SS Minnehaha

History
United States
Name	SS Minnehaha
Namesake	Minnehaha
Owner	Atlantic Transport Line
Port of registry	Belfast
Builder	Harland & Wolff, Belfast
Cost	USD$1,419,120 (£292,000)[1]
Yard number	329[1]
Launched	31 March 1900[1]
Maiden voyage	7 July 1900[1]
Identification	Official number: 110520[1] Call sign: MMA Code letters: RSHM
Fate	Torpedoed and sunk, 7 September 1917[1]
General characteristics [1]
Class and type	Minne-class ocean liner
Tonnage	13,403 GRT 8,647 NRT
Length	600 ft 8 in (183.08 m)
Beam	65 ft 6 in (19.96 m)
Depth of hold	39 ft 6 in (12.04 m)
Decks	4 decks and shelter deck
Propulsion	Quadruple expansion steam engines 1,227 nhp 2 screws
Speed	16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)

SS Minnehaha was a 13,443-ton ocean liner built by Harland and Wolff and launched on 31 March 1900. Operated by the American-owned Atlantic Transport Line, she was the sister ship of Minneapolis, Minnetonka, and Minnewaska.

In her first year of operations, the Minnehaha collided with and sank a tug in New York Harbor on 18 September 1900. The tug suffered two fatalities.^[1]

On 18 April 1910, the liner grounded on rocks on Bryher in the Isles of Scilly while en route from New York City to Tilbury, near London;^[2] she remained stranded until 13 May when two tugs managed to pull her off the rocks. The cattle on board were saved by swimming them onto the island of Samson, Isles of Scilly where there was temporary pasture; there were no deaths.^[3]

The ship was being used to ferry munitions to Britain from the U.S. during the early years of World War I. During a multi-state crime spree, German sympathizer Eric Muenter planted a timed bomb on the Minnehaha after bombing the U.S. Capitol and before shooting financier J. P. Morgan, Jr. Days after his jail-cell suicide, Muenter's bomb exploded, setting off a fire, though the explosion did not reach the munitions and caused minimal damage to the ship itself.^[4]

On 7 September 1917, Minnehaha sank within four minutes with 43 fatalities, after being torpedoed by German U-boat U-48, off the Fastnet. Her sister ships Minneapolis and Minnetonka were sunk while in use as troop transports during World War I.^[5]

• Minnehaha – wrecked off Peninnis Head in the Isles of Scilly on 18 January 1874
• List of shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly
• Atlantic Transport Line

• SS Minnehaha, Irish Wrecks Online
• Minnehaha 1910, Scillonian History
• Antique Associates at West Townsend — S. S. Minnehaha, Oil On Canvas by Antonio Jacobson Circa 1903 (page from Archive.org)
• The Salvage of the Minnehaha (1910 description)

51°17.82′N 9°17.88′W / 51.29700°N 9.29800°W / 51.29700; -9.29800