SS Louise Lykes (1941)

Career
Name:	SS Louise Lykes
Owner:	Lykes Brothers Steamship Company[1]
Port of registry:	New Orleans[1]
Builder:	Federal Shipbuilding Kearny, New Jersey[2]
Yard number:	180[2]
Launched:	27 September 1941[2]
Completed:	October 1941[2]
Fate:	sunk with all hands by U-384, 9 January 1943[3]
General characteristics
Type:	Type C2-F ship[2]
Tonnage:	6,155 GRT[1][3]
Length:	439 ft 0 in (133.81 m)[1]
Beam:	63 ft 1 in (19.23 m)[1]
Draft:	27 ft 5 in (8.36 m)[1]
Decks:	two plus shelter deck[1]
Propulsion:	2 General Electric steam turbines, geared to a single screw propeller[1]
Speed:	15.5 knots (28.7 km/h)[2]
Crew:	10 officers, 41 sailors, 32 Naval Armed Guardsmen (83 total)[3]
Armament:	1 × 4 in (10 cm) gun 2 × 2 in (5.1 cm) gun 8 × 20 mm (0.79 in) gun

SS Louise Lykes was a Type C2-F ship built in 1941 at Federal Shipbuilding of Kearny, New Jersey. She sailed for the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company out of New Orleans, Louisiana. On 9 January 1943, she was sunk with all hands in the North Atlantic by German submarine U-384.

Career

Louise Lykes was laid down at Federal Shipbuilding of Kearny, New Jersey, and launched on 27 September 1941.^[2] After her October 1941 completion,^[2] she was delivered to her owners, the Lykes Brothers Steamship Company, and registered at New Orleans, Louisiana.^[1] Very little information on the earliest parts of Louise Lykes‍ '​ career are reported in secondary sources, but some time after the United States entered World War II in December 1941, the ship was armed with one 4-inch (10 cm), two 3-inch (7.6 cm), and eight 20-millimetre (0.79 in) guns, and a Naval Armed Guard detachment to man them.^[3]

Information on most of Louise Lykes‍ '​ wartime activities is also absent from secondary sources, but she is recorded as sailing in Convoy UGF 2 from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to Casablanca in November 1942 with 21 other merchant vessels,^[4] and the return convoy, GUF 2, which returned to Hampton Roads on 11 December.^[5] Both convoys were escorted across the Atlantic by the American battleship Arkansas and other escorts and support ships.^{[4][5][Note 1]}

Less than a month after her cruise to Casablanca and back, Louis Lykes departed from New York City for Belfast with a cargo of munitions.^[6] Sailing independently on a zig-zag course, she was discovered at 20:25 GWT^{[Note 2]} some 500 nautical miles (930 km) south-southeast of Iceland^{[Note 3]} by Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Achim von Rosenberg-Gruszcynski, in command of German submarine U-384.^[6] Lookouts on Louise Lykes spotted the German vessel and opened fire, straddling the submarine with misses. In response, von Rosenberg-Gruszcynski launched a spread of four torpedoes at the American vessel from a distance of 2,000 yards (1,800 m). Although two of the torpedoes were wide of the mark, the other pair did their job and struck home on the cargo ship,^[3] igniting her cargo and raining debris on the deck of U-384.^[6] After a crash dive to avoid damage at the hands of the exploded American ship, von Rosenberg-Gruszcynski surfaced after five minutes to find no trace of the ship afloat.^[6] Master Edwin J. Madden, 9 other officers, 41 crewmen, and 32 Naval Armed Guardsmen were killed in the attack on Louise Lykes,^[3] the first of two ships sunk by U-384 during the war.^[7]

Notes

References

References

• Browning, Robert M. (1996). U.S. Merchant Vessel War Casualties of World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-087-8. OCLC 32310902. 

Coordinates: 56°15′N 22°0′W / 56.250°N 22.000°W / 56.250; -22.000