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Neutral US freighter Robin Moor is sunk by German U-boat U-69 in the South Atlantic.
On May 1941 SS Robin Moor was carrying nine officers, 29 crewmen, eight passengers, and a commercial cargo from New York to Mozambique via South Africa, without a protective convoy. The ship held "items of every conceivable description that would go into a general cargo", including over 450 cars and trucks, steel rails, tools, agricultural chemicals, over 48,000 U.S. gallons (180,000 L) of lubricant in drums, cases of shotgun shells, and a few .22 caliber rifles destined for sporting goods stores.
On 21 May, the ship was stopped by German submarine U-69 in the tropical Atlantic 750 miles west of the British-controlled port of Freetown, Sierra Leone. The ship was flying the flag of a neutral country, but after a brief period for the ship's crew and passengers to board her four lifeboats, the U-boat fired a torpedo at the rudder and then shelled the vacated ship at the bridge. Once the ship disappeared beneath the waves, the submarine's crew pulled up to Captain W. E. Myers' lifeboat, left him with four tins of pressed black bread and two tins of butter, and explained that the ship had been sunk because she was carrying supplies to Germany's enemy.
The captain kept the lifeboats near Robin Moor's position for 24 hours, then navigated towards St. Paul's Rocks or the Brazilian coast with all four lifeboats bound together but split the lifeboats apart on 26 May as that strategy wasn't working.
The lifeboat containing the captain and 10 others was rescued on 8 June after 18 days by the Brazilian merchant ship Osório with their rescue radioed from Osorio and the others was been discovered on 2 June and taken to South Africa by the cargo vessel SS City of Wellington.
On May 1941 SS Robin Moor was carrying nine officers, 29 crewmen, eight passengers, and a commercial cargo from New York to Mozambique via South Africa, without a protective convoy. The ship held "items of every conceivable description that would go into a general cargo", including over 450 cars and trucks, steel rails, tools, agricultural chemicals, over 48,000 U.S. gallons (180,000 L) of lubricant in drums, cases of shotgun shells, and a few .22 caliber rifles destined for sporting goods stores.
On 21 May, the ship was stopped by German submarine U-69 in the tropical Atlantic 750 miles west of the British-controlled port of Freetown, Sierra Leone. The ship was flying the flag of a neutral country, but after a brief period for the ship's crew and passengers to board her four lifeboats, the U-boat fired a torpedo at the rudder and then shelled the vacated ship at the bridge. Once the ship disappeared beneath the waves, the submarine's crew pulled up to Captain W. E. Myers' lifeboat, left him with four tins of pressed black bread and two tins of butter, and explained that the ship had been sunk because she was carrying supplies to Germany's enemy.
The captain kept the lifeboats near Robin Moor's position for 24 hours, then navigated towards St. Paul's Rocks or the Brazilian coast with all four lifeboats bound together but split the lifeboats apart on 26 May as that strategy wasn't working.
The lifeboat containing the captain and 10 others was rescued on 8 June after 18 days by the Brazilian merchant ship Osório with their rescue radioed from Osorio and the others was been discovered on 2 June and taken to South Africa by the cargo vessel SS City of Wellington.