9 new vessels & data on ships sunk around Bermuda in WWII up to 1943

 Per yesterday’s post, my margin of error was probably over 20%: While I was able to confirm that the survivors of the City of Birmingham were indeed landed in Bermuda (all 372 of them), I was also able to identify 9 new ships sunk to the North and East and Southeast of Bermuda in not only 1942 but 1943. Three of them – Melbourne Star (4), Jagersfontein (98 US military personnel and families), and St. Margaret (47) resulted in survivors being landed ashore in Bermuda, bringing the aggregate so far to over 1,160.

This new research adds over 70,000 GRT tons to the study, though some were over 1,000 miles away, they had a nexus to Bermuda inasmuch as either the survivors were navigating towards Bermuda or landed there. This all goes to show that history never sleeps, there are always new discoveries around the corner. I am very much looking forward to finding the original “Survivor Statements” at NARA in DC and posting them on the site, www.uboatsbermuda.com which is still in the works.

Vessel NameTONSFLAGDist. to Gibbs Naut. MilesLATLONG
Culebra3,044British60235.30N53.25W
Melbourne Star12,806British45928.05N57.30W
Pan Norway9,231Norwegian75035.56N50.27W
DARINA8,113British57529.17N54.25W
Norland8,134Norwegian48031.22N 55.47W
Polyphemus6,269Dutch36038.12N63.22W
Athelknight8,940British1,01527.50N46.00W
Jagersfontain10,083Dutch52531.56N54.48W
St. Margaret4,312British1,16527.38N43.23W
79 Vessels Incl. 2 Axis Subs70,932
SUB #SUB SKIPPERDATE
U-123Hardegen25-Jan-1942
U-129Witt2-Apr-1943
U-123Hardegen27-Jan-1942
U-158Rostin20-May-1942
U-108Scholtz20-May-1942
U-578Rehwinkel27-May-1942
U-172Emmermann27-May-1942
U-107Gelhaus26-Jun-1942
U-66Markworth27-Feb-1943
SURVIVORS LANDED BDA
CREWKIASURVIVED
45450
11911544
41041
56650
48048
801565
52943
220022098
5034747
711193518149