On March 17, 1917, my grandfather was first officer on the Savannah Lines SS City of Memphis and was returning to Savannah, in ballast, after unloading a cargo of horses at LeHavre. German U-Boat 66 surfaced and stopped the vessel near Fastnet just off the coast County Cork, Ireland. The U-boat skipper ordered the crew into lifeboats, shelled and torpedoed the ship, sinking it. On St. Patrick's Day, annually, my grandfather and shipmates celebrated their rescue and St. Patrick's Day at a tavern in NYC. L.P. Borum of Matthews, VA, was ship's captain. He had the bad luck of being also sunk again by a U-Boat in WWII while skippering a Liberty Ship, but had the good luck of surviving both sinkings. Matthews, Va., is famous for its maritime history of supplying seaman to the U.S. Merchant Marines, the civilian branch of the wartime North Atlantic shipping effort which bore the brunt of U-Boat sinkings and deaths in WWII. My grandfather joined the Navy and skippered a coal tender, U.S.S. Lake Pepin. After the war, he went back to sea. After Pearl Harbor he was given command of the civilian S.S. Sundance to take part in Murmansk convoy, but received orders to rejoin the USN after waiving his exemption for essential civilian service. He received a Presidential commission to the rank of Captain, but retired from the Navy, never to return to sea and was a tugboat skipper in Savannah until suffering a debilitating stroke. Erin Go Bragh.

Fascinating story Gil. Too bad you can't celebrate St. Patrick's day in Savannah.

Gene, I aged out of the St. Pat's celebrations many years ago. : ) The sinking of the American ships, City of Memphis, Vigilancia and tanker Illinois by the unrestricted submarine warfare of the Germans all sunk within a few days of each other, led to the US declaration of war against Germany on April 6, 1917. Gil

i can recommend the book entitled "the mathews men" by william geroux....a fascinating look at one of the little known aspects of ww2. here is clip of the author giving a presentation regarding the facts and his research connected to the book.

https://vimeo.com/188163996

of personal note is the fact that there is a national merchant marine cemetery located adjacent to fort stanton, new mexico,...which for many years was a tb hospital serving the merchant marine. i have visited a number of times over the years, and frequently include a visit there when i am showing guests around in the area. has always struck me odd that a seafarer's cemetery would be located in the high lonesome of southeastern new mexico....there are men from all over the globe buried there.

https://www.fortstanton.org/cemeteries

best regards,
tom

Tom, I have the book. It took years for the Merchant Marines to be afforded limited wartime VA benefits . I also recommend Operation Drumbeat by Michael Gannon which details the U-boat operations off the East Coast, into the Caribbean up to the Louisiana coast. He researched through interviews of U-Boat crew survivors, the historic record and interviews of Americans involved. The German U-Boats sank over 500 ships killing 5000 mariners during their 6 months campaign just miles off the US coast and through the Caribbean. One ship out of Savannah lost 49 lives when the City of Atlanta was sunk off the Outer Banks. The ineptitude of Admiral King, commander of the Eastern Sea Frontier, in his response was evident and appalling as the ships were largely unprotected. Propaganda by the US to combat the near panic of mariners was mocked by the mariners. One made up event was the alleged sinking of a U-Boat by a Coast Guard crew had the catch phrase, "Sighted sub, sank same" supposedly said by a Coast Guardsman to which the Merchant Mariners responded : "Sighted sub, glub-glub." One infamous sinking happened in shallow water off Jacksonville Beach when U-Boat Captain Rheinhard Hardegen's U-123 torpedoed SS Gulfamerica during the night and placed his sub between the beach and ship and shelled it until it exploded in front of Jax's horrified summertime beach goers. He survived the war and his story was on Youtube. He was inteviewed in Gannon's book. I commend both books to all those interested. Gil

Lucky in some way that the U.S. had not entered the war at that stage as it would have been sunk possibly with all hands still aboard! Certainly, during the next war, the U-boat threat was was a very serious proposition to Britain. There was always a bit of friction with the Republic of Ireland, who were neutral, in allowing U-boats to use Irish ports to re-fit and then go out into the Atlantic. We may not have liked the U-boat crews but one had to admire the risks they took. Not a job I would have envied! Lagopus.....

Papa was involved in two ship sinkings, the other was peacetime out of Halifax. He named his first son after the two captains who rescued him. Despite a maritime life, he couldn't swim a lick. Gil

The Kapitan (probably a Kapitanleutnant) of U-66 was a gentleman in giving the crew time to take to the boats.

It was fortunate that the City of Memphis had unloaded and was in ballast as it would have been his duty to send the horses to the bottom as a military cargo.

The ship had large American flags painted on its sides at the time of sinking. UC-66 was commanded by Oberleutnant Herbert Pustkuchen. It was thought the sub was destroyed by HMS Sea King, an anti-sub trawler, in the English Channel but the actual wreckage was in 2009 located southwest of Cornwall near the Isles of Scilly. It had been bombed from above by a Curtiss HC-12 flying boat on May 27, 1917. Before then the sub had sunk over 30 ships including two warships of GB. Gil

Erin Go Braugh laddies. I am Green Irish on my grandmother's side- O'Malley C'ed Mille Faite!!RWTF

three weeks ago gene posted the picture and story of his grandfather's history in the merchant marine....last night i was searching netflix for something interesting (and worth the electricity expended to watch it....) and found a new release entitled "war sailor".

it's a norwegian production that can be viewed in norwegian, or english, with english subtitles....as i age out, my tinnitus and general hearing make subtitles a huge benefit for me. it is a factual based story of two friends who had signed onto a merchant ship shortly before the nazi's invaded norway, and were automatically conscripted by the legitimate norwegian government....like it or not. they were the sole survivors of one lost vessel, and basically served for the remainder of the european war.

the film concludes with statistics related to the norwegian merchant marine, including the fact that 1 in 9 of their sailors were lost during the war.

a very sobering film, and i immediately thought of this thread - particularly in view of norway's enrollment into nato last week.

best regards,
tom