Wreck of SS Paul Hamilton

 marine, shipwreck

The SS Paul Hamilton was a Type EC2-S-C1 Liberty Ship laid down on August 30th, 1942 and completed on October 30th, 1942 at the North Carolina Shipbuilding Co. Yard. Joining the war effort after sea trials, the Paul Hamilton made four successful trans-Atlantic crossings carrying cargo and men from North America to Europe in support of Allied operations.

Her fifth voyage started at Norfolk on April 3rd, 1944 after loading a cargo of munitions, high explosives and a contingent of 504 troops bound for Bizerte, Tunisia as part of convoy UGS-38. Crossing the Atlantic and sailing safely through the Straits of Gibraltar, the convoy stopped briefly at Oran before picking up an increased number of Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts before proceeding onward to Bizerte on April 18th. Two days out, the convoy came under concentrated surprise air attack on the night of April 20th, 1944 while steaming 30 miles off the coast of Algiers.

The members of the Paul Hamilton’s armed guard took to their anti-aircraft guns as the entire convoy came under attack by three coordinated waves of German torpedo bombers attacking from different directions. Destroyers in the group began throwing up AA fire to repel the attack, followed by the crews of the merchant ships but within minutes the ship on the Port Quarter of the Hamilton was rocked by a torpedo impact and fell out of formation. The Hamilton was overflown and strafed by nine Junkers Ju-88s with little damage, but one of the planes torpedoes found its mark, impacting the Paul Hamilton on her Starboard Bow and detonating in her explosive-filled #2 cargo hold.

Within seconds of the impact, the entire contents of the SS Paul Hamilton's #2 cargo hold detonated, causing the sympathetic detonation of her #1, #3, #4 and #5 holds as well. The entire ship disappeared into a column of fire which reached over 1000ft in height and riddled surrounding vessels with shrapnel and debris as it was obliterated by the explosion. When the light of the explosion faded the SS Paul Hamilton, her crew of 47 men, 29 armed guards, and 504 troops were gone, with only a pool of burning debris and heavy fuel remaining. Only one body of the 580 men onboard was recovered.