Francis E. Powell
Photo courtesy of the Peabody and Essex Museum, Salem MA
| Name | Francis E. Powell | ||
| Type: | Steam tanker | ||
| Tonnage | 7.096 tons | ||
| Completed | 1922 - Baltimore Dry Docks & Shipbuilding Co, Baltimore MD | ||
| Owner | Atlantic Refining Co, Philadelphia PA | ||
| Homeport | Philadelphia | ||
| Date of attack | 27 Jan, 1942 | Nationality:  American | |
| Fate | Sunk by U-130 (Ernst Kals) | ||
| Position | 38.05N, 74.53W - Grid CA 5743 - See location on a map - | ||
| Complement | 32 (4 dead and 28 survivors). | ||
| Convoy | |||
| Route | Port Arthur, Texas - Providence, Rhode Island | ||
| Cargo | 81.000 barrels of furnace oil and gasoline | ||
| History | Built as Macy Willis, 1923 renamed Francis E. Powell | ||
| Notes on loss | At 09.43 hours on 27 Jan, 1942, the unarmed and unescorted Francis E. Powell (Master Thomas J. Harrington) was hit by one torpedo from U-130 about eight miles northeast of the Winter Quarter Light Vessel, while proceeding completely blacked out at 10.5 knots. The torpedo struck on the port side aft of the midships house, between the #4 and #5 tanks. The explosion started a small fire in the pump room and destroyed the radio antenna. Then the U-boat was sighted a few hundred yards away. The eight officers and 24 crewmen abandoned ship in two lifeboats. The master was crushed to death when he slipped and fell between the boat and the ship. The same boat was lifted back on the ship by a wave and the occupants had to launch another boat. Another officer and two men were also lost. The tanker sank at about 14.00 hours. After five hours, 17 men in one of the boats were picked up by the American steam tanker W.C. Fairbanks and landed at Lewes, Delaware. The remaining eleven survivors in the other boat were picked up by a US Coast Guard boat from the Assateague Station and landed at Chincoteague, North Carolina. | ||
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