The Pittsburgh Press (June 10, 1941)
U.S. SHIP SUNK BY TORPEDO IN SOUTH ATLANTIC
Vessel sunk by attacker near Brazil
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Captain of ship which saved 11 survivors confirms loss
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SS Robin Moor, photographed on May 6.
Washington, June 10 –
The U.S. Maritime Commission announced today that the Seas Shipping Co. owners of the American freighter Osório that the Robin Moor was torpedoed May 21 about 950 miles northwest of Cape São Roque, Brazil.
The Osório was the ship that picked up 11 survivors from the Robin Moor.
This information corresponded to earlier unofficial reports indicating that the American ship had been sunk by torpedoes.
At Rio de Janeiro, the captain of the steamer Osório, which picked up 11 survivors of the Robin Moor, sent a radio message to the United Press today saying that the Robin Moor had been torpedoed.
The government is making every effort to determine the authenticity of these reports and Stephen T. Early, the President’s secretary, urged that the public withhold opinion until all facts have been assembled.
The Commission said 10 new members and one passenger from the Robin Moor have landed at Pernambuco, Brazil, after being rescued by the Osório.
No word, the Commission said, has been received about the other 35 persons who were on the Robin Moor, including seven passengers.
Full report soon
Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles said that the State Department hopes to have a full report of the sinking within 24 hours. He said that American officials in Pernambuco would obtain complete details from the Osório’s master and the survivors.
The Robin Moor, which sailed from New York on May 6 for Cape Town and other South and East African ports, was reported to have been torpedoed at 6° 15′ N 23° 30′ W.
The rescue scene was approximately 800 miles from the locality in which the Robin Moor was reportedly sent to the bottom by a torpedo fired from a vessel of as yet unidentified nationality.
According to the Maritime Commission, the rescue ship Osório is apparently the former American vessel Commercial Bostonian, sold by Moore McCormack Co. Lines to the Lloyd Brasileiro Line.
Secretary Stephen T. Early said President Roosevelt is seeking information through every official channel on the cause of the sinking of the American freight and passenger steamer.
As yet, however, Mr. Early said, official reports do not disclose the exact cause of the sinking. Some reports had said that the ship was torpedoed. It sank in the South Atlantic.
Mr. Early said:
I think the President would appreciate it if you suspend judgment until the facts are ascertained. We don’t know yet the cause of the sinking. We are trying to determine that.
In American waters
The position of the ship [when it went down] seems to be fairly well determined, and that would put it in American waters, on this side of the Atlantic.
Mr. Early said he knew nothing of a report that the captain of the Brazilian vessel which picked up some survivors had asserted that the Robin Moor was torpedoed. But he said that if this report was true, the report undoubtedly will be transmitted quickly to the State Department by Jefferson Caffery, United States Ambassador to Brazil.
But up to this point, said Mr. Early, the President and State Department officials have no information on the sinking in addition to what has already been published.
Second war victim
One other American ship, the freighter City of Rayville, 5,883 toons, has been a war victim. It sunk after an explosion, presumably by a mine, on Nov. 8, 1940, in Bass Strait, six miles off Cape Otway, Victoria. One of a 38-man crew was lost.
The State Department received a report last night from U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, Jefferson Caffery, giving the details as related to him by the Fortaleza port captain. There was no mention in Mr. Caffery’s cable of the report of the German attack, but it was assumed that the ship met other than normal difficulties in view of his words “was sunk.”
Sailed for Cape Town
The owners of the Robin Moor, the Seas Shipping Co., announced in New York that it sailed from there May 6 for Cape Town, South Africa, with 8 passengers, including three women and a two-year-old boy. The owners said it carried no munitions, just general cargo, including motor truck parts.
A spokesman for the line said:
There could be no question of the Robin Moor being mistaken for an allied belligerent ship by a Nazi submarine because she was conspicuous by the large American flag painted on both sides of the hull. A large searchlight was continuously played on the American flag flying from the stern after sundown.
Report quoted
The Robin Moor was commanded by Capt. Edward Myers of Baltimore and carried these passengers:
- Mr. and Mrs. Ben Cohn, Americans (Mr. Cohn is an employee of Loew’s, Inc., motion picture distributors);
- Mr. and Mrs. R. W. McCullough and their two-year-old son (en route to the Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. plant at Port Elizabeth, South Africa), Mr. McCullough is American, Mr. McCullough is Dutch;
- Mr. and Mrs. Harry G. Gennell, British East Indies (Mr. Gennell is former secretary of the Trinidad Leasehold);
- Philip C. Eccles, a British banker.
The Robin Moor was built in 1919 and was formerly the Exmoor of the American Export Lines. It had a cruising speed of 19 knots.
Crew listed
The Seas Shipping Co. furnished the following list of officers and members of the Robin Moor’s crew which included:
- Capt. E. W. Myers, Baltimore, MD;
- First Officer Melvin V. Mundy, Bethlehem, PA;
- Second Officer Robert E. Taylor, Salisbury, MA;
- Third Officer John J. Benigan, NY
- Radio Operator George Newton, Taylor, NE;
- Hollie O. Rice, Bowls, TX;
- Fred Hayes, Cleveland, OH;
- Peter A. Buss, Bethlehem, PA;
- Jose Reyes, San Juan, Puerto Rico;
- Francis J. Batkiewicz, Altoona, PA;
- Chief Engineer Henry Elrod, Newberry, SC;
- First Asst. Engineer Karl Nilson, Baltimore, MD;
- Frank B. Ward, Portsmouth, VA;
- Robert P. Burton, New Orleans, LA;
- Peter Danielak, Akron, OH;
- Peter P. Ruda, Trenton, NJ;
- Richard Carlisle, Maywood, CA;
- William D. Malone, Miami, FL;
- Troy E. Elrod, Newberry, SC;
- Oscar L. Grimm, Berne, Switzerland;
- Stanley H. Boice, Somers Point, NJ;
- Frank S. Stevenson, Wichita, KS.