U. S. Maritime Commission Emergency Hull #290 was laid down at California Shipbuilding Corp. in Los Angeles, California on May 5, 1942. The Liberty ship was named George Thacher after the former the Maine congressman from the late 1800's. She was launched on June 23, 1942 and delivered to the Moore-McCormick Steamship Company of New York on July 16th of the same year.

Her first voyage took her from Los Angeles to the Canal Zone, then to Cuba and on to Key West, Florida. Making a few more voyages between the U.S.A. and Caribbean ports (Guantanamo Bay and Trinidad) she began her last voyage from Charleston, South Carolina. The ship was carrying a diverse cargo for the U.S. Army, including ambulances, trucks, road building equipment and what would prove to be her fatal cargo, gasoline in barrels. She was bound for Mombasa, but had to touch at Freetown, Sierra Leone, Takoradi (in modern day Ghana) and Pointe Noire, French Equatorial Africa (now the Republic of the Congo).

On Oct. 27, 1942 the ship was routed by the British Routing Office in Takoradi through the Gulf of Guinea and given an escort of two Free French corvettes, both with defects. One reported defective anti-submarine equipment and the other was having difficulty synchronizing her engines. Apparently the only speed this ship could make was 8.2 knots, so this was the speed that the three ships proceeded at toward Pointe Noire.

The first report of an enemy submarine came on Oct. 29th when one of the corvettes signaled that they had seen the track of a torpedo pass astern of George Thacher, the submarine was not seen at apparently no countermeasure was taken. A second torpedo attack was seen by the same ship the following day, again the French took no action against the enemy. On the 30th the corvette reported a submarine contact and claimed that the enemy boat broke the surface, this time two depth charges were dropped and one shot was fired by the Armed Guard on George Thacher, but no results were reported.

Finally on November 1, 1942 at 1805 (GMT) about 290 miles east of Pointe Noire a torpedo struck the starboard side of George Thacher, one minute later a second torpedo hit the ship igniting the gasoline in the forward and aft holds and setting the ship ablaze. The explosions and resulting fire destroyed the motor lifeboat and several rafts, it also caused a 40° list in the ship. The power for the radio had been knocked out and, according to the French, their transmitters were not powerful enough to reach Takoradi, therefore no distress signal was sent. In fact until the two corvettes made Pointe Noire, nobody was aware that the ship had been attacked. Three lifeboats were launched and forty-eight men got off the ship, but eighteen men, including the master and the commander of the Armed Guard, were not among them. The survivors were landed on Nov. 3 at 0630 (zone time). George Thacher burned for a couple of days and finally sank on or about Nov. 3.

The torpedoes were fired by U-126, which was under the command of Kapitänleutnant Ernst Bauer, who ended the war with over 110,000 tons of shipping sunk. However during this war patrol only three ships were sunk, George Thacher was the first of the trio. He reported the sinkings on Nov. 5th to U-boat headquarters, but for an unknown reason it was recorded in the BdU Kriegstagebuch that the ship sunk was named Helma. Bauer survived the war, but U-126 did not. The boat was sunk by an RAF Wellington on July 3, 1943, none of the crew survived.

© 2014 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com

Aiken, Samuel F.

Seaman 2nd Class (USNR)

Armed Guard

Anderson, James C.

Ensign (USNR)

Armed Guard (C.O.)

Billings, Henry O.

Master

Merchant Marine

Blomquist, Luther C.

Private

U.S. Army (Medical Dept.)

Cornell, Frank W.

Private

U.S. Army (Medical Dept.)

Craft, Carlton K.

Private

U.S. Army (Medical Dept.)

Horton, Melvin P.

Seaman 2nd Class (USNR)

Armed Guard

Johnston, George H.

Private

U.S. Army (Medical Dept.)

La Fever, Oscar L.

Seaman 2nd Class (USNR)

Armed Guard

Lawson, Dillard D.

Seaman 2nd Class (USNR)

Armed Guard

Lord, James H.

Private

U.S. Army (Medical Dept.)

Lorenz, Howard W.

Private

U.S. Army (Medical Dept.)

Moffett, Jack H.

Fireman / Watertender

Merchant Marine

*

Numme, Thoralf

Bosun

Merchant Marine

Staff, Fred

Chief Mate

Merchant Marine

Stevens, Robert M.

Private

U.S. Army (Medical Dept.)

Story, Leonard K.

Private

U.S. Army (Medical Dept.)

Torstenson, Rudolph F.

Able Seaman

Merchant Marine

*

Norwegian national

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