SS Usoga

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, Paisley, Scotland
Yard number	284
Launched	1913
In service	1915
Out of service	1975
Status	Derelict at Kisumu as of 2007
General characteristics
Type	Troop ship, then passenger & cargo ship
Tonnage	800 GRT; 1,300 tons displacement
Length	220 ft (67 m)
Beam	35 ft (11 m)
Installed power	One 400 hp triple expansion engine
Propulsion	screw

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

History

SS Usoga at Mwanza

Bow, McLachlan and Company of Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland built Usoga and her sister ship SS Rusinga in 1913. 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. 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. In the 1990s she sank at the quayside and she was still there in 2006 and 2007, along with the slightly earlier SS Nyanza from the same fleet.

External links

• McCrow, Malcolm (2007). "Death of a Fleet at Kisumu". Memories of East Africa. — photos of various former EAR&H ships lying derelict at Kisumu, including SS Usoga and SS Nyanza