Alcoa Puritan
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| Name | Alcoa Puritan | ||
| Type: | Steam merchant (C-1 type) | ||
| Tonnage | 6.759 tons | ||
| Completed | 1941 - Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp, San Francisco CA | ||
| Owner | Alcoa SS Co, New York | ||
| Homeport | New York | ||
| Date of attack | 6 May, 1942 | Nationality:  American | |
| Fate | Sunk by U-507 (Harro Schacht) | ||
| Position | 28.35N, 88.22W - Grid DA 9393 - See location on a map - | ||
| Complement | 54 (0 dead and 54 survivors). | ||
| Convoy | |||
| Route | Port of Spain, Trinidad - Mobile AL | ||
| Cargo | 9700 tons of bauxite | ||
| History | | ||
| Notes on loss | At 18.55 hours on 6 May, 1942, a lookout on the unescorted and unarmed Alcoa Puritan (Master Yngvar Axelstein Krantz) spotted a torpedo passing approximately 15 feet astern about 15 miles off the entrance to the Mississippi River. The master immediately ordered full speed and swung the ship to keep the U-boat dead astern to present as small a target as possible. U-507 surfaced and began to overtake the freighter which was running at 16.5 knots. Five minutes the U-boat began to shell the ship from a distance of one mile. In 40 minutes, about 75 rounds were fired, scoring about 50 hits and disabling the steering gear. Two of the crew members suffered minor shrapnel injuries. The crew of ten officers, 37 crewmen and seven passengers abandoned ship in one lifeboat and two rafts. At 19.43 hours, a torpedo was fired, which struck below the #4 hatch and caused the ship to sink stern first in eight minutes. U-507 then approached the survivors and a German officer with a megaphone shouted: Sorry we can´t help you - hope you get ashore. and waved as the U-boat sailed away. All hands were picked up by the US Coast Guard cutter USS Boutwell (WPC 130) the same day and landed at Burrwood, Louisiana, after they had been spotted by a patrol bomber. The passengers were repatriated seamen from the American steam tanker T.C. McCobb, which was sunk by the Italian submarine Pietro Calvi (Olivieri) 600 miles off British Guiana on 31 Mar, 1942. | ||
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