The Vamar underwent several name changes in its history:
1919 - 1920 built as a
gun boat for the
Royal Navy, named HMS Kilmarnock
1920 - 1923 S.S. Kilmarnock
1926 - S.S. Kilmarnock, registered Canadian
1928 - renamed the Chelsea after being sold to a private firm
1928 - 1930 Rear-Admiral
Richard Byrd acquired the ship for his journey to
Antarctica. He renamed the ship the Eleanor Bolling, in honor of his mother, Eleanor Bolling Byrd. During the voyage, due to rough seas, the crew nicknamed the ship the "Evermore Rolling".
1933 - the Vamar Shipping Company bought the ship and renamed it the Vamar
1941 - sold to Bolivar-Atlantic Navigation Company, registered Panama
1942 - March 21, after leaving
Port St. Joe, Florida carrying a load of lumber to Cuba, Vamar ran aground, capsized and sunk in heavy seas in 25 feet of water off
Mexico Beach, Florida (29°54′N85°27′W / 29.900°N 85.450°W / 29.900; -85.450) under suspicious circumstances. The
pilot reported that the ship was overloaded and top heavy. Local suspicions that the ship had been sabotaged to block the channel into Port St. Joe led to a
Coast Guard investigation, which was unable to verify the suspicions.[4]