1942 — June 2-3, US freighter City of Alma sunk by U-boat ~400M NE of San Juan, PR–29

–29 American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
–26 crew
— 3 armed guard
–29 Chen, C. Peter. “Second Happy Time: 14 Jan 1942–31 Aug 1942.” World War II Database.
–29 Helgason, G. Ships hit by U-boats. “City of Alma – American Steam merchant.” uboat.net.
–29 Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com.
–26 crew
— 3 Navy
–26 Clancey. HyperWar: The Official Chronology of…US Navy in [WW] II, Chapter IV 1942.

Narrative Information

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
“Date Ship Type Cause Result Location Deaths
“06/02/42 City of Alma Freighter Torpedo Sunk Caribbean Crew 26; Navy 3.”

Chen, C. Peter. “Second Happy Time: 14 Jan 1942–31 Aug 1942.” World War II Database:
“3 Jun 1942 German submarine U-172 sank US ship City of Alma 400 miles northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico at 0410 hours; 29 were killed, 10 survived. At 1000 hours, U-404 sank Swedish ship Anna 245 miles northwest of Bermuda after 5 hours of pursuit; all 17 aboard survived. 40 miles west of Nova Scotia, Canada, U-432 forced the occupants of two small US fishing boats to abandon the vessels before sinking them with her deck gun at 2100 hours.”

Clancey. HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in [WW] II, Chapter IV 1942:
“June 2, Tue. ….
“Atlantic….
“Unarmed U.S. freighter City of Alma is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-159 about 400 miles northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, 23°00’N, 62°30’W; district patrol craft YP-67 rescues the 10 survivors from the 36-man merchant complement.”

Helgason, G. Ships hit by U-boats. “City of Alma – American Steam merchant.” uboat.net:
“Name City of Alma
“Type Steam merchant
“Tonnage 5,446 tons
“Completed 1920 – Merchant Shipbuilding Corp., Harriman PA
“Owner Waterman Steamship Co., Mobile AL
“Homeport Mobile
“Date of attack 3 Jun 1942
“Nationality American
“Fate Sunk by U-172 (Carl Emmermann)
“Position 23° 00’N, 62° 30’W – Grid DO 6724
“Complement 39 (29 dead and 10 survivors).
“Route Bombay (10 Apr)– Capetown– Port of Spain, Trinidad (30 May)- Baltimore
“Cargo 7400 tons of manganese ore
“History ….
“Notes on event At 04.10 hours on 3 June 1942 the unescorted and unarmed City of Alma
(Master James Joshua Baker) was torpedoed by U-172 about 400 miles northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, while proceeding along a non-evasive course in moderate seas at 9.5 knots. One torpedo struck between the #3 hatch and the fireroom. The explosion blew the hatches off the #3 port hatch and ripped a hole about 40 feet long in the side. She sank within three minutes, so quickly that the radio operator did not send a message and died on board. Of the eight officers, 28 crewmen and three Navy signal men on board, 29 men died, including the master, the second mate, the three signal men, the chief engineer and his three assistants. Only two officers and eight men survived on a lifeboat that had floated free of the ship and were picked up by the American patrol boat USS YP-67 and taken to San Juan four days later.”

Note: uboat.net contains information of twenty-seven of those onboard accessible at:
https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/ship1740.html

Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com:
“S.S. City of Alma…Torpedoed 6/2/42…Freighter…Crew 26, Navy 3. [Number killed].”

Sources

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of Ships Sunk or Damaged January to June 1942. Accessed 5-10-2021 at: http://www.usmm.org/sunk42a.html#anchor331462

Chen, C. Peter. “Second Happy Time: 14 Jan 1942 – 31 Aug 1942.” World War II Database. Accessed 5-10-2021 at: https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=277

Clancey, Patrick (transcriber and formatter for HTML). HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in World War II, Chapter IV: 1942. Accessed 5-10-2021 at: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-Chron/USN-Chron-1942.html

Helgason, Gudmundur. Ships hit by U-boats. “City of Alma – American Steam merchant.” uboat.net. Accessed 5-10-2021 at: https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/1740.html

Moore, Captain Arthur R. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking: A History of the Staggering Losses Suffered By the U.S. Merchant Marine, Both in Ships and Personnel, During World War II. American Merchant Marine Museum 1983 (1st edition), 1990. Table extracted by armed-guard.com. Accessed 5-10-2021 at: https://www.armed-guard.com/sunk.html