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 Name | TONS | FLAG | Dist. to Gibbs Naut. Miles | LAT | LONG |
Culebra | 3,044 | British | 602 | 35.30N | 53.25W |
Melbourne Star | 12,806 | British | 459 | 28.05N | 57.30W |
Pan Norway | 9,231 | Norwegian | 750 | 35.56N | 50.27W |
DARINA | 8,113 | British | 575 | 29.17N | 54.25W |
Norland | 8,134 | Norwegian | 480 | 31.22N | 55.47W |
Polyphemus | 6,269 | Dutch | 360 | 38.12N | 63.22W |
Athelknight | 8,940 | British | 1,015 | 27.50N | 46.00W |
Jagersfontain | 10,083 | Dutch | 525 | 31.56N | 54.48W |
St. Margaret | 4,312 | British | 1,165 | 27.38N | 43.23W |
79 Vessels Incl. 2 Axis Subs | 70,932 |
SUB # | SUB SKIPPER | DATE |
U-123 | Hardegen | 25-Jan-1942 |
U-129 | Witt | 2-Apr-1943 |
U-123 | Hardegen | 27-Jan-1942 |
U-158 | Rostin | 20-May-1942 |
U-108 | Scholtz | 20-May-1942 |
U-578 | Rehwinkel | 27-May-1942 |
U-172 | Emmermann | 27-May-1942 |
U-107 | Gelhaus | 26-Jun-1942 |
U-66 | Markworth | 27-Feb-1943 |
SURVIVORS LANDED BDA | |||
CREW | KIA | SURVIVED | |
45 | 45 | 0 | |
119 | 115 | 4 | 4 |
41 | 0 | 41 | |
56 | 6 | 50 | |
48 | 0 | 48 | |
80 | 15 | 65 | |
52 | 9 | 43 | |
220 | 0 | 220 | 98 |
50 | 3 | 47 | 47 |
711 | 193 | 518 | 149 |