Friendly Sinking

SAT 11 APR 1942
Pacific

Submarine Trout (SS-202) torpedoes Japanese fleet tanker Nisshin Maru west of Shionomisaki, Japan, 33°26'N, 135°38'E.

USAAF A-20s attack Japanese shipping off Lae, New Guinea, damaging cargo vessel Taijun Maru, 06°49'S, 147°02'E. Taijun Maru, deemed irreparable, is later scuttled.

Atlantic
Unarmed U.S. tanker Harry F. Sinclair, Jr., is torpedoed by German submarine U-203 seven miles south of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, 34°25'N, 76°30'W. Intense fires, fed by the tanker's 66,000 barrels of gasoline, consume the amidships section of the vessel; 10 of the 36-man crew perish in the flames. British armed trawler HMS Hertfordshire rescues 24 survivors, destroyer Herbert (DD-160) two. British (ex-French) armed trawler HMS Senateur Duhamel tows Harry F. Sinclair, Jr. into Morehead City, North Carolina.

British steamship Ulysses is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-160 at 34°23'N, 75°35'W; high speed transport Manley (APD-1) rescues all hands (195 crew, 95 passengers).

British trawler HMS St. Cathan (one of the Royal Navy patrol vessels operating off the eastern seaboard) and Dutch freighter Hebe collide at 38°40'N, 73°00'W, both ships sink. District patrol vessel YP-22 rescues seven survivors from St. Cathan and 31 from Hebe; yachts Azurlite (PY-22) and Beryl (PY-23) participate in rescue efforts and between them later transport the survivors (Hebe's entire 31-man crew and nine of the 39-man crew of St. Cathan) to Charleston, South Carolina.

After a patrol plane sights lifeboat at 38°40'N, 73°00'W, Coast Guard patrol boat 455 proceeds from Cape May, New Jersey, to the reported position, and there rescues last nine survivors of U.S. steamship City of New York, sunk by U-160 off Cape Hatteras on 29 March, and transports them to Lewes, Delaware. All told, one Armed Guard sailor, 16 crewmen and seven passengers have perished in the loss of the ship.

Second group of 13 survivors from U.S. tanker Eugene V.R. Thayer, shelled on 9 April by Italian submarine Pietro Calvi reach the Brazilian coast north of Aracati (see 13 April).