Stealing The Ambassador's Liquor; Medical Assistance & Cigarettes

TUE 19 MAY 1942
Pacific
Light cruiser Nashville (CL-43) sails independently from Midway, bound for the western Aleutians.

Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-21 reconnoiters Suva Bay, Fiji.

Indian Ocean
Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-30 reconnoiters Zanzibar and Dar-es-Salaam.

Atlantic
Armed Guard officer on board U.S. freighter Ironclad, at Hvalfjordur, Iceland, reports disturbance among the crew, occasioned by some of the merchant seamen breaking into a quantity of liquor consigned to Admiral William H. Standley, USN (Ret.), U.S. Ambassador to the USSR. Battleship Washington (BB-56) provides a guard of marines from her detachment to bring the rowdies under control. Consequently, Ironclad is withdrawn from the list of ships to comprise convoy PQ 16 so that the incident can be investigated.

Last three survivors of unarmed U.S. fishing trawler Foam, attacked by German submarine U-432 on 17 May, are rescued by Canadian corvette HMCS Halifax.

U.S. steamship Howard rescues the 29 survivors of U.S. tanker Mercury Sun, torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-125 the previous day; she transfers one to a Coast Guard boat at the Tampa Sea Buoy for medical attention and transports the rest to Mobile, Alabama.

Gulf of Mexico
U.S. freighter Heredia is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-506 two miles south of the Ship Shoal Buoy, Louisiana, 27°32'N, 91°00'W; the rapidity with which the ship sinks gives the crew no time to launch boats. Of the 62 men on board (48-man merchant crew, six-man Armed Guard and eight passengers), 36 (30 crewmen, five Armed Guard sailors and one passenger) perish. Shrimp boats Papa Joe, Conquest, J. Edwin Treakle, and Shellwater rescue 23 survivors; a seaplane rescues three.

U.S. freighter Ogontz is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-103 at 23°30'N, 86°37'W; 17 merchant seamen and two Armed Guard sailors perish in the attack, the majority of the casualties caused when a mast falls across a lifeboat when the ship is being abandoned. U-103 questions two survivors on board before returning them to their shipmates. The Germans provide medical assistance and cigarettes before leaving (see 20 May).

Caribbean
Unarmed U.S. freighter Isabela is torpedoed, shelled and sunk by German submarine U-751 35 miles south of Navassa Island light, 17°50'N, 75°00'W; three crewmen perish. Survivors subsequently reach Cape Briton, Haiti, in two lifeboats.

Latvian freighter Kegums rescues the 22 survivors of U.S. freighter William J. Salman, torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-125 the previous day. She transports them to Key West, Florida.