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Wreck of SS Steel Seafarer

Egypt / al-Bahhr-al-Ahhmar / Hurghada /
 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck

Laid down in 1920 at the Federal Shipbuilding Co. in Kearny, NJ for Isthmian Lines, the Steel Seafarer was general cargo steamship which entered revenue service for her owners in 1921. Leading an ordinary and otherwise unremarkable service life for the next twenty years, following the outbreak of the Second World War the Steel Seafarer and many of her sisterships found themselves under charter agreements with the British Government hauling munitions and supplies from Southern African Ports to British forces fighting in North Africa.

So engaged on the night of September 5th, 1941 and steaming for Suez with 7,000 tons of cargo aboard ship, the Steel Seafarer and her crew made their way through rough seas towards the Suez Canal when the vessel was spotted by a patrolling German aircraft. Though steaming with her navigational lights lit and with a large American Flag painted on her hull in accordance with established practices for ships of neutral nations, the vessel was deemed to be a threat by the German pilot and shortly before 2330hrs he turned to attack.

Aboard the Steel Seafarer, the lack of radar and ambient noise of the rough seas meant that her crew had no indication they were in any danger until the German aircraft roared overhead after it had released its bomb, which impacted the ship in her Stern and detonated in her #5 aft fuel bunker. Shaken violently by the force of the impact and the subsequent explosion, the ship took an immediate list to Starboard as tons of seawater began to fill her aft cargo holds, prompting her Captain to order the engines secured and the ship abandoned. Continuing to heel over as her dazed crew took to lifeboats, the Steel Seafarer remained afloat for only 20 minutes following the attack before fully capsizing and sinking Stern-first at this location at 2350hrs on September 5th.

Though none of her crew of 27 were lost in the sinking, the loss of the Steel Seafarer marked the beginning of a increase in German attacks on neutral American vessels which would continue until the United States joined the Allies three months later.

www.isthmianlines.com/ships/sa_steel_seafarer.htm
www.thewarillustrated.info/107/i-was-there-i-was-on-the...
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Coordinates:   27°20'0"N   34°14'59"E
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This article was last modified 9 years ago