SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Another Interesting Story

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Another Interesting Story

Those of you who have been around long enough know that from time to time my research for the Ship Names mod leads to some fascinating stories. Here's another one.

SS Pedernales,

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ernales-03.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ernales-02.jpg

a small (4317 tons) steam tanker built in Monfalcone, Italy in 1938 and owned by Lago Shipping Co Ltd, London, England (a subsidiary of Esso), was lying at anchor in San Nicholas harbor at Aruba, awaiting orders to start a voyage to Curaçao with a load of crude oil when U-156, under the command of Werner Hartenstein, attacked the harbor, torpedoing Pedernales and SS Oranjestad, another tanker owned by Lago Shipping.

Oranjestad sank after an hour, with the loss of 15 of her 25-man crew, but Pedernales burned all night and refused to sink. The next day she was pushed ashore by tugboats.

Meanwhile Hartenstein surfaced and commenced prepared to shell the refinery, but his gun crew made a fatal mistake:

Quote:

...the crew of the deck gun forgot to remove the water plug from the barrel, causing an explosion that seriously wounded two men.*

16 rounds from the 37mm AA gun were fired, but only two hits could be located by the Allies: a dent in an oil storage tank and a hole in a house. The U-boat then continued towards Oranjestad harbour and at 09.43 hours torpedoed the Arkansas lying at the pier of the Eagle Refinery, after missing with two torpedoes.

*Matrosengefreiter Heinrich Büssinger died of wounds within one hour and was buried at sea the next day. The gunnery officer (II WO) Leutnant zur See Dietrich von dem Borne lost his right foot and a lot of blood, so Hartenstein got permission from the BdU to put him ashore into French captivity at Fort de France, Martinique on 21 February. On 26 February, after using up all torpedoes, the commander decided to saw off the ruined portion of the gun barrel and used this shortened gun to sink two more ships.

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/1340.html

Pedernales

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ernales-06.jpg

was later cut in half, had her center section removed and was welded back together

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ernales-05.jpg

and sailed under her own power to Baltimore, Maryland, where she was rebuilt,

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ernales-07.jpg

relaunched,

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ernales-04.jpg

and returned to service.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ernales-08.jpg

In 1957 she was transferred to Cia de Petroleo Lago, Venezuela, and renamed Esso Pedernales. In 1958 she was sold to NV Phs. van Ommeren’s Scheepvaartbedrijf, Rotterdam, Netherlands, and renamed Katendrecht. In October 1959 she was broken up at Rotterdam.

Great story and a good example why harbor attacks in shallow water aren't worth it. Ships can be raised.
Thanks Steve.

I heard of many raised ships (and I knew that several of those sunk by Hartenstein in shallow water returned to service) but cutting the ship, welding it back and rebuilding it again on the other side of the ocean is another thing.

Really a great story, thanks, Sailor Steve!

Truly amazing story - thanks for sharing it:up:

Remembering something Clay Blair wrote as a little side note in his "Hitler's U-boat Wars" books, he said that if hartenstien actually destroyed the oil refinery, it would have damaged the allies alot more than any ship, because the refinery (on Aruba) was one of the largest.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryanglavin (Post 1413576)

Well, if his crew hadn't forgotten to take the plug out of the gun he might have done just that! :sunny:

I just reread the story myself, and I noticed something else that should make us smile: Note that at Oranjestad harbor Hartenstein torpedoed the tanker SS Arkansas. His first two shots missed a big ship that was tied up at a pier!

So don't complain about manual targetting any more!:rotfl2:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve (Post 1413623)

Poor man - I can just see him stood on the bridge yelling

"FFS can't we get anything right!"

:haha:

Still, his crew did ingeniously cut down the damaged deck gun and actually sunk some ships with it! Way to go Damage Control party! :woot::woot::woot:

Quote:

Originally Posted by robbo180265 (Post 1413643)

Poor man - I can just see him stood on the bridge yelling

"FFS can't we get anything right!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by nemchenk (Post 1413676)

:haha:

LOL :DL

Still, his crew did ingeniously cut down the damaged deck gun and actually sunk some ships with it! Way to go Damage Control party! :woot::woot::woot:

Quite ingenious :hmmm:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve (Post 1413623)

I just reread the story myself, and I noticed something else that should make us smile: Note that at Oranjestad harbor Hartenstein torpedoed the tanker SS Arkansas. His first two shots missed a big ship that was tied up at a pier!

You don't know how happy that makes me feel, so my misses of moving targets CAN be forgiven!

:woot:

Great find, Steve!
Thanks for sharing. It made my day. :salute: