SM U-62
| Career (German Empire) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | U-62 |
| Ordered: | 6 Oct 1914 |
| Builder: | AG Weser, Bremen (Werk 217) |
| Laid down: | 22 Jun 1915 |
| Launched: | 2 Aug 1916 |
| Commissioned: | 30 Dec 1916 |
| Fate: | 22 Nov 1918 - Surrendered. Broken up at Bo'ness in 1919-20 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | German Type U 57 submarine |
| Displacement: | 786 tons surfaced 954 submerged |
| Length: | 67 m |
| Draft: | 3.79 m |
| Speed: | 14.7 kn surfaced 8.4 submerged |
| Test depth: | ~50 m (164 feet) |
| Armament: |
Deck gun: 88mm 276 rounds Torpedoes: 6, 2/2 (bow / stern tubes) |
| Service record | |
|---|---|
| Part of: | Imperial German Navy |
| Commanders: |
Ernst Hashagen Otto Wiebalck 25 Dec 1917 - 9 Mar 1918 |
| Operations: |
9 patrols 47 ships sunk for a total of 123,294 tons. 5 ships damaged for a total of 16,483 tons. 1 warship sunk for a total of 9,517 tons.[1] |
SM U-62 was one of the 329 submarines serving in the Imperial German Navy in World War I. U-62 was engaged in the naval warfare and took part in the First Battle of the Atlantic.
On 8 March 1917, SM U-62 sank the coal freighter SS Storstad, the ship that had rammed and sunk the Empress of Ireland ocean liner in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in modern history.
On 17 October 1917, the SM U-62 met the SS Antilles, an American troop transport, during the return leg of a voyage to Europe.[2] The Antilles was torpedoed by the submerged U-boat and went down just five minutes after being hit.[3] A total of 67 persons were killed in the sinking,[2] making the destruction of the Antilles the event costing the single greatest number of American lives in the war to that date.[3]
Footnotes
- ↑ Uboat.net U62
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Online Library of Selected Images: S.S. Antilles (American Passenger-Cargo Ship, 1907)," Department of the Navy, Navy Historical Center, www.history.navy.mil/
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "The Tribune Graphic," in the New York Tribune, vol. 77, whole no. 25,914 (Oct. 28, 1917), pg. 1.
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