ES Arauca
Arauca was one of three sister ships that Bremer Vulkan of Bremen-Vegesack, Germany built in 1939 for Hamburg Amerikanische Paketfahrt AG (HAPAG). Arauca had two oil-fired high pressure LaMont boilers and turbo-electric transmission. Her boilers fed two AEG turbo generators, which fed current to an AEG electric propulsion motor on her single propeller shaft.
In August 1939 Arauca left Germany on her maiden voyage, carrying general cargo to Mexico. Technological problems dogged the voyage, including the superheater of one of her boilers being burnt out.
By the time she had reached port in Vera Cruz and completed discharging her cargo it was the beginning of September and Germany had invaded Poland. German merchant ships now risked being seized or sunk by the Royal Navy, so Arauca remained in port for the next two and a half months.
In December Arauca tried to make for Germany, but off the coast of Florida the light cruiser HMS Orion fired across her bow, so on 19 December she put into Port Everglades. Orion had opened fire in US territorial waters, which prompted a US protest to the UK Foreign Office.
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