Italian submarine fates
Ships hit by Italian submarines
Charles Racine
| Type | Tanker | |||
| Country |  Norwegian | |||
| Built | 1937 | GRT | 9,957 | |
| Date of attack | 10 Mar 1942 | Time | 0719 | |
| Fate | Sunk by submarine Giuseppe Finzi (C.C. Ugo Giudice) | |||
| Position of attack | 23° 49'N, 59° 58'W | |||
| Complement | 41 (no casualties, 41 survivors) | |||
| Convoy | ||||
| Notes | At 2349 hours on 9th March 1942, Giuseppe Finzi sighted a vessel at a range of 10,000 metres in 23°49' N, 59°58' W. It appeared to be a tanker steering 250° at 10-11 knots.
She was the Norwegian motor tanker Charles Racine (9,957 GRT, built 1937) and she was actually steering 245° at 12 knots. At 0124 hours on 10th March, two bow torpedoes (probably 533mm) were fired at 1,300 metres and claimed one hit. In fact, none had hit and her survivors later reported that one torpedo had missed 10 metres ahead. Guidice noted that the tanker did not make an SOS. At 0511 hours, another pair of torpedoes were fired from the bow tubes at a distance of 1,500 metres. This time both hit, one amidships and the other the stern section. The ship made an SOS and was abandoned. At 0540 hours, a third pair of torpedoes were fired and again both hit, but the ship still refused to sink. At 0719 hours, one torpedo was fired from a stern tube and hit the tanker Charles Racine who finally sank. Her crew of forty-one were all saved. They had been sighted by a plane and then by the destroyer USS Moffett (DD-362), who found three boats with thirty-four survivors and brought them to San Juan. The remaining seven men in the fourth lifeboat were picked up by an Argentine steamer and landed in Trinidad. | |||