1943 — Nov 24/25, storm, freighter John P. Gaines breaks-up 40M S of Cherikoff Is, AK-11

— 11 Nov 25. Alaska Bureau of OEM. Alaska’s Worst All Time Shipping Losses.
— 11 Nov 24. American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of US Ships Sunk or Damaged…
–3 crew
–1 armed guard
–7 Army
— 11 Nov 27. Armed-guard.com. “The Pacific.”
— 11 Elphick, Peter. Liberty: The Ships that Won the War. 2006, p. 158.
— 11 Nov 24. Gottehrer. The Associated Press Stylebook for Alaska (2nd Ed.). 2000, p. 93.
— 11 Nov 25. AP. “Liberty Ship Wrecked; 11 Missing…” Joplin Globe, MO. 12-5-1943, p. 1.
–3 crew
–1 armed guard
–7 soldiers
–10-11 Nov 24. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “Ship…Identified as J.P. Gaines.” 12-6-1943.
— 11 Nov 25. UP. “Freighter is sunk; 11 lost.” Nebraska State Journal, 12-5-1943, p. 1.
— 10 Nov 24 Chen, C. Peter. World War II Database. “Liberty-Class Merchant Vessel.”
— 10 Nov 25. Nelson. Shipwrecks on Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. 10-28-2007.
— 10 Nov 24. Wikipedia. “SS John P. Gaines.”
— 10 Nov 24. Wrecksite.eu. “SS John P. Gaines (+1943).”

Narrative Information

Alaska Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement: “Nov 25, 1943. Liberty ship. John P. Gaines. Broke in two. 40 mi S of Chirikof Island. 11 lost, 89 rescued.” (AKBOEM. Alaska’s Worst…Shipping Losses.)

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…:
“Date Ship Type Cause Result Location Deaths
“11/24/43 John P. Gaines Liberty Split Sunk Alaska Crew 3; AG 1; Army 7.”

Armed-guard.com The Pacific: “….The winters of 1943 and 1945 were among the worst on record in Alaskan waters. It was common for ships to report winds of 75 to 100 knots and seas from 40 to 50 feet high. The John P. Gaines, on her second voyage, broke up about 40 miles south of Cherikoff Island on 27 November 1943 and went down with the loss of 11 lives.” (Armed-guard.com. “The Pacific.”)

Chen, C. Peter. World War II Database. “Liberty-Class Merchant Vessel”:
“Early Liberty Ships suffered hull and deck cracks, some of which led to fatal sinkings; for example, on 24 Nov 1943, SS John P. Gaines broke in half and sank, taking 10 men with her. The blame originally was on the new welding method and the careless haste to build large quantities of ships, but Constance Tipper of Cambridge University in England, Britain found out that it was actually the cold temperatures of the North Atlantic that made the steel brittle, leading to cracking in some instances. Welding still had a role in it, however, as welding allowed small cracks to grow longer over time (something riveting would prevent), just that it was not the primary reason. Structural reinforcements were added to Liberty Ships later to remedy this problem.”

Elphick: “The Liberty John P. Gaines (completed at Portland, Oregon, in July 1943 and placed under the management of the Northland Transportation Company) was sailing between Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands and Seattle, when at 2200 hours loud noises were heard, the source of which could not be located in the dark. At about 0240 hours the following morning, when the ship was some 40 miles off Chirkoff Island [Chirikof?], an exceptional sea struck the port bow and a fracture, believed to have started earlier when the noises had been heard, ‘immediately propagated’ at the forward end of No. 3 hatch. As the vessel rode between swells she broke partially in two, and when riding the next swell, the fore part of the vessel broke away completely and was presumed to have sunk. Fortunately, because of the noises heard earlier, all crew members, and the Armed Guard and the military passengers on the ship, were aboard the still floating after part. The captain ordered abandon ship and everyone got away in lifeboats. The survivors were picked up by other ships in the area except for eleven men in one boat which was never seen again, the eleven comprising five crew members and six soldiers. The stern of the vessel was later washed ashore on Big Koniuji Island where it eventually broke up.” (Elphick, Peter. Liberty: The Ships that Won the War. 2006, p. 158.)

Gottehrer: “Nov. 24, 1943. The Liberty ship John P. Gaines, bound for Seattle from Alaska, snapped in two off the Shumagin Islands, southwest of Kodiak. Eleven of the 100-men aboard were lost.” (Gottehrer. The Associated Press Stylebook for Alaska (Revised 2nd ed.). 2000, p. 93.)

Nelson: “Big Koniuji Is., 1943, Nov. 25th, the liberty ship John P. Gaines broke in two while transiting the area in a storm. The bow section quickly sank with the loss of 10 crewmen. The stern section drifted ashore with the surviving crewmembers aboard, and all of these people were rescued.” (Nelson, Eric. Shipwrecks on Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. 10-28-2007.)

Wikipedia: “SS John P. Gaines was Liberty ship built during World War II, and named for politician John P. Gaines. On 24 November 1943 she broke in two and sank with the loss of 10 lives off the Aleutian Islands. It was later determined that the welded construction combined with the grade of steel used had caused embrittlement that caused a sudden break, as demonstrated by metallurgist Constance Tipper. A number of other Liberty ships suffered similar problems…” (Wikipedia. “SS John P. Gaines.”)

Newspapers

Dec 4: “Seattle, Dec 4. (AP) — The Thirteenth naval district headquarters today announced that 11 men were missing and 70 survivors had been brought here after a new Liberty ship was wrecked on an Alaskan island November 25 in a severe storm. The ship was a total loss. The missing men included seven soldiers, one member of the navy and crew and three members of the ship’s crew. They were last seen in a lifeboat near the island.” (AP. “Liberty Ship Wrecked; 11 Missing, 70 Saved.” Joplin Globe, MO 12-5-1943, p. 1.)

Dec 5: “Seattle, (UP). Eleven men were reported missing Saturday night [Dec 4] after their vessel, a new Liberty freighter, smashed onto jagged rocks of an Alaskan island Nov. 25, headquarters of the 13th naval district announced….The navy reported that heavy weather increased to a storm of high velocity and the ship broke in two. The 11 men, who went over the side with the officers and other crew members, drifted away from the doomed ship and disappeared into the storm.

“The first group of survivors arrived in Seattle Wednesday night [Dec 1]…The freighter was reported to have only army personnel as passengers. The Northland Transportation company was managing agent for the ship, operated by the war shipping administration….” (United Press. “Freighter is sunk; 11 lost.” Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, 12-5-1943, p. 1.)

Dec 6: “The American Liberty ship which broke in two 100 miles off the Alaska coast during a storm the early morning of November 24 was identified yesterday as the John P. Gaines, bound for Seattle.

“Of the 100 members of the crew, navy gun crew and some army personnel, the latter aboard as passengers, 19 or 11 are missing – lost in the inky darkness when a line from a rescue vessel parted and the life-boat swept underneath the wildly tossing stern.

“Although official lists put the total of missing at 11, members of the Gaines’ crew, by ‘nose count’ place the total at 10. The official list accounts for 7 soldiers, one naval sailor and 3 of Gaines’ crew. The crew members say there were only 6 soldiers in the missing boat.

“Official investigation of the strange mishap to the Gaines is being made by Lt. Matt Ryan of the coast guard merchant marine inspection office….

“Although the disaster to the John P. Gaines, a welded freighter built at the Kaiser Portland yards for the Maritime Commission, was not due to the war, security regulations have shrouded the facts surrounding the dramatic mishap.

“The Gaines was operated by the Northland Transportation Company for the government. Capt. A. W. Nickerson was the master, and the crew had the highest praise for his seamanship and calm efficiency; which they credited with saving many lives….” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “Ship That Broke in Two Identified as J.P. Gaines.” 12-6-1943.)

Sources

Alaska Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. Alaska’s Worst All Time Shipping Losses. Accessed 7-18-2011 at: http://www.alaska.boemre.gov/ref/ships/

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of Ships Sunk or Damaged during 1943. Accessed 5-26-2021 at: http://www.usmm.org/sunk43.html#anchor406099

Armed-guard.com. “The Pacific.” Accessed 5-26-2021 at: https://www.armed-guard.com/ag78.html

Associated Press. “Liberty Ship Wrecked; 11 Missing, 70 Saved.” Joplin Globe, MO 12-5-1943, p. 1. Accessed 9-1-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/joplin-globe-dec-05-1943-p-1/?tag

Chen, C. Peter. World War II Database. “Liberty-Class Merchant Vessel.” Accessed 5-26-2021 at: https://ww2db.com/ship_spec.php?ship_id=391

Elphick, Peter. Liberty: The Ships that Won the War. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2006. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=4_V-uphhRPsC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Gottehrer, Dean M. The Associated Press Stylebook for Alaska (Revised and 2nd edition). Fairbanks, Alaska: Epicenter Press, 2000. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=O53zwdFYTGEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

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 5-25-2021 at: https://www.armed-guard.com/sunk.html

Nelson, Eric. Shipwrecks on Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. 10-28-2007. Accessed at: http://www.amnwr.com/ShipwreckList.htm

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, WA. “Ship That Broke in Two Identified as J.P. Gaines.” 12-6-1943. Accessed 5-26-2021 at: http://www.armed-guard.com/gaines.html

United Press. “Freighter is sunk; 11 lost.” Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, 12-5-1943, p. 1. Accessed 9-1-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/lincoln-nebraska-state-journal-dec-05-1943-p-1/?tag

Wikipedia. “SS John P. Gaines.” 7-9-2011 mod. Accessed at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_John_P._Gaines

Wrecksite.eu. “SS John P. Gaines (+1943).” Accessed 9-1-2017 at: http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?149334