Olopana
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| Name | Olopana | ||
| Type: | Steam merchant | ||
| Tonnage | 6.069 tons | ||
| Completed | 1920 - G.M. Standifer Construction Corp, Vancouver WA | ||
| Owner | Matson Navigation Co, San Francisco CA | ||
| Homeport | San Francisco | ||
| Date of attack | 8 Jul, 1942 | Nationality:  American | |
| Fate | Sunk by U-255 (Reinhart Reche) | ||
| Position | 72.10N, 51.00E - Grid AT 4827 - See location on a map - | ||
| Complement | 41 (7 dead and 34 survivors). | ||
| Convoy | PQ-17 (dispersed) | ||
| Route | Philadelphia - Archangel | ||
| Cargo | 6000 tons of explosives, gasoline and trucks as deck cargo | ||
| History | Built as Bearport, 1927 renamed Golden Mountain, 1938 renamed Olopana | ||
| Notes on loss | At 01.00 hours on 8 Jul, 1942, the Olopana (Master Mervin Clement Stone), dispersed from the convoy PQ-17 since 4 July, was hit by one torpedo from U-255 about 10 miles west of Moller Bay, Novaya Zemlya. The torpedo struck on the port side in the engine room, the explosion blew in all bulkheads. The vessel settled immediately, but did not sink allowing the survivors among the eight officers, 28 crewmen and five armed guards (the ship was armed with five .30cal guns) to abandon ship on four rafts. One officer, two armed guards and four crewmen were lost, three of them on watch below. The U-boat surfaced and began shelling the ship at 01.16 hours with 20 rounds until it sank about 20 minutes later and questioned the survivors, gave them the course to land and asked if they had enough food and water before leaving the area. The survivors, 14 of them suffering from frostbite, made landfall in the Moller Bay on Novaya Zemlya more than two days later and were flown by a Soviet Catalina flying boat to Matochkin Strait, where they were put aboard the British steam merchant Empire Tide and reached Archangel on 24 July. | ||
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