SS Marietta E was a British cargo ship completed by William Hamilton & Co in Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde in June 1940. She had a single 520 NHP triple-expansion steam engine built by David Rowan and Company of Glasgow, that drove a single screw. She had eight corrugated furnaces heating two 225 lbf/in2 single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of , plus one auxiliary boiler. Marietta E was a sister ship of SS Michael E, SS Lulworth Hill and SS Primrose Hill, which also were managed by CSM and owned by companies associated with R&K.