Ships hit by U-boats


City of Atlanta

American Steam merchant



NameCity of Atlanta
Type:Steam merchant
Tonnage5,269 tons
Completed1904 - Delaware River Iron Shipbuilding & Engine Works, Chester PA 
OwnerOcean SS Co, Savannah GA 
HomeportSavannah 
Date of attack19 Jan 1942Nationality:      American
 
FateSunk by U-123 (Reinhard Hardegen)
Position35° 42'N, 75° 21'W - Grid CA 7962
Complement46 (43 dead and 3 survivors).
Convoy
RouteNew York - Savannah 
Cargo2780 tons of general cargo, mainly foodstuffs 
History Completed in April 1904. On 29 October 1920, badly damaged her bow in a collision with the concrete ship Cape Fear, which sank in three minutes off Narragansett Bay. On 10 February 1925, in dense fog damaged in a collision with the barge Juniper, which sank off York Spit, Baltimore. On 14 May 1930, rammed the schooner Azua which sank about 47 miles southeast of Barnegat, New Jersey. The master and one crewman was lost. 
Notes on event

At 09.09 hours on 19 January 1942 the unescorted and unarmed City of Atlanta (Master Leman Chapman Urquhart) was hit by one torpedo from U-123 about 12 miles south of the Wimble Shoals Buoy and about eight or ten miles off the coast of North Carolina, after Hardegen had spotted her navigational lights three hours earlier. The torpedo became a surface runner and struck at the waterline on the port side forward of the #3 hold. After a heavy detonation debris fell around the surfaced U-boat in a distance of 250 metres. The ship quickly settled by the stern and took a sharp list to port, making it difficult for the crew of eight officers and 38 crewmen to abandon ship. The vessel rolled over in about ten minutes before any of the four lifeboats could be lowered. The U-boat circled the ship, apparently flashing a searchlight in an attempt to read the name of the ship and then left. Only one officer and two men survived by clinging to wreckage and were picked up by the American railway car carrier Seatrain Texas after six hours.

 
On boardWe have details of 46 people who were on board


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