MERAK AF 21

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Mizar Class Stores Ship Built 1932 at Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Quincy, MA. VERAGUA (Passenger-Cargo Ship) Delivered to United Fruit Co. August 5 1932 Acquired by U.S. Navy March 20 1942 and converted for Navy service USS MERAK AF-21 Commissioned May 8 1942 - Decommissioned June 21 1946 Struck from Naval Register June 21 1946 VERAGUA (Commercial Service) Returned to United Fruit Co. June 21 1946 original name restored SINALOA (Commercial Service) Sold 1958 to Elder & Fyffes and renamed Scrapped March 1965

 

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. Covers Page 1     (1943-45)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Date From to Date To	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

United Fruit Company Purser's Mark Cristobal Colon Paquebot Duplex

1936-12-25

Merry Christmas from SS VERAGUA, cachet by Leslie S. Merrell

 

United Fruit Company Purser's Mark

1937-11-25

As S.S. VERAGUA

 

United Fruit Company Purser's Mark

(1940-01-29)

Typewritten "First Day Cover" for the Washington Irving stamp that was issued on January 29 1940. Contributed by Gary Denis.

---

 

Locy Type 2z

1945-12-15

Note:

 

Locy Type 3z (BTB)

1943-02-22

Censored wartime (WWII) use

 

Locy Type 9efu

1945-12-15

Note:

---

 

United Fruit Company Purser's Mark Cristobal Colon Paquebot Duplex

1964-08-29

As S.S. VERAGUA

 

Other Information

USS MERAK earned the American Campaign Medal, the Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal during her Naval career.

NAMESAKE - The second brightest star in the constellation Ursa Majoris; also known as Mirak.

 

---

 

If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 

---

Copyright 2024 Naval Cover Museum