1943 — Jan 9, US freighter Collingsworth sunk by U-boat, So. Atlantic ~100M NE of Paramaribo-12

–12 American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
–8 crew
–4 armed guard
–12 Helgason. Ships hit by U-boats. “Collingsworth – American Steam merchant.” uboat.net.
–1 Collingsworth master Barney Kirschbaum
–1 first assistant engineer John Robert Simpson
–6 crewmen
–4 armed guard
–12 Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com.
–8 crew
–4 armed

Narrative Information

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
“Date Ship Type Cause Result Location Deaths
“01/03/43* Collingsworth Freighter Torpedo Sunk Caribbean** Crew 8; AG 4.”

*Probably an entry mistake. The loss was on Jan 9, in the same attack that brought down the US freighters Birmingham City and Minotaur as well as the US tanker Broad Arrow, all three of which are noted as losses to torpedoes on Jan 9.

**We do not consider this attack, well down the South American coast, as within the Caribbean.

Clancey. HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in [WW] II, Chapter V 1943:
“9 January, Sat. ….
“Atlantic….
“German submarine U-124 continues assault on convoy TB 1, begun shortly before midnight the day before, about 100 miles northeast of Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana. U-124 torpedoes freighters Collingsworth and Minotaur at 07°12’N, 55°37’W; each ship sinks four minutes after being struck. Tanker Broad Arrow sinks as the result of damage received in U-124’s initial attack. Submarine chaser PC-577 rescues survivors from all four ships sunk by the U-boat. Of the Armed Guards on the four merchantmen, only one sailor of the eight-man guard on board Broad Arrow survives; five of the 18-man Armed Guard perish in the abandonment of Birmingham City; Collingsworth’s detachment loses four of 24 men; Minotaur’s 15-man Armed Guard, however, survives intact.”

Helgason. Ships hit by U-boats. “Collingsworth – American Steam merchant.” uboat.net.
“Name Collingsworth
“Type Steam merchant (Hog Island)
“Tonnage 5,101
“Completed 1920 – American International Shipbuilding Corp, Hog Island PA [Philly]
“Owner American Mail Line Ltd., Seattle WA
“Homeport Philadelphia
“Date of attack 9 Jan 1943
“Nationality American
“Fate Sunk by U-124 (Johann Mohr)
“Position 7° 12’N, 55° 37’W – Grid EO 5266
“Complement 67 (12 dead and 55 survivors).
“Convoy TB-1
“Route Norfolk – New York – Guantanamo – Trinidad (5 Jan) – Rio de Janeiro
“Cargo 4000 tons of coal, 1900 tons of steel rails, 2000 tons of Bunker C oil, 112
tons of lubricating oil.
“History ….
“Notes on event At 05.57 hours on 9 Jan 1943, U-124 fired two torpedoes in a second attack
on convoy TB-1 about 100 miles northeast of Paramaribo and two minutes later another torpedo. Mohr thought that he had hit three ships, but in fact the first torpedo passed astern of the Collingsworth, the second hit the ship and the third missed also, but hit the Minotaur.

The Collingsworth (Master Barney Kirschbaum) was struck by the second torpedo on the port side between the #1 and #2 holds. The helmsman spotted the third torpedo, swung the ship hard aport and it missed by ten feet but hit a ship in the next column. The engines were secured and an inspection found no serious damage other than flooding to the compartments. But the ship began to settle fast, sinking by the head four minutes after the hit. Her crew of eight officers, 35 men and 24 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in and four 20mm guns) abandoned the ship almost immediately. The #1 boat got away with 21 men, but the #3 boat fouled while launching, forcing the men to jump into the water. 34 survivors were picked up by USS PC-577 from the wreckage and one raft 13 hours later. The survivors in #1 boat were picked up by the Norwegian steam merchant Dalvangen 36 hours after the attack. The master, another officer, 6 crewmen and four armed guards did not survive.”

Note: uboat.net has information on twelve of those onboard; accessed 5-18-2021 at: https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/ship2574.html

Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com.
“S.S. Collingsworth…Torpedoed 1/9/43…Freighter…Crew 8, AG 4 [Number Killed].”

Sources

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of Ships Sunk or Damaged during 1943. Accessed 5-18-2021 at: http://www.usmm.org/sunk43.html#anchor406099

Clancey, Patrick (transcriber and formatter for HTML). HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in World War II, Chapter V: 1943. Accessed 5-19-2021 at: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-Chron/USN-Chron-1943.html

Helgason, Gudmundur. Ships hit by U-boats. “Collingsworth – American Steam merchant.” uboat.net. Accessed 5-18-2021 at: https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/2574.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 5-18-2021 at: https://www.armed-guard.com/sunk.html