Alegrete
Photo courtesy of Mauricio de Carvalho
| Name | Alegrete | ||
| Type: | Steam merchant | ||
| Tonnage | 5.970 tons | ||
| Completed | 1906 - Harland & Wolff Ltd, Belfast | ||
| Owner | Cia de Navegação Lloyd Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro | ||
| Homeport | Rio de Janeiro | ||
| Date of attack | 1 Jun, 1942 | Nationality:  Brazilian | |
| Fate | Sunk by U-156 (Werner Hartenstein) | ||
| Position | 13.40N, 61.30W - Grid ED 6851 - See location on a map - | ||
| Complement | 64 (0 dead and 64 survivors). | ||
| Convoy | |||
| Route | Belém, Pará - New Orleans | ||
| Cargo | General cargo, including coffee, cacao, castor oil and 5000 boxes of chestnut | ||
| History | Completed in September 1906 as Salamanca for Hamburg-Amerika Linie (HAPAG), Hamburg. In August 1914 interned in Cabedelo, Brazil. On 1 Jun, 1917, seized by the Brazilian Government after several Brazilian merchants had been torpedoed by German U-boats and renamed Alegrete. She was used as training ship for the Brazilian Merchant Marine from 1936 to 1940. | ||
| Notes on loss | At 23.51 hours on 1 Jun, 1942, the neutral Alegrete (Master Eurico Gomes de Souza) was hit on the port side at hold #5 by a stern torpedo from U-156 between St. Lucia and St. Vincent. The Brazilian flag was only visible from a distance of about 300 metres. At 02.12 hours, the U-boat began shelling the abandoned ship with 20 high-explosive rounds from the deck gun and caused her to sink in flames at 03.00 hours. All hands abandoned ship in four lifeboats and three of them reached Port of Spain, Trinidad, La Guaira, Venezuela and La Blanquilla Island, Venezuela. On 2 June, 19 survivors in the fourth boat were picked up by USS Tarbell (DD 142). | ||
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