Name SS Alexander Macomb Laid down 18 February 1942 Type Liberty ship Launched 6 May 1942 Beam 17 m | Yard number 2023 In service 2 June 1942 Construction started 18 February 1942 Length 135 m | |
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Fate Damaged by a torpedoed and scuttled, 3 July 1942 Builder Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation | ||
SS Alexander Macomb was a Liberty ship of the United States Merchant Marine during World War II. Construction began on Hull 2023 on 18 February 1942 at the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation in Baltimore, Maryland, under Maritime Commission contract 0036. See, List of Liberty ships: M-R. The ship was launched on 6 May, and her sea trials were completed on 2 June. She was named for Alexander Macomb, an American General known chiefly for his leadership at the Battle of Plattsburgh in the War of 1812.
Service history
Her first Captain was Carl Froisland, a sailor with long experience of the Atlantic. She steamed to New York and there loaded her cargo of Sherman tanks, P-38 aircraft and explosives for the Soviet Union, and then joined convoy BX 27 to Halifax. On this maiden voyage across the Atlantic, she had 41 crew and 25 U.S. Navy gunners on board.
Two hundred miles east of Orleans Massachusetts, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-215. Ten of the crew were lost. HMS Le Tigre and HMS Veteran pursued U-215 and succeeded in sinking it with depth charges. HMCS Regina (K234), a Canadian corvette that was not part of the convoy, assisted in the rescue of the crew of Alexander Macomb and picked up twenty-five survivors, while others in the convoy rescued the remainder.
The wreck of the Alexander Macomb was rediscovered in October 1964 by the Risdon Beazley company salvage ship Droxford at position 41°48′N 66°35′W. The bulk of the metal cargo was removed in 1965 by the same ship. It is considered to be "dangerous to dive."
The wreck of U-215 was discovered by Canadian divers and marine archaeologists in July 2004.