1942 — Nov 23, US tanker Caddo sunk by U-boat, Atlantic east of Halifax, Nova Scotia–51-53

–53 Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com.
–39 crew [Two crew were taken prisoner(the captain and first officer); the captain died.]
–14 armed guard
–53 American Maritime History Project. Braving the Wartime Seas. “Charles Henry Doell.”
–11 men in first lifeboat. (Had 17 onboard at first, only six of whom lived to be rescued.)
–41 men in 2nd and 3rd lifeboats, who were never seen again.
— 1 Caddo Master, Paul B. Muller, who was taken prisoner and died a German POW.
–52 Clancey. HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in [WW] II, Chapter IV 1942.
We speculate this does not take account of one of the two POWS taken, who survived.
–51 American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
–37 crew
–13 armed guard
— 1 died while German POW [Caddo captain Paul B. Muller]
–51 Helgason, G. Ships hit by U-boats. “Caddo – American Turbine tanker.” uboat.net.

Narrative Information

American Maritime History Project. Braving the Wartime Seas. “Charles Henry Doell.”
“On November 11, 1942, the Caddo sailed from Baytown Texas, for Reykjavik, Iceland, with a cargo of over one hundred thousand barrels of diesel oil and fuel oil and three hundred drums of gasoline for the U.S. Navy. The ship steered evasive courses after leaving Baytown and maintained five lookouts at all times. However, the morning of November 23, 1942, the ship was sighted and attacked by U-518. The crew of the Caddo saw the torpedo track and turned to port toward the torpedo, but the evasive action was too little, too late. At about 0640 (GCT), the Caddo was hit by a torpedo on the port side at the pump room, just forward of the after accommodation house. The explosion ripped up the deck above the pump room, flooded the pump room, demolished the port side lifeboat/raft, and disabled the radio transmitter.

“The tough tanker took about ninety minutes to sink, affording the entire crew time to abandon ship in the three surviving lifeboats. Ten minutes after the Caddo slipped beneath the waves, U-518 surfaced and took the Master, Paul B. Muller, and Chief Mate, Bendik Lande, prisoner. Captain Muller later died in a German prison camp. Bendik Lande survived his imprisonment and was repatriated following the war. The remaining survivors were divided between three boats.

“Only six of the seventeen men in the first boat were alive to be rescued by the MS Motomar on December 8, 1942, 650 miles south of where the Caddo was sunk. When the six survivors were landed at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania on Christmas Eve, 1942, they noted the kind treatment they received from the Spanish crew of the Motomar. The forty-one crewmen and Armed Guard sailors in the second and third lifeboats, including Third Mate Charles H. Doell, were never seen again.”

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
“Date Ship Type Cause Result Location Deaths
“11/23/42 Caddo Tanker Torpedo Sunk NAtlantic Crew 37; AG 13; German POW 1.”

Clancey. HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in [WW] II, Chapter IV 1942:
“November 23, Mon.
“Atlantic….
“U.S. tanker Caddo, en route from Baytown, Texas, to Iceland, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-518 at 42°25’N, 48°27’E, and abandoned, with the 58 men on board (42-man merchant complement and 17-man Armed Guard) taking to three lifeboats. U-518 briefly interrogates survivors, taking ship’s master and another officer as prisoners, and departs after the German offer of cigarettes is refused….

“December 7, Mon. ….
“Atlantic….
“Lifeboat from U.S. tanker Caddo capsizes twice; seven of the 13 occupants drown. Of the 17 men who originally occupied the boat, four have already perished at sea…

December 8, Tue. ….
“Atlantic
“Spanish motorship Motomar rescues the only six survivors (three merchant seamen and three Armed Guard sailors) from U.S. tanker Caddo, sunk on 23 November by German submarine U 518, at 38°10’N, 35°24’W. Neither of the other two lifeboats from Caddo are ever seen again, together with their occupants.”

Helgason, G. Ships hit by U-boats. “Caddo – American Turbine tanker.” uboat.net:
“Name Caddo
“Type Turbine tanker (T-2)
“Tonnage 10,172 tons
“Completed 1942 – Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Chester PA
“Owner Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., New York
“Homeport New York
“Date of attack 23 Nov 1942
“Nationality American
“Fate Sunk by U-518 (Friedrich-Wilhelm Wissmann)
“Position 42° 25’N, 48° 27’W – Grid CC 3215
“Complement 59 (51 dead and 8 survivors).
“Route Baytown, Texas (11 Nov) – Iceland
“Cargo 105,000 barrels of fuel oil and 300 drums of gasoline
“History ….
“Notes on event At 06.36 hours on 23 Nov 1942 the unescorted Caddo (Master Paul B.
Muller) was torpedoed by U-518, while proceeding on a zigzagging course, changing every six to nine minutes. The torpedo struck the port side at the pump room, just forward of the after bulkhead. The explosion ripped up the deck, tore a huge hole in the side, flooded the pump room and destroyed a lifeboat and a raft. As the Caddo began to settle by the stern the watch below secured the engines. The survivors of the complement of ten officers, 32 men and 17 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in, four 20mm and two .30cal guns) abandoned the ship after 30 minutes in three lifeboats and three rafts.

The tanker sank stern first at 08.30 hours and ten minutes later, the U-boat surfaced and took the master and the chief officer as prisoners. The boat in charge of the second mate with 17 men set course for Bermuda, but this boat capsized twice in heavy seas during the night of 7 December. Eight men drowned and three others died after the boat was righted. After 15 days at sea, the remaining three crewmen and three armed guards in this boat were picked up by the Spanish motor merchant Motomar in 38°10N/35°24W, 650 miles south of where the Caddo sank. On 24 December, they were landed at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania and hospitalized. The 40 men in the other two lifeboats were never seen again.

The master Paul B. Muller died later in a POW camp and the chief officer was repatriated in 1945.”

Note: uboat.net has information of fifty-three of the men onboard; accessed 5-17-2021 at:
https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/ship2463.html

Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com:
“S.S. Caddo…Torpedoed 11/23/42…Tanker…Crew 39, AG 14 [Number Killed].”

Sources

American Maritime History Project (Edited by George J. Ryan; Primary Researcher, Thomas F. McCaffery). Braving the Wartime Seas: A Tribute to the Cadets and Graduates of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and Cadet Corps Who Died during World War II. Xlibris LLC, 2014. Accessed 5-17-2021 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=XhEcBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT653&lpg=PT653&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of Ships Sunk or Damaged July to December 1942. Accessed 5-17-2021 at: http://www.usmm.org/sunk42b.html#anchor340736

Clancey, Patrick (transcriber and formatter for HTML). HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in World War II, Chapter IV: 1942. Accessed 5-17-2021 at: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-Chron/USN-Chron-1942.html

Helgason, Gudmundur. Ships hit by U-boats. “Caddo – American Turbine tanker.” uboat.net. Accessed 5-17-2021 at: https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/2463.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 5-17-2021 at: https://www.armed-guard.com/sunk.html