Posted on 04/03/2009 4:41:28 AM PDT by zaphod3000
The wreck of the first US ship sunk during World War II has been revealed in detail for the first time on the seabed off southeastern Australia, researchers said Wednesday.
Images of the merchant vessel City of Rayville, which was sunk in 1940 by a German mine, were taken by state-of-the-art sonar technology and remotely operated vehicles, Deakin University scientists said.
The 6,000-tonne City of Rayville was carrying a cargo of lead, wool and copper from South Australia to New York via Melbourne when it struck a mine in a newly-laid German minefield in the Bass Strait on November 8, 1940.
The ship went down in 70 metres (230 feet) of water off Cape Otway, just 24 hours after the British steamer SS Cambridge sank after hitting a mine off the nearby Wilsons Promontory in Victoria state.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, 11 months later seems like a long time before the first Brit ship would have been sunk.
She was carrying copper.
This one is probably worth salvage efforts,
Do’h! “US ship”. Let the beating begin.
merchant ship?
Not sure.
Scattered clouds over Bass Strait off southern Australia
How did a German mine end up off the coast of Australia. U-Boat range for laying that would have been quite at the end of its limits Id assume. Was the mine put in the water by a merchant ship?
German surface raiders were known for laying mines.
Quite possibly a victim of the Kormoran, see this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_auxiliary_cruiser_Kormoran
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Sorry the dates are wrong for the Kormoran, must have been one of the first wave of raiders.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
They had “Milk Cows” - U-boat tankers. They also had covert tenders; the U-boats could refuel from raiders. U-boats had world-wide reach.
That’s probably how it happened. Either a surface raider or possibly a German merchant vessel with an agenda. Be interesting to see what the German naval archives say...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_auxiliary_cruiser_Orion#Raider_voyage
Here’s my candidate for the minelayer... The German raider “Orion” had been operating in Pacific waters and laid mines off Auckland (New Zealand) in June 13/14 1940. She was resupplied at sea & operated with another Raider, “Komet” nearer to Australia.
She had the opportunity to sew another minefield. Reports don’t say that she did, but she is a likely candidate.
A related article states that the Bass Strait minefield consisted of 100 mines. Probably that was an estimate based upon the subsequent sweeping operation. Anyway, if that is anywere near close to the true number of mines, then this was not a minefield laid by submarine.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iju_ys2226NaH7pQOL70-AZG9p3AD979HT8O0
As far as who was responsible, from Encyclopedia.com:
In terms of tonnage, Pinguin (ex-Kandelfels) was the most successful [commerce raider]. She left Germany on 22 June 1940 and after sinking or taking several ships in Australian and Antarctic waters her crew converted two of her prizes into mine layers, and it was her mines which sank City of Rayville on 8 November 1940, the first US merchant ship to be lost in the war. Pinguin later sank three British ships near the equator, but the distress signal from one of them brought the British cruiser Cornwall, which sank her on 8 May 1941. During ten months she had sunk or captured 28 ships totalling 136,551 tons.
Some historians might argue that the USS Panay was the first U.S. Ship sunk in WWII...I suppose it depends on when you believe WWII actually started....
Thanks for the info on the “Pinguin”. I’ve been looking over the operations of German Raiders this morning, but didn’t come across the info concerning the Bass Strait minefield.
I did, however, find that some of the German Hilfkruisers carried over 200 moored mines as part of their armament.
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