1942 — Mar 11, freighter Caribsea (NYC home port) sunk by U-boat, off Cape Lookout, NC–21

–21 Gentile, Gary. Shipwrecks of North Carolina – from Hatteras Inlet South. 1992, p. 41.
–21 NC-wreckdiving.com. Caribsea. Accessed 2-12-2021
–21 NOAA National Marine Sanctuary. Caribsea. Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

Narrative Information

NC-wreckdiving.com: Caribsea
“Type: Cargo Freighter
“Built: 1919 by McDougall-Duluth Shipbuilding Co., Duluth, Minnesota
“Owner: Panama Railroad Steamship Line
“Home Port: New York, NY
“Size (ft.): 261 x 43.9 x 24.4
“Tonnage: 2,609 tons
….
“Date Sunk: 3/11/42
“Cause: Torpedoed by U-158
“Location: Cape Lookout, NC

“Ship History: The Caribsea was sailing alone en route from Santiago, Cuba to Norfolk, VA. with a cargo of manganese. At 0200 EWT, she was struck by two torpedoes on the starboard side. The first hit the #2 hold and the second hit amidships. The ship sunk in less than 3 minutes. The crew was unable to launch of the ship’s lifeboats and jumped overboard. Only 7 of the 28 member crew managed to cling to wreckage and survive the 10 hours in the water before they were picked up by the freighter SS Norlindo. It is reported that the U-158 circled the survivors during the night, shining a light in their direction before finally submerging. They were taken towards Cape Henry, VA before being transferred to a Coast Guard boat. Two months later, the Norlindo was sunk near the Dry Tortugas by the U-507.”

NOAA: “Caribsea”
….
“Vessel Type: Freighter
“Length: 251 feet Breadth: 43 feet
Gross Tonnage: 2,609 Cargo: 3,600 tons of manganese ore
Built: 1919, McDougall and Duluth Shipbuilding Company, Duluth, Minnesota
….
“Port of Registry: New York, New York, USA
“Owner: Stockard Steamship Company, New York, New York, USA
“Lloyd’s Register Details: Steel hull, one deck, two tiers of beams, fitted for fuel oil…
“….Date Lost: March 11, 1942
“Sunk By: U-158
“Survivors: 7 of 28 survived (21 dead)”
(NOAA, National Marine Sanctuary. Caribsea. Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.)

Stick: “One of the ships sunk during March [1942] was the American freighter Caribsea, which went down on the eleventh with a valuable cargo of manganese ore….” (p. 234)

“Caribsea…Cargo…Mar. 11, 1942…Cape Lookout.” (p. 256)

Sources

Gentile, Gary. Shipwrecks of North Carolina – from Hatteras Inlet South. Philadelphia: Gary Gentile Productions, 1992.

NC-wreckdiving.com. Caribsea. Accessed 2-12-2021 at: http://www.nc-wreckdiving.com/WRECKS/CARIBSEA/CARIBSEA.HTML

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), National Marine Sanctuary. Caribsea. Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. Accessed 2-12-2021 at: https://monitor.noaa.gov/shipwrecks/caribsea.html

Stick, David. Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast. 1952. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=jjZXyzPrhpgC&pg=PA242&dq=Stick,+David.++Graveyard+of+the+Atlantic:+Shipwrecks+of+the+North+Carolina+Coast.+1952,&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false