SS Connecticut (1938)

{{Use American English|date=October 2024}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}

{{Infobox ship begin}} {{Infobox ship image |Ship image= SS_Connecticut(1938).jpg |Ship caption= SS Connecticut }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country= United States |Ship flag= {{USN flag|1945}} |Ship name=Connecticut |Ship namesake= Connecticut |Ship owner= Texaco |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder= Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. Ltd. - Bethlehem Steel |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= 4327 |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=1 September 1938 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification=237981 - WNZB |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate= Sank after surface raider attack, 22 April 1942 |Ship notes= |Ship badge=

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{{Infobox ship characteristics

|Hide header=

|Header caption=

|Ship class=

|Ship tonnage= 8,684 grt

|Ship displacement=

|Ship length= 149.5 m

|Ship beam= 19.9 m

|Ship draught= 10.4 m

|Ship power= 880 n.h.p.

|Ship propulsion= 2 x Steam turbines DR geared to 1 screw shaft, one propeller

|Ship speed= 13 knots

|Ship boats=

|Ship complement=53 Merchant and US Navy armed guard

|Ship armament= Deck guns

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{{Campaignbox Atlantic Campaign}}

SS Connecticut was a 8684 ton tanker ship built in 1938 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation and used for a World War II. She operated her under the United States Merchant Marine act for the War Shipping Administration, with United States Navy Armed Guards to man her deck guns. On 28 December 1941, the Connecticut was torpedoed near Cape Disappointment in the Pacific Ocean by {{ship|Japanese submarine|I-25||2}} of the Imperial Japanese Navy. To stop from sinking the Connecticut ran aground and was later salvaged. The attack took place 10 nautical miles off the mouth of the Columbia River near Oregon. The Japanese attack on the Connecticut was under the command of Lieutenant Commander Akiji Tagami.

The Connecticut was later sunk on 22 April 1942 in the middle of the South Atlantic, while in route from Port Arthur, Texas, to Cape Town, South Africa. German light motor torpedo boat Esau (LS-4) from auxiliary cruiser SS Michel torpedoed the Connecticut at 2:10am. The first torpedo started a fire to her cargo of 84,299 barrels of gasoline and heating oil. The radio operator was able send out a SOS call before the second torpedo hit and blew the ship apart. The attack killed 35 men and one more died aboard the Michel. All 11 of the Navy Armed Guards were killed. Only 18 sailors survived, they were turned over to Japan at Yokohama. Two prisoners of war died under the barbaric conditions as POWs of the Japanese. Connecticut rest at 22.58 S - 16.05 W. After the war the 16 surviving prisoners made it back home.[https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?136783 wrecksite.eu SS Connecticut ][http://merchantships2.tripod.com/ian/ianfergusonshomepage1.html merchantships2.tripod.com][https://books.google.com/books?id=H9ikAwAAQBAJ&dq=connecticut+i-25+torpedo&pg=PA53 The Fujita Plan, by Mark Felton][http://www.sixtant.net/2011/artigos.php?cat=raider-michel&sub=michel&tag=9)connecticut sixtant.net, SS Connecticut]

The merchant raider Michel was torpedoed and sunk by the US submarine USS Tarpon on 17 October 1943, near Tokyo Bay 290 men went down with the ship, other 116 reached Japan in lifeboats.{{Cite book |last=Muggenthaler |first=August Karl |title=German Raiders of World War II. |publisher=R. Hale |year=1977 |isbn=0-7091-6683-4 |pages=287 |language=de}}

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