1943 — Aug 19, US freighter J. Pinckney Henderson/tanker J. H. Senior collide, off Nova Scotia–126-132

–126-132 Blanchard fatality estimate range.*

–132 American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
–63 Freighter J. Pinckney Henderson (U.S. Liberty ship)
–38 crew
–25 armed guard
–69 Tanker J. H. Senior (Panama)
–41 crew (mostly Danish)
–28 armed guard [U.S. Navy]
–126 Cohen, Phil. “George Wesley Demarest, Seaman First Class, U.S. Navy…SS J.H. Senior.”
–>59 Freighter J. Pinckney Henderson
–>34 crew
— 25 Naval Armed Guard
— 67 Tanker J. H. Senior
–40 crew
–27 Naval Armed Guard

Liberty freighter J. Pinckney Henderson:
— 69 Herald-Press, St. Joseph, Mich. “Liberty Ship Survives Three-Week Fire.” 3-15-1944, p4.
— 63 American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
— 61 Green. “They tried to bury this Memorial.” Southern Greens, 9-8-2008.
–>59 Cohen, P. “George Wesley Demarest, Seaman First Class, U.S. Navy…SS J.H. Senior.”

Panamanian flag tanker J. H. Senior:
— 69 American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
— 67 Cohen, Phil. “George Wesley Demarest, Seaman First Class, U.S. Navy…SS J.H. Senior.”

*Blanchard note on fatality range: We note the two sources we have located which note fatalities for each ship – one noting 126 deaths and the other 132. If we add the low estimates for each vessel from all sources we derive 126 deaths. When we total the high estimates the total is 132. We discount the Herald-Press report on 69 deaths onboard the J. Pinckney Henderson, in that this is the number the American Merchant Marine at War site notes for the J. H. Senior and in that this paper does not note fatalities for the J. H. Senior.

Narrative Information

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
“Date Ship Type Cause Result Location Deaths
“08/19/43 J. H. Senior Tanker (Panama) Collision/fire Damaged NAtlantic Crew 41; AG 28.”
“08/19/43 J. Pinckney Henderson Liberty Collision/fire Total loss NAtlantic Crew 41; AG 25.”

Visser. “J.H. Senior (2) – (1935-1950) Heavy Fire Loss.” Auke Visser’s International Esso Tankers site.
“The J. H. Senior, of the Panama Transport Company tanker fleet, was manned by German crews until the day before the Nazis invaded Poland. She arrived at Newport News for repairs on August 30, 1939, and on the following day an American crew was placed aboard and the Germans were taken off. American crews continued to man the J. H. Senior until replaced by a Danish crew on April 29, 1942.

“On August 14, 1943, the J. H. Senior left New York for the United Kingdom, via Halifax, with a full cargo of gasoline supplied from the New York Petroleum Pool and consigned to the British Petroleum Board. She had a deck cargo of airplane fuselages, 21 cases of airplane wings, and one case of guns, consigned to The Commanding Officer, U. S. Forces, United Kingdom. The vessel was manned by a Danish crew of 46 officers and men and carried a U. S. Navy gun crew of 28 — an officer and 27 enlisted men.

“Collision in Convoy, in Fog
“Late at night on August 19, the J. H. Senior was proceeding in convoy when, in a dense fog and at a point about 600 miles due east of Halifax, she was in collision with the American flag freighter J. Pinckney Henderson, owned by the United States Maritime Commission and operated by the United Fruit Company. As a result of the collision and an ensuing fire, the two ships were gutted throughout. All but 9 men of both vessels were lost.

“Tanker and freighter were eventually brought to port; the J. H. Senior was removed in tow from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Halifax and thence to New York, where she arrived in a damaged condition in November, 1943.

“When the War Shipping Administration released details of the catastrophe to the press in March, 1944, the New York Herald Tribune noted that “the J. Pinckney Henderson was loaded with an inflammable cargo, which included thousands of bales of cotton, tons of magnesium, glycerin, resin, wax, and oil.””

Newspaper

Herald-Press, St. Joseph, Mich. “Liberty Ship Survives Three-Week Fire.” 3-15-1944, p. 4:
“The buckled decks of the Liberty ship J. Pinckney Henderson testify to the searing heat generated below decks when its highly inflammable cargo of magnesium, wax and oil ignited after a North Atlantic collision with a tanker [reference to a photograph above the caption]. Only three of the 72 seamen on the Liberty ship survived, while six from the tanker were saved. Despite fire which lasted three weeks, the ship was towed to New York harbor.”

Sources

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of Ships Sunk or Damaged during 1943. Accessed 5-21-2021 at: http://www.usmm.org/sunk43.html#anchor406099

Cohen, Phil. “George Wesley Demarest, Seaman First Class, U.S. Navy…SS J.H. Senior.” Accessed 5-24-2021 at: http://www.dvrbs.com/monuments/lindenwold/LindenwoldWW2-GeorgeWDemarest.htm

Green, Mark. “They tried to bury this Memorial.” Southern Greens (blog), 9-8-2008. Accessed 5-24-2021 at: http://southerngreens.blogspot.com/2008/09/they-tried-to-bury-this-memorial.html

Herald-Press, St. Joseph, Mich. “Liberty Ship Survives Three-Week Fire.” 3-15-1944, p. 4. Accessed 5-24-2021 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/st-joseph-herald-press-mar-15-1944-p-4/

Visser, Auke. “J.H. Senior (2) – (1935-1950) Heavy Fire Loss.” Auke Visser’s International Esso Tankers site. Accessed 5-24-2021 at: http://www.aukevisser.nl/inter/id1184.htm