SS Fairport (1941)

Last updated
History
NameSS Fairport
Owner Waterman Steamship Company [1]
Port of registry Flag of the United States (1912-1959).svg Mobile, Alabama [2]
Builder
Yard number1 [3]
Launched15 November 1941 [3]
CompletedApril 1942 [3]
FateSunk by U-161, 16 July 1942 [1]
General characteristics
Type Type C2-S-E1 ship
Tonnage6,165  GRT [3]
Length445 ft 0 in (135.64 m) [2]
Beam63 ft 0 in (19.20 m) [2]
Draft31 ft 2 in (9.50 m) [2]
Propulsion2 steam turbines, geared to a single screw propeller [2]
Speed15.5 knots (28.7 km/h) [3]
Crew10 officers, 33 men, 14 Naval Armed Guardsmen
Armament

SS Fairport was a Type C2-S-E1 cargo ship built by Gulf Shipbuilding for the Waterman Steamship Company. She was sunk by German submarine U-161 on 16 July 1942. All hands were rescued by an American destroyer.

Contents

Career

Fairport was laid down as the first ship constructed at Gulf Shipbuilding of Chickasaw, Alabama. [3] Constructed under a United States Maritime Commission contract (MC hull number 849) on behalf of the Waterman Steamship Company of Mobile, Alabama, [3] [4] she was launched on 15 November 1941. [3] After Fairport's April 1942 completion, she was registered at Mobile and armed with a 4-inch (100 mm) deck gun and six machine guns, and took on fourteen Naval Armed Guardsmen to man the guns. [1]

On 13 July 1942, Fairport departed New York with convoy WS 4 for the Persian Gulf. [1] She was carrying a cargo of 8,000 long tons (8,128.375 t) of materiel which included a deck load of tanks, [5] (fifty-two tanks, eighteen self-propelled guns and other supplies) and also carried 66 passengers. [1] The convoy consisted of six other merchant ships and an escort of three destroyers; Fairport's station in the convoy was in position #12, the second ship in the port column. [1]

At 09:45 on 16 July, [1] near position 27°10′N64°33′W / 27.167°N 64.550°W / 27.167; -64.550 or about 500 nautical miles (930 km) northwest of the Virgin Islands, Fairport was struck by two torpedoes launched by Korvettenkapitän Albrecht Achilles, the commander of German submarine U-161. [5] The first torpedo struck the cargo ship's #4 cargo hold on the port side, starting a fire that was quickly extinguished by inrushing seawater. The second torpedo struck ten seconds after the first, and opened a 30-by-25-foot (9.1 by 7.6 m) hole near the #1 hold. The engines were secured and the vessel ordered abandoned five minutes later. Fifteen minutes after the attack, Fairport sank by the stern. [1] All 123 persons aboard the ship (10 officers, 33 men, 14 Naval Armed Guardsmen, 66 passengers) were rescued by destroyer Kearny, [1] and landed at New York on 21 July. [5]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Browning, p. 187.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Register of Ships (1941–42 ed.). London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Scan of page "F" (pdf) hosted at Plimsoll Ship Data Archived 2012-02-18 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved 6 July 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Fairport (2241559)" . Miramar Ship Index . Retrieved 6 July 2009.
  4. ↑ Colton, Time. "Halter Marine - Chickasaw, Chickasaw AL". Shipbuildinghistory.com. The Colton Companies. Archived from the original on 22 September 2008. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
  5. 1 2 3 Helgason, Guðmundur. "Allied Ships hit by U-boats: Fairport". Uboat.net. Retrieved 6 July 2009.

Related Research Articles

USS <i>Asterion</i> (AK-100) American Q-ship

USS Asterion was a Q-ship of the United States Navy named for Asterion, a star in the constellation Canes Venatici.

SS <i>Dorchester</i> World War II troop ship

Dorchester was a coastal passenger steamship requisitioned and operated by the War Shipping Administration (WSA) in January 1942 for wartime use as a troop ship allocated to United States Army requirements. The ship was operated for WSA by its agent Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamship Lines (Agwilines). The ship was in convoy SG 19 from New York to Greenland transiting the Labrador Sea when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat on February 3, 1943. The ship sank with loss of 674 of the 904 on board with one of the 230 survivors lost after rescue. The story of four Army chaplains, known as the "Four Chaplains" or the "Immortal Chaplains," who all gave away their life jackets to save others before they died, gained fame and led to many memorials.

HMS <i>Chaser</i> (D32) 1943 Attacker-class escort carrier of the Royal Navy

HMS Chaser (D32/R306/A727) was an American-built Attacker-class escort carrier that served with the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

USS <i>Jacob Jones</i> (DD-61) American Tucker-class destroyer

USS Jacob Jones was a Tucker-class destroyer built for the United States Navy prior to the American entry into World War I. The ship was the first U.S. Navy vessel named in honor of Jacob Jones.

USS <i>McCook</i> (DD-252) Clemson-class destroyer

The first USS McCook (DD-252) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy. Entering service in 1919, the ship had a brief active life before being placed in the reserve fleet. Reactivated for World War II, the ship was transferred to the Royal Navy and then to the Royal Canadian Navy and renamed HMCS St. Croix. Assigned as a convoy escort in the Battle of the Atlantic, St. Croix was torpedoed and sunk on 20 September 1943.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Convoy SC 94</span> Convoy during naval battles of the Second World War

Convoy SC 94 was the 94th of the numbered series of World War II Slow Convoys of merchant ships from Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, to Liverpool. The ships departed Sydney on 31 July 1942 and were met by Mid-Ocean Escort Force Group C-1.

SS Manistee was an Elders & Fyffes Ltd banana boat that was launched in 1920. She was one of a numerous class of similar banana boats built for Elders & Fyffes in the 1920s.

USS <i>Henry R. Mallory</i> American transport for the United States Navy

USS Henry R. Mallory (ID-1280) was a transport for the United States Navy during World War I. She was also sometimes referred to as USS H. R. Mallory or as USS Mallory. Before her Navy service she was USAT Henry R. Mallory as a United States Army transport ship. From her 1916 launch, and after her World War I military service, she was known as SS Henry R. Mallory for the Mallory Lines. Pressed into service as a troopship in World War II by the War Shipping Administration, she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-402 in the North Atlantic Ocean and sank with the loss of 272 men—over half of those on board.

SS <i>El Occidente</i> Cargo ship for the Morgan Line (launched 1910)

SS El Occidente was a cargo ship for the Morgan Line, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Company. During World War I, she was known as USAT El Occidente in service with the United States Army and as USS El Occidente (ID-3307) in service with the United States Navy. At the end of war, she reverted to her original name of SS El Occidente.

SS <i>Montanan</i> Cargo ship built in 1912 for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company

SS Montanan was a cargo ship built in 1912 for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. During World War I service for the United States Army Transport Service, she was known as USAT Montanan. Montanan was built by the Maryland Steel Company as one of eight sister ships for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, and was employed in inter-coastal service via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Panama Canal after it opened.

USS <i>West Bridge</i> United States Navy cargo ship

USS West Bridge (ID-2888) was a Design 1013 cargo ship in the United States Navy during World War I. She was begun as War Topaz for the British Government but was completed as West Bridge. After being decommissioned from the Navy, the ship returned to civilian service as West Bridge, but was renamed Barbara Cates, and Pan Gulf over the course of her commercial career under American registry.

SS Louise Lykes was a Type C2-F ship built in 1941 at Federal Shipbuilding of Kearny, New Jersey. She sailed for the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company out of New Orleans, Louisiana. On 9 January 1943, she was sunk with all hands in the North Atlantic by German submarine U-384.

SS Santa Rita was a refrigerated cargo ship built for the United States Maritime Commission by Federal Shipbuilding of Kearny, New Jersey in 1941. Operated by the Grace Line, Santa Rita en route from Cape Town to Charleston, South Carolina, when she was attacked by German submarine U-172 on 9 July 1942. Steaming on a non-evasive course at 16 knots (30 km/h) 700 nautical miles (1,300 km) northeast of Puerto Rico, a single torpedo from U-172 hit the ship in the near the engine room. The explosion destroyed the engines; opened a 30-foot (9.1 m) hole in the hull of the ship, which immediately flooded the No. 3 cargo hold; and killed one officer and two men. After ten minutes, the ship's master, Henry Stephenson, ordered the ship abandoned; most of the surviving officers and crew and the ship's two passengers had already boarded the Nos. 3 and 4 lifeboats.

MS Stag Hound was a Type C2-SU-R refrigerated diesel motor powered cargo ship built by Sun Shipbuilding for United States Lines. She was sunk by Italian submarine Barbarigo on 3 March 1943. All hands were rescued by an Argentine ship.

SS Express was a Type C3-E cargo ship of American Export Lines that was sunk by Japanese submarine I-10 in June 1942 in the Indian Ocean. The ship, built in 1940 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding in Quincy, Massachusetts, was one of eight sister ships built for the United States Maritime Commission on behalf of American Export Lines. Out of a total of 55 men aboard the ship at the time of its torpedoing, 13 were killed; most of the other 42 landed on the coast of Mozambique six days after the sinking.

German submarine <i>U-203</i> German World War II submarine

German submarine U-203 was a German Type VIIC submarine U-boat built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for service during World War II.

Antinous was a Design 1015 ship steam cargo ship built in 1919–1920 by Guy M. Standifer Construction Company of Vancouver for the United States Shipping Board as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. The vessel was chiefly employed on the Gulf to Europe routes throughout her career. In September 1942, while on a passage to British Guiana to load her cargo, she was torpedoed and sunk by German submarines operating at the time in the Caribbean.

R. W. Gallagher was a steam turbine-powered tanker built in 1938 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation of Quincy for Standard Oil Company of New Jersey with intention of operating between the oil-producing ports of the southern United States and Mexico and the Northeast. The tanker spent her entire career in coastwise trade and was torpedoed and sunk on one of regular journeys in July 1942 by German submarine U-67.

Italian torpedo boat <i>Pegaso</i> (1936) Italian torpedo boat of World War II

Pegaso was a torpedo boat and an escort aviso of the Italian Regia Marina. She was one of the most successful Axis anti-submarine warships of World War II.

USS <i>Felix Taussig</i> Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Felix Taussig (ID-2282) was a cargo ship in commission in the United States Navy from 1918 to 1919. She saw service during World War I. Prior to her U.S. Navy service, she operated as the American commercial cargo ship SS Felix Taussig under charter to the United States Army. During this service she mistakenly sank the U.S. Navy submarine chaser USS SC-209 in the deadliest friendly fire incident involving the U.S. Navy of World War I. Felix Taussig returned to commercial service after World War I, first as SS Felix Taussig from 1919 to 1948, then from 1948 until 1953 under the Italian flag as SS Ata.

References


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.