# The first Argentine tanker, was British.



## FILIPVS (Apr 20, 2011)

The first Argentine tanker, was British.
She was called ss WANETTA and her owners were Chadwick-Weir (London). Crew of 25 were also entirely british, but they sailed under argentine flag. Ship was in time charter from 1914 to 1917 so I think crew was very happy to stay under such flag in those hard years. Wanetta was carrying crude oil from Comodoro Ribadavia oil fields (discovered in 1907) to Puerto Belgrano and Buenos Aires. Coal was very expensive during IWW, so this trade of crude oil as new source of energy was very important for Argentina.

Sadly in 1917 WANETTA was finally requisitioned by British Government and at the end of the war she was sunk by a torpedoe. Some months before Argentina bought their first own new tankers, built mainly in Britain, USA, Germany, etc. This fleet will be in the future the *YPF* fleet 



Information and photographs of this story comes from:
*http://www.flotaypf.com.ar/buques/buque_wann.htm*


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## A.D.FROST (Sep 1, 2008)

Bt.1910 Greenock IMPOCO(Impirial Oil Co./Anglo-American) 1913 r/nWANETA(Standard Transport)(1916 Tank Storage&Carriage Co.Ltd.)Tp'd and sunk 30.5.1918 U-101
http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=16042


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## Robert Hilton (Feb 13, 2011)

Thanks, Filipus. An interesting post to flesh out my memories of Argentina. Perhaps you should consider changing your signature. Your English is good. Plenty of native English write far worse.


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