Mr. Mueller wrote this very interesting story about the tanker that was sunk by U-123 under command of Captain REINHARD HARDEGEN (102-LIFE-1985). Here is his story:

For the first several months of 1942 German submarines marauded along the Atlantic coast of the United States. Many vessels were sunk, including several along the Florida coast, and the subject of this article GULF AMERICA, off Jacksonville Beach.

Before 7 December 1942, German submarines traversed the entire Atlantic and were extremely frustrated by the so-called ‘neutrality’ rules. American ships plying the Atlantic had large American Flags painted on their hulls and could not be considered as targets even though many of them, of course, were carrying supplies to England. After Pearl Harbor however, the Germans eagerly started a submarine offensive against the now-belligerent America.

German commander of the submarine fleet, Admiral Karl Dönitz, wasted little time in sending his submarines to sink vessels along the American coast. His initial attacks were code named ‘Paukenschlag’ (Operation Drumbeat) and the record of success was remarkable.

A week after Pearl Harbor, five German submarines set sail from their secret bases in France on the Sea of Biscay, bound for the Atlantic coast of the United States. In two weeks, the German U-Boats were in sight of land and were surprised to see that lights of the coastal cities were burning brightly. Ships going along the coastline were silhouetted and made easy targets for U-Boats.

By January 1942, the German submarine torpedoings along the Atlantic coast were becoming more frequent. Merchant ships carrying cargo and petroleum-laden tankers were proceeding northerly along the coast, hugging the shorelines when they could. Many of them were hoping to join up in convoys forming up in the northeast to eventually go to Europe.

Initially, American defenses against the undersea attacks were inadequate. The US Navy did not have enough ships or other facilities for coping with the U-Boats. The merchant ships themselves, were insufficiently armed and in any case, if they were, their gun crews were not much of a match against U-Boats.

EDITOR NOTE – A deck gun can do nothing against a submerged submarine.

The subject of this article, the Gulf Oil Corporation’s newly built tanker SS GULF AMERICA, had been completed in March 1942 at Bethlehem Steel’s ship works at Sparrow’s Point, Maryland. She was of 8,081 gross tons with 4,805 net tons and was 463.2 feet in length, 64 feet wide and had a hull depth of 34.9 feet. Her crew was officially listed as 41 and her shaft horsepower was 3,960. She was Bethlehem’s hull number 4371. Plans for the vessel were probably similar to those used for similar Union Oil Company vessels previously built by Bethlehem. The Gulf Oil Company used these plans, and the GULF AMERICA was the seventh ship of the series, which had started a few years before when the Union Oil Company of California had commissioned five tankers from Bethlehem. GULF AMERICA was the latest vessel to be completed for the Gulf Oil Company, headquartered at Philadelphia, which maintained a small fleet of tankers.

GULF AMERICA left Baltimore on 26 March bound for Port Arthur, Texas via Norfolk. She was armed with a four-inch 50 cal gun and two .50 caliber Browning machine guns. Upon arriving at Port Arthur, she would be promptly filled with a cargo of fuel oil and dispatched northward.

10 April 1942 was her fateful day. That evening, on her first voyage as a laden tanker, she was steaming northerly at 14 knots toward her New York destination, having left Port Arthur, Texas with a load of 90,000 barrels of fuel oil. She was as close to shore as her depth permitted.

EDITOR NOTE – The US Coast Guard sources show her cargo at 101,500 barrels of fuel oil, but it isn’t that important.

GULF AMERICA had been zig zagging until 8pm, all her lights were out and she had four lookouts posted, two atop the pilot house and two in the gun crew on the poop deck. The sea was smooth, winds were NW about 2 or 3 mph, visibility was good.

While off Jacksonville Beach at 10:20pm, the German submarine U-123 fired a torpedo which struck the GULF AMERICA on her starboard side towards the stern and caused a tremendous explosion and fire. The after mast was shattered and GULF AMERICA’s Skipper Captain Oscar Anderson of Port Arthur, Texas, ordered the engines stopped and the ship to be abandoned. Radio officer William M. Meloney sent out an SOS and Captain Anderson threw the confidential codes over in a weighted bag.

The seven-man US Navy Armed Guard crew on board manned the four-inch gun mounted aft and prepared to fire it and her two .50 cal machine guns but did not use them for some reason, perhaps because the submarine could not readily be seen as only her gun flashes were visible. Ironically, the GULF AMERICA was the first tanker to be armed at the time of her construction and was one of the first with an Armed Guard detachment aboard. The abandonment of the ship proceeded in an orderly manner by the crew of eight officers and 33 men in addition to the Armed Guards.

However, the U-Boat Skipper, LCDR Reinhard Hardegen went over to the port side and started shelling the tanker with his deck gun, concentrating on her engine room area, as he believed the vessel was not sinking from the torpedo hit. Machine gun fire was also directed toward the radio antennas and main mast. Hardegen’s shells were directed from the shoreward side toward the open ocean as he supposedly did not want to hit civilians on shore in case some of his shells were errant. Others believe it was because smoke from the burning vessel was obscuring his target.

EDITOR NOTE – We have known Captain HARDEGEN personally for nearly two decades. We can say absolutely and without hesitation, that his reasons were solely to avoid civilian casualties and nothing else.

The shelling, some 10 or 12 firings, greatly disrupted the withdrawal and in the resulting confusion, the #4 lifeboat capsized. It was either overloaded or an order not given to lower it, or the falls had been cut by gunfire. The captain and ten of the crew got away in another boat ten minutes later, and three men were able to leave in another lifeboat.

Some 25 men jumped overboard and three men used a life raft in abandoning the stricken tanker, picking up two others in the water. The burning oil on the water split into two different patches, which drifted apart. All told, nineteen men died, either from drowning or from the results of the torpedoing and shelling. Some two officers, two Armed Guards and 15 crewmen lost their lives.

Inshore patrol boats picked up the survivors and 12 bodies, and took them to Mayport. GULF AMERICA was not done however, as she kept burning until 16 April when she rolled over and sank.

Jacksonville native Phil May, then a 17 year old out on a double date with a friend remembers that event, “We were on the merry-go-round and when we came around to face the ocean, there was just this tremendous explosion and ball of fire shooting straight up in the air.”

May reckoned that there must have been a collision between two tankers in the busy coastwise shipping lanes. Freighters were a common sight, for example. May continued, “We didn’t think it could possibly have anything to do with the war. But as we drove north, we stopped and watched as the German submarine came between the beach and the burning ship and finished it off with its deck gun. He was probably no more than a mile off the beach. We could see the outline of the sub clearly. Each time the deck gun went off, the whole thing lit up.”

The twenty-nine survivors were taken to the Mayflower Hotel in Jacksonville for rest, food and clothing. Captain Oscar Anderson survived as did Chief Officer Charles H. Glenwright and Chief Engineer Vasco R. Greer. Reportedly they were the last men to leave the ship.

With several survivors in a lifeboat Chief Engineer Greer observed a small light blinking under the water. Looking over the side, he was stunned to see the U-Boat directly under the lifeboat. During the day, the GULF AMERICA had received a message from a patrol boat “Proceed with caution, submarines in vicinity”. The vessel then changed its course and swung in as near the coast as safe navigation would permit.

The next day, 11 April, Florida’s Governor Spessard Holland declared a blackout of lights showing out to sea from coastal areas. Enforcement was ineffective and it would be several months before an effective national policy would be in place.

Today the wreck, known locally as the “Jax Beach Wreck”, is known to divers and fishermen alike. It is situated five miles from shore and in water with a depth of 55 feet. The wreck has been reduced to a tangled mass of rusting steel debris, plates and pipe covering almost mile of the ocean bottom and rising only a few feet above it. Marine life frequents the site and in its present mission as a fishing reef. Years ago, the bronze propellers and brass portholes etc. were removed by divers and ‘salvagers’.

The initial sinking in Florida waters by the German U-128 had taken place on 19 February 1942 off Cape Canaveral when two torpedoes were fired and the PAN MASSACHUSETTS went up in flames. Some 20 of the 38 man crew perished. Three days later, U-504, lurking off Cape Canaveral, sank the REPUBLIC and later, the W. D. ANDERSON off Palm Beach with only one crewmember surviving.

The sinking of GULF AMERICA by U-123 was the last one of her patrol. The destroyer USS DAHLGREN, a few days later, found U-123 south of St. Augustine and dropped six depth charges, which damaged the boat. The DAHLGREN broke off the attack when air bubbles were observed breaking the surface. The U-Boat was damaged, but was not a casualty and managed to get back to its homeport in occupied France.

In commemoration of the unfortunate sinking of the GULF AMERICA and in tribute to all of the merchant marine sailors lost in WW II, the Jacksonville Maritime Museum commissioned a fine model of the GULF AMERICA and it was constructed by Norman Houk. It is at a 1/16” equals one foot scale (1:192). However, the model is probably that of a T-2 tanker as plans have yet to be found of the actual GULF AMERICA type tankers.

The Maritime Museum also has an excellent informational kiosk with words and photos attesting to the GULF AMERICA misfortune on display. In the late 1980’s, Dr. MICHAEL GANNON (101-1985) published “Operation Drumbeat” which recounts the exploits of the German submarines sent over in the early days of the war. At the time of the book’s coming out, now-retired Captain REINHARD HARDEGEN (102-LIFE-1985) came over to Florida from Germany in 1990 and was present in the area for book signings. The complete story of the GULF AMERICA, one of his 25 victims, is set forth in Gannon’s book.

Recently a letter was received by the Museum from this German U-Boat Skipper, Reinhard Hardegen, now in his 90’s, attesting to the event and the Museum’s model of the GULF AMERICA. It is framed and on display in the Museum.

At the beginning of the war, the US Navy was hard pressed to counter the U-Boat attacks. Its anti-submarine assets consisted of three 110 foot submarine chasers, two 173 foot patrol craft, some ancient picket ships and 103 antiquated short-range airplanes, very few of which were equipped with radar. Some Coast Guard cutters were available. The British Royal Navy however, transferred ten escort vessels and two dozen anti-submarine trawlers to the United States for coastal defense along with some airplanes.

A convoy system was started in May 1942 and by the summer, coastwise sailings from Brazil to Newfoundland were protected. Dönitz withdrew his submarines at the end of July and concentrated on fighting in the Atlantic.

Liberty Ships Named After Lost Sailors

Four Liberty Ships were named after merchant mariners who were lost in the sinking of SS GULF AMERICA. They were:

SS ROBERT J. BANKS, named for a 25 year old messman and was constructed in 1944 at the J. A. Jones shipyard in Brunswick, Georgia. She was launched on 20 December as the ROBERT J. BANKS but was completed as the Norwegian VADSO. Northraship, a Norwegian concern, took her over on 30 Dec. 1944 as one of the ten Liberty Ships acquired by Norway. Her Liberty Ship number was 2342. She served during the war and survived.

After the war, she was renamed LIBREVILLE in 1946 and was managed by the Oslo, Norway firm of A. F. Klaveness. In 1951 she was placed under the Panamanian Flag (Rio Valioso Cia. Nav. S. A.) and managed by Seacrest Shipping Company Inc. of New York. In 1952, she was renamed AFROS then in 1956 the manager was the Seaways Shipping Corporation of New York.

She came under the Lebanese Flag in 1962 and was renamed THEODOROS LEMOS. Her owners were evidentially the Marlecal Cia. Nav. S. A. Company and the manager was now the London based firm of Lemos Brothers Co., Ltd. In 1965 the manager was M. C. Fred Hunter, also of London and two years later, the Hunter Shipping Company (1967).

In 1967 she was sold to Chinese ship-breakers and arrived in Shanghai on 7 June 1967, ready to be scrapped.

SS MICHAEL JAMES MONOHAN was named for a 49 year old machinist of the GULF AMERICA. Her Liberty Ship number was 2335. Her keel was laid on 22 November 1944 at the J. A. Jones shipyard in Panama City, Florida. She was launched on 4 January 1945 and was completed on 17 January. She was operated by the US Army Transportation Service and had been constructed to carry boxed aircraft, some 28 vessels were so configured at Panama City. The Jones Shipyard at Panama City built 66 standard Liberty Ships, 8 special tank transporters and 28 boxed aircraft types.

Coming into the war so late, she survived and was later laid up in the James River Reserve Fleet in 1953, inquiry into the status of ammunition from World War II and the Korean War indicated that some needed to be disposed of as soon as possible. To that end, the Navy obtained obsolete surplus ships from the Reserve Fleet. These vessels were stripped of any useful gear, loaded with the deteriorating ammunition – and sunk.

In 1967 therefore, the US Navy obtained the MICHAEL JAMES MONAHAN and loaded her with obsolete Polaris missile motors obtained at Charleston and then scuttled her in the Atlantic Ocean.

SS RICHARD A. VAN PELT was named for a 20 year old wiper and was also built by J. A. Jones Shipyard at Brunswick, GA. Her keel was laid 9 January 1945 and she was launched on 17 February 1945. Her hull number was 2401 but she was finished out later in 1945 as BELGIAN EQUALITY, lend-leased to the Belgian Government. In 1946, still under the Belgian Flag, she was renamed CAPTAIN HEUSERS owned by the Antwerp firm of Cie Maritime Belge (Lloyd Royal).

In 1950, the ownership changed to the Cie. Maritime Congolaise firm also located in Antwerp, and ten years later the owner was Cie. Africaine de Nav. Firm of Antwerp.

In 1962 she went under the Lebanese Flag, now owned by the Twenty-Sixth October Marine Co. and managed by Nomikos Ltd of London. She was renamed ST. DEMETRIUS at that time.

In 1967 she went under the British Flag, now owned by the St. Demetrius Maritime Company of Gibraltar. In 1969 she went under the Greek Flag, being owned by Anastasios em Karavia and was scrapped in Hong Kong in 1969.

SS JAMES KYRON WALKER, named for the Second Cook, was built at the Todd-Houston Yard under hull number 2982. Keel was laid 13 November 1944, she was launched 15 December and she was completed on 23 December. She was an ammunition ship in the war and late in the war, she was involved in a mid-Atlantic collision with SS JOHN HENRY. Conditions were foggy, but nothing severe occurred.

The ship was laid up in the James River Reserve Fleet for many years, sold to Dutch buyers in December 1972, resold in February 1973 and finally taken to Burriana, Spain for scrapping.

Members of the St. Johns Chapter of the American Merchant Marine Veterans Organization ascertained that Michael Monohan’s body had been washed ashore three days after the loss of GULF AMERICA and had been interred in the San Lorenzo Cemetery at St. Augustine. No marker had been placed on his grave however, in visiting this cemetery, Henry Billitz noticed a yellow flag, which marked a veteran’s grave placed on an unmarked grave.

Billitz and Chapter President John Lockhart met with their Congresswoman and arranged for a graveside tombstone. It was placed to honor and remember Monohan. All of the ships named for these veterans are now gone, but Monohan’s grave serves to remind what took place off Jacksonville in April 1942.

Mr. Mueller, this is great writing and we thank you for sending it in. To Members and non-Members alike we ask the same – please don’t take your memories of the War at Sea with you when you go on your ‘Eternal Patrol’. Send them here so we may preserve them in our archives.