Effingham
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| Name | Effingham | ||
| Type: | Steam merchant | ||
| Tonnage | 6,421 tons | ||
| Completed | 1919 - Skinner & Eddy Corp, Seattle WA | ||
| Owner | Lykes Bros SS Co Inc, New Orleans LA | ||
| Homeport | New Orleans | ||
| Date of attack | 30 Mar 1942 | Nationality:  American | |
| Fate | Sunk by U-435 (Siegfried Strelow) | ||
| Position | 70.28N, 35.44E - Grid AC 8646 - See location on a map - | ||
| Complement | 43 (12 dead and 31 survivors). | ||
| Convoy | PQ-13 (straggler) | ||
| Route | Boston - Reykjavik - Murmansk | ||
| Cargo | 4672 tons of general cargo, including explosives | ||
| History | | ||
| Notes on loss | On 29 Mar, 1942, the Effingham (Charles H. Hewlett) lost contact with the convoy PQ-13 in the Barents Sea after an attack by the three German destroyers Z-24, Z-25 and Z-26 and tried to proceed to its destination alone about 90 miles behind the convoy. On 30 March, U-435 spotted the vessel in a snow squall and fired two torpedoes which missed. At 12.19 hours, a third torpedo was fired that struck amidships on the port side at the #4 hold and the ship began settled by the stern. The complement of eight officers, 26 men and nine armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, four .50cal and four .30cal guns) immediately abandoned ship in rough seas with two lifeboats. Two men fell overboard and drowned. The ship caught fire and after two hours the fire reached the cargo, causing the ship to explode. The master, the chief mate and 15 men in the first lifeboat were picked up by the HMS Harrier (N 71), but six men had died of exposure. 65 hours after the attack, eleven men and three of the armed guards in the other boat were picked up by a Soviet patrol boat, but four men had also died of exposure. In all eleven crewmen and one armed guard died. The survivors were all taken to Murmansk, where they lived on various merchant ships until they were repatriated. | ||
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