High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! SS Papoose was an oil tanker built in 1921 by the Southwestern Shipbuilding in San Pedro, California as SS Silvanus. As Silvanus, the ship was under Dutch ownership in 1926 when it collided with the tanker Thomas H. Wheeler in the Mississippi River, resulting in the death of 26 seamen. The Silvanus was declared a total loss and rebuilt in Beaumont, Texas. It started operating as the Papoose for the Petroleum Navigation Company in Houston, Texas in March 1927. In March 1942, it was attacked by German U-boat U-124 off the coast of Cape Lookout, North Carolina. It drifted for several days and eventually sank in 200 feet (61 m) of water off Oregon Inlet, North Carolina.