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SS Arkaba

Open-knowledge reference entry

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ7393186
Source-derived summary

SS Arkaba was a 4,214 gross register ton cargo vessel built by William Beardmore & Company, Dalmuir, Scotland for the Adelaide Steamship Company as Arcoona. She was renamed Arkaba in 1925. She was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy during World War II between 26 August and 31 October 1940, as a coal and stores carrier. She became stranded on a reef on 19 February 1952 off Port Lincoln, South Australia. She was sold and during being towed to Hong Kong, broke her towline in huge seas and floated at the mercy of the waves and current, until reattached to a tugboat. Refitted in Hong Kong and sold in 1954 to William Charlick Ltd, Hong Kong and renamed William Charlick IV, before being sold to Indian & Pacific Ocean Merchants, Rabaul in 1957.

Fate

She was scrapped in Hong Kong in 1959.

Editorial summary

“SS Arkaba” enters the record as open-knowledge reference entry. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Arkaba, Open-knowledge and entry can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1925, 1940, 1952, 1954—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Arkaba, Open-knowledge and entry.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“SS Arkaba” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Arkaba, Open-knowledge and entry provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7393186. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1925, 1940, 1952 and 1954.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “SS Arkaba”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow SS Arkaba primary sources, SS Arkaba archive and Arkaba research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “SS Arkaba”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from SS Arkaba” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.