Chenango
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| Name | Chenango | ||
| Type: | Steam merchant | ||
| Tonnage | 3.014 tons | ||
| Completed | 1918 - Irvine´s Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co Ltd, Middleton Shipyard, West Hartlepool | ||
| Owner | Moore-McCormack SS Co, New York | ||
| Homeport | Panama | ||
| Date of attack | 21 Apr, 1942 | Nationality:  Panaman | |
| Fate | Sunk by U-84 (Horst Uphoff) | ||
| Position | 35.25N, 74.55W - Grid DC 1314 - See location on a map - | ||
| Complement | 32 (31 dead and 1 survivor). | ||
| Convoy | |||
| Route | Rio de Janeiro - St.Thomas - Baltimore | ||
| Cargo | Manganese ore | ||
| History | August 1918 completed as British War Hamlet for W.H. Cockerline & Co; 1919 renamed Newaster for Aster Shipping Co, London; 1933 sold Finland and renamed Kurikka for Vaasen Laiva O/Y, Vasa On 27 Dec, 1941 requisitioned by US at New York, renamed Chenango for Moore-McCormack Lines under Panamanian flag | ||
| Notes on loss | At 00.30 hours on 21 Apr, 1942, the unescorted and unarmed Chenango (Master Alfred Rasmussen) was struck by one torpedo from U-84 on the port side between #4 and #5 hatches blasting a huge hole in the hull. The cargo caused the ship to sink within one minute 60 miles southeast of Cape Henry. One boat was launched but it capsized, the other boat went down with the ship, like all the regulation rafts on the ship, because they were improperly stowed on deck instead of in quick release racks. Two men managed to reach a raft which had floated free when the ship sank. This raft had been condemned in New York and the only supplies on the raft was water and a fishing line. Twelve days later the raft was sighted by an US Army aircraft in position 34.30N/74.25W. Six hours later they were picked up by a PBY Catalina aircraft of the US Coast Guard and were taken to the Marine Hospital in Norfolk, but one of the rescued men died two days later. The crew of 32 men was made up of 12 different nations, there were Americans, Danes, Norwegians, Estonians, Swedes, Chileans, French, Portugese, Canadians, Columbians, Belgians and Irish. Only one Irish Fireman survived. | ||
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