troop ship during the First World War East African Campaign.[1] After the Armistice she entered civilian service as a Lake Victoria ferry.

In 1975 the East African Railways and Harbours Corporation laid her up at the Lake Victoria port of Kisumu.[1] In the 1990s she sank at the quayside and she was still there in 2006[1] and 2007,[2] along with the slightly earlier SS Nyanza from the same fleet.[2]

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References
  1. "Usoga". Clyde Built Ships. Caledonian Maritime Research Trust. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  2. McCrow, Malcolm (2007). "Death of a Fleet at Kisumu". Memories of East Africa. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
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