1942 — June 5, US tanker L.J. Drake sunk by sub SE of Isla Saona, Dominican Repub.–all 41

–41/all American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
–35 crew
— 6 Armed Guard
–41/all Clancey. HyperWar: The Official Chronology…US Navy in [WW] II, Chapter IV 1942.
–35 crew
— 6 Armed Guard
–41/all Helgason, G. Ships hit by U-boats. “L.J. Drake – American Steam tanker.” uboat.net.
— 8 officers
–27 crewmen
— 6 armed guards
–41 Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com.
–35 crew
— 6 armed guard

Narrative Information

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
“Date Ship Type Cause Result Location Deaths
“06/05/42 L. J. Drake Tanker Torpedo Sunk Caribbean Crew 35; AG 6.”

Clancey. HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in [WW] II, Chapter IV 1942:
“June 5, Fri. ….
“Caribbean
“U.S. tanker L.J. Drake is sunk with all hands (35 merchant seamen and a six-man Armed Guard) by German submarine U-68 at 17°30’N, 68°20’W, one day’s steaming from Aruba, N.W.I.”

Helgason, G. Ships hit by U-boats. “L.J. Drake – American Steam tanker.” uboat.net:
“Name L.J. Drake
“Type Steam tanker
“Tonnage 6,693 tons
“Completed 1918 – Ames Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Seattle WA
“Owner Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, New York
“Homeport Wilmington
“Date of attack 5 Jun 1942
“Nationality American
“Fate Sunk by U-68 (Karl-Friedrich Merten)
“Position 17° 30’N, 68° 20’W – Grid ED 1749
“Complement 41 (41 dead – no survivors)
“Route Aruba (4 Jun) – San Juan, Puerto Rico
“Cargo 72,961 barrels of gasoline
“History Completed in August 1918 for US Shipping Board (USSB). 1919 sold to Standard Oil Co of New Jersey, New York.

“Notes on event At 20.49 hours on 5 June 1942, U-68 fired a spread of three G7e torpedoes
at the unescorted L.J. Drake (Master Peter Nielsen) and hit her with all three after 45 seconds. The tanker exploded in flames and afterwards nothing remained but pieces of wreckage. None of the eight officers, 27 crewmen and six armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in, two .50cal and two .30cal guns) survived.”

Note: uboat.net has information on all forty-one of those onboard (39 American Merchant Marine and US Navy Armed Guard) accessible at:
https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/ship1748.html

Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com:
“S.S. L. J. Drake…Torpedoed 6/5/42…Tanker…Crew 35, AG 6 [Number Killed].”

Sources

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of Ships Sunk or Damaged January to June 1942. Accessed 5-12-2021 at: http://www.usmm.org/sunk42a.html#anchor331462

Clancey, Patrick (transcriber and formatter for HTML). HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in World War II, Chapter IV: 1942. Accessed 5-12-2021 at: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-Chron/USN-Chron-1942.html

Helgason, Gudmundur. Ships hit by U-boats. “L.J. Drake – American Steam tanker.” uboat.net. Accessed 5-12-2021 at: https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/1748.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 5-12-2021 at: https://www.armed-guard.com/sunk.html