Another Interesting Story

[Sailor Steve]

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,





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:

...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



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



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



relaunched,



and returned to service.



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.

[RConch]

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

[Kpt. Weyprecht]

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!

[PappyCain]

[robbo180265]

Truly amazing story - thanks for sharing it

[ryanglavin]

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.