War Hamlet - a survivor's tale

On a voyage from Rio de Janeirofor St Thomas & Baltimore with a cargo of manganese ore & a crew of 32 the unarmed coal-burning freighter Chenango was torpedoed by German submarine (U-84 Horst Uphoff) & sank 60 miles SE of Cape Henry in 36.25N/74.55W on 21 April 1942. The torpedo blasted a hole in the hull &, with the weight of the cargo the vessel went down very quickly. 1 boat capsized on launch & 1 went down with the ship. 2 men managed to get themselves aboard a raft & were picked up 12 days later by Coastguard aircraft but one died in hospital. 31 lives lost.

Terrance Bradley fireman aged 24 of Ireland, the only survivor, related the event.

‘We were about six days out from St. Thomas when the torpedo hit. I was in my quarters in the forecastle with three other able seamen, an ordinary seaman & a fireman. The lights went out & we were thrown around the room. We ran forward & up the escape hatch to the poop deck where we were covered in water up to our waist. I was the first one out & I don't know what happened to me but I think I was drawn under by the suction of the ship as it sank. I did not have a life jacket on.
In about half an hour I got on a raft which floated near me. A few minutes after I got on the raft, Joseph Dieltins, the chief steward, swam to the raft & I helped him aboard. A few minutes later one of the Estonian able seamen was swimming toward our raft but when he was within 25 yards of the raft he just disappeared under the water. Another Estonian able seaman was clinging to a hatch cover some distance from the raft. I don't know what became of him.
The 2nd engineer, Sverre Ellingsen, was holding on to a hatch cover as the sub cruised among the men in the water & I heard him cursing the U-Boat. Carlos Rodriguez, an ordinary seaman was clinging to a hatch cover & screaming. I did not see any of them go under the water nor did I see any other member of the crew at this time. We were the only ones who got on the raft. A heavy sea was running & there was an offshore wind which reached gale force by morning.
The following morning I could not see any wreckage or bodies & the gale was still blowing. The raft started to break up. Dieltins & I had to keep working to keep it together. There was no food on the raft, only a water keg holding about 10 gallons. There were no oars, no sail & no anchor. This raft had been condemned in New York & the equipment & provisions from that raft had been placed on the other rafts on the Chenango.
Four or five days later we had some calm weather for 2 days. There was a line on the raft with a hook on it. I baited this with a crab which we got in sea weed. I managed to catch a large fish about 5 feet long & weighing about 100 pounds. Before I could get the fish on the raft a shark took half of it. We tried to eat some of it but it made us sick.
On the second calm day, Dieltins started to go crazy. He wanted to make a cake & acted as if he was preparing the meals on the ship. A few days later he lay down on the raft & would not get up. I gave him water from time to time. He talked as if he were insane.
We did not see any ships but several planes passed close by. About the 11th day a US Army plane dropped us some food in a rubber bag & we both had some chocolate.
The next morning the plane was back again & circled overhead for 4 or 5 hours. It dropped a small package but it was too far away for us to reach it. Then I must have gone to sleep for a while because the next thing I knew a coastguard PBY flew over us, dropped smoke bombs & then l&ed & taxied toward the raft.
Finally a line was thrown from the plane which I made fast to the raft. At this time Dieltins jumped overboard & I had to pull him back on the raft. As the plane neared the raft several men grabbed both of us, Dieltins first & then me, taking us aboard the plane. We were taken to the Marine Hospital in Norfolk & placed in the same room on Saturday afternoon. On Monday morning Dieltins died in that room.’

Lives lost April 1942:

Akesson, Johan, 48, 3^rd engineer, Spring Valley, New York; Arrillaga, Marcas, chief cook, 45, Spain; Briones, Luis, fireman, 45, Chile; Colon, Eduardo, ordinary seaman, 28, New York City; deAranjo, Francisco, fireman, 44, Portugal; Debouge, Louis, able seaman, 39, Belgium; Dieltins, Joseph, chief steward, 42, Belgium; Ellingsen, Sverre, 2^nd engineer, 40, Norway; Heraghty, Patrick, 2^nd mate, 34, Brooklyn; Hernandez, Charles, oiler, 40, Chile; Hollekin, Sverre, radio operator, 26, Norway; Hutson, Arthur, T, able seaman, 37, Columbia, South Carolina; Lamend, Nikolai, able seaman, 20, Estonia; Mauritzen, Svend, 2^nd cook, 24, West New York, New Jersey; Meilreles, Antonio, coal passer, 29, Portugal; Milley, John, chief engineer, 57, Union, New Jersey; Mohamed, Hedad, fireman, 39, France; Myrvold, Albert, 3^rd mate, 45; Oad, John, able seaman, 31, Estonia; Okeson, Emil, 3rd engineer, 48, Sweden; Pedersen, Holger, chief mate, 30, Denmark; Perez, Placid F, 1^st engineer, 50, New Orleans, Lousiana; Persson, John, fireman, 21, Sweden; Ramos, Alfred, coal passer, 23. Brooklyn; Rasmussen, Alfred Hans, master, 37; Rietveld, Ferdinand, oiler, 47, Belgium; Rodriguez, Carlos, ordinary seaman, 19, New York City; Santacruz, Antonio, fireman, 47, Columbia; Serverius, Albert, messman, 26, Belgium; Smith, Harry G, ordinary seaman, 42; Steinberg, Johannes, fireman, 37, Estonia; Swiggers, Eugene, messman, 35, Belgium; Taduran, Felomino, ordinary seaman, 28, Phillipines; Toutant, Jean, fireman, 26, Canada; Vercammen, Louis, boatswain, 31, Belgium; Vilar, Julius, coal passer, 29, New York; Walker, Roy H, oiler, 21, Canada

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