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SHIPS HIT USA 80 * - U S SHIPS R / S 14

11)STEEL SCIENTIST U-514




Photo. City of Vancouver Archives CVA 447-2721


 


Built 1921


Tonnage 5,688 / 9,200 tons 


Cargo: 200 tons of general cargo and 1,800 tons of salt ballast.


Route: Suez - Capetown - Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana


Sunk 11 OCT 42 by U-514 on pos. 05º 48"N  51º 39"W.


1 Dead


46 Survivors


At 00.10 hours on 12 Oct, 1942, the unescorted Steel Scientist (Master Karl O. Bornson) was struck on the starboard side in the #4 hold by a torpedo from U-514 while steaming at 11 knots on a zigzag course about 95 miles north of Cayenne, French Guiana. The explosion stopped the engines, filled the engine room with ammonia fumes from the broken ice machinery, started a fire on the poop deck, blew away the radio antenna and caused the ship to settle fast by the stern.


About 10 minutes later, all but one crew member of the ten officers, 28 crewmen and nine armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, four 20mm and two .30cal guns) on board abandoned ship in three lifeboats and a gig, the fourth lifeboat was left hanging vertically on its davit.


At 00.22 hours, a first coup de grâce hit and showered the gig about 200 yards away with debris. At 00.52 hours, a third torpedo struck aft of the bridge and caused the ship to sink by the bow eight minutes later.


The U-boat surfaced near the gig containing the master and the radio operator and asked for the master but they told the Germans that he was not present so they left the area. The two men made landfall on 19 October at Tarlogie Loretyne near New Amsterdam, British Guiana. The three lifeboats with 44 survivors landed in Paramaribo on 20 October.


By Steel Scientist (American Steam merchant) - Ships hit by German U-boats during WWII - uboat.net


 

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