Lot Essay
Built for the Hamburg Amerika Line by the Neptune Yard at Rostock in 1901, Nicaria was one of the many general cargo boats within Hapag's extensive fleet. Completed alongside her identical sister Nauplia, she was registered at 4,211 tons gross (2,705 net) and measured 339 feet in length with a 51 foot beam. Fitted with her builder's own triple-expansion 3-cyliner engine, she was driven by a single screw and could make 10 knots at full steam. After a successful career on the North Atlantic, she was in New York when the Great War began in August 1914 and thus found herself interned for as long as the U.S. remained neutral. When America entered the War in 1917, Nicaria was seized by the U.S. government and put to work as a fleet collier under the new name of Pensacola; she was reportedly broken up in 1930.