1942 — Aug 22, fog, convoy destroyer Ingraham sinks after hitting tanker Chemung off Nova Scotia ~218

lornajarrettblanchard August 22, 1942

–~255 Daily. Convoy AT-20 Orders: Sinking of USS Ingraham DD-444. Fog off Halifax. 2012.
— 218 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 47.
— 218 Uboat.net. “USS Ingraham (i) (DD 444). Accessed 7-21-2020.
— 197? Wikipedia. “USS Ingraham (DD-444)” 2-25-2018 edit.

Narrative Information

Daily: “In the fog, a day out of Halifax in August 1942, no screening destroyers and no ships in convoy AT-20 [troop convoy] yet had anything like SG radar. The Task Force Commander on the USS Philadelphia did have this remarkable new radar but his position was ahead of Convoy AT-20 and during the crucial period to be described was not in the fog-plagued convoy with ships trying to keep station on a buoy streamed by the ship just ahead….

“Now, Convoy AT-20, with troops and supplies bound for Scotland, was, as convoys go, of the “fast” variety, with an expected 15 knots speed of advance. Fog forced the Convoy Commander to slow the convoy and to order the launching of towing spars into the water behind each convoy vessel. Under towing spar conditions, all ships in the convoy close up into a tighter formation so that the conning officer in each ship (except ships in the lead flank) keeps station on the towing spar of the ship ahead. Forward lookouts strain to keep the spar in sight. The helmsman must respond smartly to the conning officer’s rudder commands in order to keep the ship in column. The towing spar must not be overrun, yet the vessel must not fall back and lose sight of the spar. The engines are being controlled by “turns”, called for over voice tubes and by use of a “turns indicator” from bridge to engine room (ER). Annunciators (a brass mechanical handle-or set of handles, one for each engine/propeller), perched on at waist level on the bridge, transmit fundamental speed changes from bridge to ER which, depending on handle position, call for “slow”, standard” or “flank” speed ahead, or “back”. The annunciator method of speed control is not precise enough for minute-to-minute use in a formation of ships in fog….

“At 2205, CTF 37, RAdm Davidson, used the TBS voice radio to direct the USS Buck to go close aboard Letitia and escort her to her assigned station 1,000 yards on Philadelphia’s starboard beam. With visibility now near zero, and with the primary station-keeping resource, the towing spars, streamed, Buck actually had to get into bull horn range of Letitia to help direct her to the assigned position…

“At 2225, now in a crossing position in a convoy column, a Buck lookout’s shout was too late, as the transport Awatea, suddenly visible at 30 yards, rammed Buck’s starboard quarter. The steep bow of Awatea nearly severed Buck. A 300 pound depth charge from one of Buck’s K-guns dropped over the side and exploded, damaging Buck’s port propeller. Buck broke away, badly hurt, and helpless.

“Ordered to investigate “collision in the convoy”, (later determined to be the collision of Buck and Awatea) Ingraham, in that same blinding fog as she entered the convoy’s path, got athwartship the Navy oiler USS Chemung, whose bow cut Ingraham nearly in two. Lying nearly on her side, Ingraham blew up with an orange flash of such intensity that it cut through the fog and was visible on Edison’s bridge. Ensign R.F. (Dick) Hofer, the junior watch officer on Edison’s bridge, reported the flash in Edison’s log at 2235 by Edison’s chronometer. Because I was so new at watch standing underway, I was up on the bridge early to relieve Dick Hofer, and was just getting night-vision adjusted when I too saw the flash.

“Ten men and one officer survived on the Ingraham. The officer was my classmate from the Naval Academy, Ensign Melvin Brown… Ensign Brown was in the Ingraham’s main gun director when she rolled over. He survived drowning mainly because he was wearing a kapok life jacket with a ring that curled from its vest on the chest up around and behind the neck. This jacket could hold an unconscious man’s head out of water….

“The death toll on Ingraham had to be about 250 men. It is not fair to the dead to record such a nominal figure, because each death is a significant loss, and the fact of its occurrence in the defense of one’s country especially deserves accurate and specific recognition. Ingraham’s manifest, provided on departure from its last port, would furnish the information so that each family could be notified. The pace of death in World War II was so rapid that news articles used the estimated loss figures contained in preliminary Navy or Army service announcements. It was rare that more detailed and accurate follow up got into the press because the next loss to announce would already be at hand. Even in the numbing down that the regularity of loss numbers caused, Ingraham’s loss of life came across as very large….

“While Ingraham was more likely than not to sink, given the catastrophic damage of the collision, it was the explosion which robbed her crew of any chance to save her or themselves….Their proportionately large cargo of high explosives and the large space the explosive materials occupied, was their Achilles’ heel.

“Too often, their own depth charges punished many a US destroyer. One of the sources consulted in preparing this account commented that after the collision, and rolling over on her side, that Ingraham’s own depth charges went into the sea and exploded under her. This account states that it was then that the tell tale blast of magazine detonation occurred….” (Daily, Franklyn E. Jr. Convoy AT-20 Orders: Sinking of USS Ingraham DD-444. Fog off Halifax. 2012.)

Uboat.net: “USS Ingraham (Cdr. William Mccall Haynsworth, Jr., USN) sank after a violent collision with the Navy oil tanker USS Chemung in ‘pea-soup fog’ off the coast of Nova Scotia in position 42º34’N, 60º05’W. The Ingraham was part of Task Force 37 escorting Convoy AT-20 to the United Kingdom. An internal explosion caused the ship to blaze from stem to stern. It was all over in a flash, the burning wreck vanishing beneath the waves taking the lives of 218 of her crew. There were only 11 survivors, one officer and 10 ratings all rescued by the Chemung’s boat crews.)
(Uboat.net. “USS Ingraham (i) (DD 444). Accessed 7-21-2020.)

Sources

Daily, Franklyn E. Jr. Convoy AT-20 Orders: Sinking of USS Ingraham DD-444. Fog off Halifax. 2012. Accessed 7-21-2020 at: https://daileyint.com/seawar/seawar4.htm

Daily, Franklyn E. Jr. “Troop Convoy AT-20: USS Ingraham, DD-444 sinks.” Dailyint.com, 2012. Accessed 7-21-2020 at: https://daileyint.com/seawar/apejtwas.htm

Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours – A Narrative Encyclopedia of Worldwide Disasters from Ancient Times to the Present. New York: Pocket Books, Wallaby, 1977, 792 pages.

Uboat.net. “USS Ingraham (i) (DD 444). Accessed 7-21-2020 at: https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/1817.html

Wikipedia. “USS Buck (DD-420).” 5-19-2019 edit. Accessed 7-21-2020 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Buck_(DD-420)

Wikipedia. “USS Ingraham (DD-444)” 2-25-2018 edit. Accessed 7-21-2020 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Ingraham_(DD-444)