Italian submarine fates

Ships hit by Italian submarines


Melpomene

TypeCargo ship
CountryBritish British
Built1923GRT7,011

Date of attack6 Mar 1942Time0402
2200/5 (e)
FateSunk by submarine Giuseppe Finzi (C.C. Ugo Giudice)
Position of attack23° 36'N, 62° 28'W
Complement49 (no casualties, 49 survivors)
ConvoyOS 19
Notes At 2055 hours on 5th March 1942, a smoke was sighted on the horizon at a range of 10,000 meters in 24°00' N, 61°42' W. It turned out to be a tanker steering 265°.

At 0308 hours on the 6th, Giuseppe Finzi closed to 1,200 metres and , she fired a pair of torpedoes (533mm) from her bow tubes. One torpedo apparently hit amidship and another hit the stern. However, survivors later reported that only one torpedo hit under the bridge.

This was the British Melpomene (ex-French, 7,011 GRT, built 1923) bound from Belfast to New Orleans in convoy O.S.19. The crew began to abandon ship.

At 0337 hours, the submarine fired a third torpedo from a bow tube at Melpomene and hit her again, but she failed to sink.

At 0402 hours, a fourth torpedo was fired and squarely hit Melpomene which finally sank at 0423 hours. The forty-nine men of her crew had taken to three lifeboats and made for San Juan (Puerto Rico). They were all rescued (including three seriously wounded) by the American steamer Idaho.

Position of attack

Ships hit by Italian submarines