Nathaniel Hawthorne Goes Down Fast; "Third Boat ... Never Seen Again"

SAT 7 NOV 1942
Pacific
SBDs (VMSB 132), TBFs (VT 8), Marine F4Fs, and USAAF P-39s from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, attack Japanese convoy, damaging destroyers Naganami and Takanami.

Off Guadalcanal, miscellaneous auxiliary Majaba (AG-43) is torpedoed by Japanese midget submarine Ha.11 (launched from submarine I-20) off Lunga Point. Destroyers Lansdowne (DD-486) and Lardner (DD-487) depth charge I-20, but the submarine escapes destruction. Ha.11, her mission completed, is scuttled.

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At 1430, the midget runs aground in shallow waters off Marovovo. After all secret materials are salvaged, Lt (j.g.) Kunihiro and PO1C Inoue scuttle their craft. Both sailors escape ashore, becoming the first survivors of an IJN midget attack mission.

Ca. 1943: Two Seabees of a U.S. Naval Construction Battalion atop HA-11 off Marovovo.
(Photo ©www.archaehistoria.org)

Mediterranean
Transport Thomas Stone (AP-59) is torpedoed by German submarine U-205, western Mediterranean, 37°32'N, 00°01'E.

Italian submarine Antonio Sciesa is sunk by USAAF aircraft off coast of Libya, 32°05'N, 23°59'E.

Atlantic
U.S. freighter La Salle is torpedoed and sunk with all hands (including 13 Armed Guard) by German submarine U-159 about 350 miles southeast of the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, 40°00'S, 21°30'E. When the merchantman, which is carrying ammunition, explodes, the cataclysmic blast rains debris on her assailant's decks nearby, wounding three German submariners.

U.S. freighter West Humhaw, en route from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to Takoradi, Gold Coast, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-161 at 04°21'N, 02°42'W. There are no casualties among the 39-man merchant crew, the 16-man Armed Guard, and the five passengers. British ML 281 rescues all hands and transports them to Takoradi. [What/where is a Humhaw?]

U.S. freighter Nathaniel Hawthorne, en route to New York in convoy TAG 19, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-508 at 11°34'N, 63°26'W; the merchantman sinks with a rapidity that does not allow lifeboats to be launched. For his bravery as he directs his men to safety, Lieutenant Kenneth Muir, the Armed Guard commander, is awarded the Navy Cross (posthumously) (see 9 November).

British trawlers rescue two boatloads of survivors from U.S. freighter William Clark, sunk by German submarine U-354 on 4 November; HMS St. Elstan rescues 26; HMS Cape Palliser 15. The third boat, with 23 men, is never seen again; 18 of 41 merchant seamen are lost, as are 13 of the 30-man Armed Guard.