Santa Maria!

June 8, Mon.
Pacific
Tug Vireo (AT-144) is damaged by grounding, Midway.

British armed merchant cruiser HMS Alcantara embarks survivors from damaged U.S. freighter George Cylmer; attempts to scuttle the freighter prove futile and Alcantara must leave on 12 June with the American ship still stubbornly afloat.

Atlantic
Brazilian tanker Santa Maria rescues the two sailors from U.S. tanker M.F. Elliott that had been held briefly as prisoners of war when their ship had been sunk by German submarine U-502 on 3 June.

Caribbean
U.S. tanker Franklin K. Lane, en route to Aruba, N.W.I., in convoy TA 5, is torpedoed by German submarine U-502 approximately 35 miles northeast of Cape Blanco, 11°22'N, 69°38'W. Four crewmen perish in the attack; 31 merchant seamen and the six-man Armed Guard survive to be rescued by British destroyer HMS Churchill [ex-U.S. destroyer Herndon (DD-198)] (see 9 June).

Coast Guard cutter Nemesis (WPC-111) rescues the 27 survivors of U.S. freighter Suwied, sunk by German submarine U-107 on 7 June.