The SS Oliver Ellsworth was a 7,191 ton American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 liberty ship

Liberty ship

Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...

 in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. She was built by Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards Inc

Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation

Bethlehem Steel Corporation Shipbuilding Division was created in 1905 when Bethlehem Steel Corporation acquired the San Francisco shipyard Union Iron Works in 1905...

, of Baltimore, Maryland in 1942 and operated by Agwilines Inc, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. She was named for Oliver Ellsworth

Oliver Ellsworth

Oliver Ellsworth was an American lawyer and politician, a revolutionary against British rule, a drafter of the United States Constitution, and the third Chief Justice of the United States. While at the Federal Convention, Ellsworth moved to strike the word National from the motion made by Edmund...

, and was armed with one 4in, one 3in, eight 20mm and two .30cal guns.

Career and sinking

Completed in June 1942, the Oliver Ellsworth was just three months old when she was assigned to Convoy PQ-18

Convoy PQ-18

Convoy PQ-18 was one of the Arctic convoys sent from Britain to aid the Soviet Union in the war against Nazi Germany. The convoy departed Loch Ewe, Scotland on 2 September 1942 and arrived in Arkhangelsk on 21 September 1942....

, one of the Arctic convoys

Arctic convoys of World War II

The Arctic convoys of World War II travelled from the United Kingdom and North America to the northern ports of the Soviet Union—Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. There were 78 convoys between August 1941 and May 1945...

 delivering supplies to the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. She carried 7,200 tons of ammunition and aircraft as deck cargo. She was commanded by her Master, Otto Ernest Buford.

The convoy was shadowed by German forces and soon came under attack by the Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

 and U-boats. At 09.52 hours on 13 September, U-408 sighted the convoy about 100 miles southwest of Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...

 and fired a spread of three torpedoes. One hit the Soviet SS Stalingrad

SS Stalingrad

The SS Stalingrad was a steamship of the Soviet Union, named after the Soviet city of Stalingrad, itself named after Joseph Stalin. She was built at Zavod No 189 in Leningrad and operated by Glavnoe Upravlenie Severnogo Morskogo Puti , who homeported her in Vladivostok...

. The other two torpedoes missed the stricken Soviet merchant, but one of them hit the Oliver Ellsworth which had had to steer hard left to avoid the torpedoed ship.

The Oliver Ellsworth was hit on her starboard side between the #4 and #5 holds. The engines were stopped and the crew of eight officers, 34 crewmen and 28 armed guards abandoned ship in four lifeboats within 15 minutes after the hit, because they feared an explosion of their cargo. But the Oliver Ellsworth continued moving, causing both starboard boats to swamp and one of the port boats struck a raft and sank. All of the survivors were picked up within an hour by the British rescue ship

Convoy rescue ship

During the Second World War purpose built convoy rescue ships accompanied some Atlantic convoys to rescue survivors from ships which had been attacked. Rescue ships were typically small freighters with passenger accommodations. Conversion to rescue service involved enlarging galley and food...

 Copeland and the A/S trawler HMS St. Kenan, and were later landed at Archangel

Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...

. After the rescue action, St. Kenan fired upon the still floating wreck of the Oliver Ellsworth, which sank stern first at 10.30 hours. Out of a complement of 70, all had been rescued except for one armed guard who drowned.