Hi John,

If you are interested in U.S. merchant ships lost check out www.usmm.org. They have detailed info including the names of ships sunk or damaged and number of causalities. You may also be interested in the citations issued with the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medals to the crews as a result of the attacks. See [www.usmm.org]. Some of them are as gripping as any you will find for any branch of the military during the war. Additionally see the link to “Capt. George Duffy's POW Page” (http://www.usmm.org/duffy.html) for accounts of merchant crews unlucky enough to fall into Japanese hands during the war.

Also you can purchase the current edition of Captain Moore’s book there: A Careless Word… a Needless Sinking… by Captain Arthur R. Moore. Library of Congress 82-73552. Published by the American Merchant Marine Museum at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point NY. This is an excellent book on the subject with the details of each sinking as well as pictures of most of the merchant ships. It identifies the U-boat for each attack. It is not however, limited to just ships sunk or damaged by U-boats. It is a fairly expensive book ($90.00) but is excellent and very up to date. There are lists of crews killed by name & by ship as well. Another excellent book is U.S. Merchant Vessel War Casualties of World War II by Robert M. Browning Jr. ISBN 1-55750-087-8. Naval Institute Press. It doesn’t have pictures, but it only costs $20 - $30. I bought mine through Barnes & Noble. It is not as up to date as Captain Moore’s book though. The author got a lot of his information from the National Archives and the footnotes in the book identify the source of that information. You can request the same documents the author got from the National Archives or the other sources he used if you want more details.

A lot of the ship pictures from "A Careless Word - a Needless Sinking…" are also on-line at www.armed-guard.com/sunk.html as well as a number of pictures that are not in the book. This is another good Merchant Marine web site. Their home page is www.armed-guard.com. The Armed Guard were the U.S. Navy personnel who manned the guns on our merchant ships during the war.

Note that all of the above are primarily for U.S. merchant ships sunk or damaged during WWII. A Careless Word - a Needless Sinking… also has limited info on some foreign ships sailing under the American flag, including ships interred during the war and re-flagged by the U.S.

Also checkout: [www.ibiblio.org] for a chronology.

I have been researching my dad’s service in the Merchant Marine during WWII for a while now and if you have more questions I will try to help. Just drop me an e-mail. I have found a number of sites and books that each contain a piece of the puzzle.

Regards,

Ken Dunn