Ocean Courage was a U.S. built Liberty ship, built for the Ministry of War Transport in the U.K. in 1942. She was built in Portland, Maine and delivered in June of that year. Seven months later she was en route from Pepel, Sierra Leone to the U.S.A. when she was located a couple of hundred miles south of the Cape Verde Islands by U-182.

The German submarine was commanded by Kapitänleutnant Asmus Nicolai Clausen, a veteran U-boat commander who, at one point, served on the Admiral Graf Spee (pre-war). As commanding officer of U-37 and U-129 he sank nineteen ships for over 44,000 tons and had been awarded the Ritterkreuz. This was his first patrol in U-182 and in 1943 U-boats had to range far to locate prey. He sailed from Horton, Norway on Dec. 9 for Madagascar and the east coast of Africa to attack shipping involved in supporting British troops in North Africa. It took until January 15, 1943 for Clausen to find his first suitable target.

When he found Ocean Courage, she was unescorted and an easy target, he fired a single torpedo which sank the ship in less than two minutes. She went down so quickly that no lifeboats could be launched and only a handful of men managed to find some debris and save themselves. On Jan. 21 when the cargo ship Silverwalnut found the men, only six were still alive, these were the only survivors from the ship, they were landed in Norfolk, Virginia.

U-182 continued on her patrol and Clausen sank only four more ships, adding another 30,000 tons (including Ocean Courage) to his war record, but on May 16, 1943 he happened along several ships under escort by two U.S. destroyers. He was located on radar, but managed to dive before any shots were fired at him. The destroyers moved in and dropped depth charges sinking his boat with all hands, including two masters he had captured after sinking their ships.