| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Namesake | City of Kielce, Poland |
| Owner | War Shipping Administration (1943–1944), Żegluga Polska (1944–onwards) |
| Builder | Pennsylvania Shipyards, Inc, Beaumont, Texas |
| Launched | September 1943 |
| Completed | 1943 |
| In service | 11 March 1944 |
| Out of service | 5/6 March 1946 |
| Fate | Sunk after collision with the steamer Lombardy |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Type N3-S-A2 |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | 250 ft (76 m) |
| Beam | 41.3 ft (12.6 m) |
| Draft | 20 ft 9 in (6.32 m) |
| Depth | 20.4 ft (6.2 m) |
| Decks | 1 |
| Installed power | 1,300 SHP |
| Propulsion | 6-cylinder steam engine |
| Speed | 10.2 knots (18.9 km/h) |
| Range | 4,500 nautical miles (8,300 km) |
| Crew | 26 (in Polish service) |
| Sensors and processing systems |
|
SS Kielce was a Polish-operated cargo ship. She was a Type N3-S-A2 steamship, built in the United States in 1943 as SS Edgar Wakeman.
In 1946, while laden with a cargo of munitions, she sank in the English Channel after colliding with the British or French steamer Lombardy.[1]
In 1967, an attempt to salvage her wreck inadvertently detonated some of her cargo; the resulting explosion was measured to be equivalent in force to a minor earthquake.