1942 — June 29, US freighter Ruth sunk by U-boat, Caribbean, ~320M NNE of Barbuda-35

–35 American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
–31 Crew
— 4 Armed Guard
–35 Chen, C. Peter. “Second Happy Time: 14 Jan 1942–31 Aug 1942.” World War II Database.
–35 Helgason, G. Ships hit by U-boats. “Ruth – American Steam Merchant.” uboat.net.
— 7 officers
–24 crewmen
— 4 armed guards
–34 Clancey. HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in [WW] II, Chapter IV 1942.
–30 crew
— 4 armed guards
–31 Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com.
–31 crew (no mention of the Armed Guard)

Narrative Information

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
“Date Ship Type Cause Result Location Deaths
“06/29/42 Ruth Freighter Torpedo Sunk Caribbean Crew 31; AG 4.”

Chen, C. Peter. “Second Happy Time: 14 Jan 1942–31 Aug 1942.” World War II Database:
“28 Jun 1942 German submarine U-126 attacked Canadian sailing vessel Mona Marie 50 miles southwest of Barbados at 0125 hours, forcing the crew of 8 to abandon ship. At 0610 hours, U-754 sank British merchant ship Waiwera 400 miles northwest of the Azores islands; 8 were killed, 97 survived. U-153 sank American merchant vessel Ruth with a torpedo 320 miles northeast of Barbuda; 35 were killed, 4 survived. At 1355 hours, U-505 sank American merchant ship Thomas McKean with two torpedoes, 350 miles northeast of Puerto Rico. At 1745 hours, U-158 sank Latvian merchant ship Everalda 360 miles southwest of Bermuda; all 36 aboard survived.

Clancey. HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in [WW] II, Chapter IV 1942.
“June 28, Sun. …
“Atlantic….
“U.S. freighter Ruth is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-153 about 100 miles north of Cape Maysi, Cuba, 21°44’N, 74°05’W. U-153 rescues one survivor and places him on a raft with three of his shipmates; they are the only survivors from a crew of 34 men. There are no survivors from the four-man Armed Guard unit.”

Helgason, G. Ships hit by U-boats. “Ruth – American Steam Merchant.” uboat.net:
“Name Ruth
“Type Steam merchant
“Tonnage 4,833 tons
“Completed 1919 – Seattle Construction & Dry Dock Co., Seattle WA
“Owner A.H. Bull & Co. Inc., New York
“Homeport New York
“Date of attack 29 Jun 1942
“Nationality American
“Fate Sunk by U-153 (Wilfried Reichmann)
“Position 21° 40’N, 59° 20’W – Grid DP 4769
“Complement 39 (35 dead and 4 survivors).
“Route Rio de Janeiro – Port of Spain, Trinidad – Baltimore
“Cargo 5000 tons of manganese ore
“History ….
“Notes on event At 05.55 hours on 29 June 1942 the unescorted Ruth (Master Robert
Melville Callis) was hit in the stern by one torpedo from U-153 while steaming a zigzag course at 8.5 knots about 320 miles north-northeast of Barbuda. The explosion ignited the magazine and the whole stern was blown off. She developed a list to port and sank by the stern within two minutes. She sank so rapidly that the seven officers, 28 crewmen and four armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in and two .30cal guns) had no time to launch boats or to leave the vessel otherwise. Three crewmen managed to swim to a raft that floated free and another crewman was picked up by the U-boat and placed aboard the raft after being questioned. The Germans apparently searched for other survivors before leaving the area. On 4 July, the survivors were picked up by USS Corry (DD 463) (LtCdr E.C. Burchett, USN) in 22°23N/62°35W and landed at Port of Spain three days later.”

Note: uboat.net has information on all 39 of those onboard. Accessed 5-14-2021 at: https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/ship1870.html

Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com:
“S.S. Ruth…Torpedoed 6-29-42…Freighter…Crew 31 [Number Killed].”

Sources

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of Ships Sunk or Damaged January to June 1942. Accessed 5-14-2021 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 5-14-2021 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 5-14-2021 at: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-Chron/USN-Chron-1942.html

Helgason, Gudmundur. Ships hit by U-boats. “Ruth – American Steam Merchant.” uboat.net. Accessed 5-14-2021 at: https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/1870.html