"The M.V. Bolivar was launched at Oslo, Norway in 1940. She was not completed until 1946. She was damaged by an explosion and fire while nearing completion. She set off on her maiden voyage to South America at the end of 1946. She broke in two on the Kish Bank, 13 kilometres off Dalkey Island on Tuesday, 4th March 1947.

A later Bolivar than the one memorialized by Kipling; the author introduces his story with two lines from Kipling's ballad, 1892 (1890):
Leaking like a lobster-pot, steering like a dray,
Out we took the Bolivar, out across the Bay.

The Wreck of the M.V. Bolivar on Kish Bank 1947, Liam Clare, Dublin Historical Record, v. 51 no. 1, Spring 1998, pp. 51.

The first page is available at jstor.org.

A glossary and discussion of the poem by Kipling: John McGivering, http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_bolivar1.htm.
(It should be noted that the pronunciation stress is on the second syllable, Bo liv' ar, but how an English sailor would pronounce it...

Percy Grainger, 1901, set the poem for male voices and orchestra. Bardic Edition Music Publishers.
Has anyone found a recording?