SHIPS HIT BRAZIL 33 - BRAZILIAN SHIPS LOST
14)CABEDELO (IT SUB DA VINCI)
Photo. https://alernavios.blogspot.com/2013/11/cabedelo.html
Built 1912
Tonnage 3,557 / 5,000 tons
Cargo: Coal
Sunk 4 Feb 42 by Italian sub Da Vinci on pos 42º 00’N 42º 00’W
54 Dead
0 Survivor
Brazilian merchant Cabedelo was the very first victim of an U-boat attack. She sailed from Philadelphia bound for a long journey to the Brazilian northeastern port of Cabedelo, loaded with a cargo of coal on 4 February of 1942. Convoy system at that time had not yet deemed as a necessity for the menace of the U-boats was not still present at Caribbean and U S coast. Naval authorities could never precise moment of ship loss, once there was not any navigational control of all homeward/outward bound traffic.
Merchant Cabedelo disappeared without traces. The same was considered lost for enemy action, probably Italian sub Da Vinci once the same was prowling in that area. Her master was Pedro Silveira plus 16 officers and 37 crewmen, totaling 54 men. Cabedelo was the former German Prussia, with a displacement of 3,557 tons. Launched 1912 , she was seized by Brazilian Government in World War One.
