SS Dorchester

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Dorchester was a coastal passenger steamship requisitioned and operated by the War Shipping Administration (WSA) in January 1942 for wartime use as a troop ship allocated to United States Army requirements. The ship was operated for WSA by its agent Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamship Lines (Agwilines). The ship was in convoy SG 19 from New York to Greenland transiting the Labrador Sea when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat on February 3, 1943. The ship sank with loss of 674 of the 904 on board with one of the 230 survivors lost after rescue. The story of four Army chaplains, known as the "Four Chaplains" or the "Immortal Chaplains," who all gave away their life jackets to save others before they died, gained fame and led to many memorials.

Commercial service

Dorchester, one of three identical ships, the first being Template:SS (torpedoed and sunk August 27, 1942) and the last being Template:SS, was built for the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company.<ref name=PMR6-26>Template:Cite journal</ref> Keel laying was September 10, 1925 with launching on March 20, 1926, and delivery on July 17, 1926.<ref name=PMR5-26>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=PMR8-26>Template:Cite journal</ref> The ship was designed for the coastwise trade with a capacity for 302 first class and 12 steerage passengers for a total of 314 with a crew of 90 along the East coast between Miami and Boston.<ref name=PMR6-26 /><ref name="greatships">Template:Cite web</ref> Propulsion was by a 3,000 horsepower, triple expansion steam engine supplied by four oil fired Scotch boilers with steam at 220 pounds pressure driving a single propeller for a speed of Template:Convert.<ref name=PMR2-27>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Passengers were provided three decks, two promenade decks and the boat deck, with four suites having private baths and thirty rooms with beds, ninety-eight with double berths and eight with single berths with most opening onto both the corridor and deck and all had "European style" telephones with receiver and transmitter in one handset.<ref name=PMR2-27 /> Public spaces included a dance pavilion and sun parlor in addition to the typical lounge and smoking rooms.<ref name=PMR2-27 /> Cargo of about 3,300 tons was all handled through side ports rather than deck hatches.<ref name=PMR2-27 /> Refrigerated spaces of Template:Convert for provisions, including ice cream storage, was provided to six compartments cooled by a 4-ton Brunswick compressor. A separate chilled pantry had Template:Convert of storage.<ref name=PMR2-27 />

World War II

The ship was delivered by Merchants and Miners Transportation Company to the War Shipping Administration (WSA) at Baltimore on January 24, 1942, for operation by Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamship Lines (Agwilines) as agent for WSA and allocated to United States Army requirements.<ref name=MARADVSC>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Dorchester was converted to a troopship by Agwilines in New York, and fitted with additional lifeboats and life rafts, as well as four 20 mm guns, a 3"/50 caliber gun fore, and a 4"/50 caliber gun aft.<ref name="greatships"/>

Dorchester entered service in February 1942, crewed by many of her former officers, including her master initially, and a contingent of Navy Armed Guards to man the guns and to handle communications.<ref name="greatships"/> The ship was neither owned nor bareboat chartered by the Army and thus not officially designated a United States Army Transport (USAT).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The allocation to Army requirements, transport of Army personnel and presence of the Army administrative staff under the Transport Commander in command of embarked troops, led some to assume the ship was an Army transport.

Loss

Coast Guard cutter Escanaba rescues Dorchester survivors, February 3, 1943.

On January 23, 1943, Dorchester left New York harbor, bound for the Army Command Base at Narsarsuaq in southern Greenland. SG-19 consisted of six ships: SS Dorchester, two merchant ships (SS Lutz and SS Biscaya) that were leased by the United States from the Norwegian government-in-exile, and their escorts, the small United States Coast Guard cutters Template:Ship, Template:Ship (both 165 feet), and Template:Ship (240 feet).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

During the early morning hours of February 3, 1943, at 12:55, Dorchester was torpedoed by Template:GS. The damage was severe, boiler power was lost, and there was inadequate steam to sound the full 6-whistle signal to abandon ship, and Dorchester sank by the bow in about 20 minutes. Loss of power prevented the crew from sending a radio distress signal, and no rockets or flares were launched to alert the escorts. A severe list prevented launch of some port side lifeboats, and some lifeboats capsized through overcrowding. Survivors in the water were so stiff from cold they could not even grasp the cargo nets on rescue vessels. The crew of Escanaba employed a new "retriever" rescue technique whereby swimmers clad in wet suits swam to victims in the water and secured a line to them so they could be hauled onto the ship. By this method, Escanaba saved 133 men (one died later) and Comanche saved 97 men of the 904 aboard Dorchester.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The sinking of Dorchester was the worst single loss of American personnel of any American convoy during World War II.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Life jackets offered little protection from hypothermia, which killed most men in the water. Water temperature was Template:Convert and air temperature was Template:Convert. When additional rescue ships arrived on February 4 "hundreds of dead bodies were seen floating on the water, kept up by their life jackets."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The Four Chaplains

The Four Chaplains were four of the Army officers among the military personnel being transported overseas for duty: they died because they gave up their life jackets to save others. These chaplains included Methodist minister George L. Fox, Reformed Church in America minister Clark V. Poling, Catholic Church priest John P. Washington and Rabbi Alexander B. Goode.<ref name="chaplains">FourChaplains.org, retrieved February 6, 2011.</ref> Congress established February 3 as "Four Chaplains Day" to commemorate this act of heroism, and on July 14, 1960, created the Chaplain's Medal for Heroism, presented posthumously to the next of kin of each of the chaplains by Secretary of the Army Wilber M. Brucker at Fort Myer, Virginia on January 18, 1961.<ref name="chaplains"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Clear

Commemoration on US postage

Template:CenterIssue of 1948

In 1948 the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative stamp in honor of the heroism and sacrifice of the chaplains.<ref>Scott Specialized Catalogue of US Postage Stamps.</ref> It was designed by Louis Schwimmer, the head of the Art Department of the New York branch of the Post Office.<ref>StampCenter.com, "A sweet tribute to Four Chaplains on a Postage Stamp," Pt III of III Template:Webarchive, retrieved February 6, 2011.</ref> This stamp was highly unusual, because until 2011, U.S. stamps were not normally issued in honor of someone other than a President of the United States until at least ten years after their death.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Four Chaplains Stamp</ref>

The stamp went through three revisions before the final design was chosen.<ref name="stamp">StampCenter.com, "A sweet tribute to Four Chaplains on a postage stamp, part II of III" Template:Webarchive, retrieved February 6, 2011.</ref> None of the names of the chaplains were included on the stamp, nor were their faiths (although the faiths had been listed on one of the earlier designs): instead, the words on the stamp were "These Immortal Chaplains...Interfaith in Action."<ref name="stamp"/> Another phrase included in an earlier design that was not part of the final stamp was "died to save men of all faiths."<ref name="stamp"/> By the omission of their names, the stamp commemorated the event, rather than the individuals per se, thus obfuscating the ten-year rule in the same way as later did stamps honoring Neil Armstrong in 1969<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Buzz Aldrin in 1994,<ref>"First Moon Landing, 1969" 29¢ United States postage stamp Template:Webarchive, based on a photograph of Aldrin captured by Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969 (July 21, UTC). Aldrin, conversely, captured no photographs of Armstrong.</ref> both of whom were still alive.

Notable passengers and crew

The American writer Jack Kerouac served on Dorchester, where he befriended an African-American cook named "Old Glory," who died when the ship sank after the torpedo attack. Kerouac would have also been on the ship during the attack, but for a telegram he received from coach Lou Little, asking him to return to Columbia University to play football.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• List by death toll of ships sunk by submarines

External links

• WWII Coast Guardsman honored for heroism (The National WWII Museum, October 5, 2020)
• Chapel Of Four Chaplains (All Hands, November 1984, pages 34–35)
• Photo: A life vest from the SS Dorchester (U.S. Army Chaplain Museum)