The ship was delivered by Merchants and Miners Transportation Company to the War Shipping Administration (WSA) at Baltimore on January 24, 1942, for operation by
Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamship Lines (Agwilines) as agent for WSA and allocated to
United States Army requirements.
Dorchester was converted to a troopship by Agwilines in New York, and fitted with additional lifeboats and life rafts, as well as four 20 mm guns, a
3"/50 caliber gun fore, and a
4"/50 caliber gun aft. The allocation to Army requirements, transport of Army personnel and presence of the Army administrative staff under the Transport Commander in command of embarked troops, led some to assume the ship was an Army transport.
Loss On January 23, 1943,
Dorchester left New York harbor, bound for the Army Command Base at
Narsarsuaq in southern
Greenland. SG-19 consisted of six ships: SS
Dorchester, two merchant ships (SS
Lutz and SS
Biscaya) that were leased by the United States from the
Norwegian government-in-exile, and their escorts, the small
United States Coast Guard cutters , (both 165 feet), and (240 feet). During the early morning hours of February 3, 1943, at 12:55,
Dorchester was
torpedoed by . The damage was severe, boiler power was lost, and there was inadequate steam to sound the full 6-whistle signal to abandon ship, and
Dorchester sank by the bow in about 20 minutes. Loss of power prevented the crew from sending a radio distress signal, and no rockets or flares were launched to alert the escorts. A severe list prevented launch of some port side lifeboats, and some lifeboats capsized through overcrowding. Survivors in the water were so stiff from cold they could not even grasp the cargo nets on rescue vessels. The crew of
Escanaba employed a new "retriever" rescue technique whereby swimmers clad in wet suits swam to victims in the water and secured a line to them so they could be hauled onto the ship. By this method,
Escanaba saved 133 men (one died later) and
Comanche saved 97 men of the 904 aboard
Dorchester. The sinking of
Dorchester was the worst single loss of American personnel of any American convoy during World War II. Life jackets offered little protection from
hypothermia, which killed most men in the water. Water temperature was and air temperature was . When additional rescue ships arrived on February 4 "hundreds of dead bodies were seen floating on the water, kept up by their life jackets."
The Four Chaplains The
Four Chaplains were four of the Army officers among the military personnel being transported overseas for duty: they died because they gave up their life jackets to save others. These chaplains included
Methodist minister George L. Fox,
Reformed Church in America minister Clark V. Poling,
Catholic Church priest John P. Washington and
Rabbi Alexander B. Goode. Congress established February 3 as "Four Chaplains Day" to commemorate this act of heroism, and on July 14, 1960, created the
Chaplain's Medal for Heroism, presented posthumously to the next of kin of each of the chaplains by
Secretary of the Army Wilber M. Brucker at
Fort Myer, Virginia on January 18, 1961.
Commemoration on US postage In 1948 the
U.S. Post Office issued a
commemorative stamp in honor of the heroism and sacrifice of the chaplains. It was designed by Louis Schwimmer, the head of the Art Department of the New York branch of the Post Office. This stamp was highly unusual, because until 2011, U.S. stamps were not normally issued in honor of someone other than a
President of the United States until at least ten years after their death. The stamp went through three revisions before the final design was chosen. None of the names of the chaplains were included on the stamp, nor were their faiths (although the faiths had been listed on one of the earlier designs): instead, the words on the stamp were "These Immortal Chaplains...Interfaith in Action." and
Buzz Aldrin in 1994, both of whom were still alive.
Notable passengers and crew The American writer
Jack Kerouac served on
Dorchester, where he befriended an African-American cook named "Old Glory," who died when the ship sank after the torpedo attack. Kerouac would have also been on the ship during the attack, but for a telegram he received from coach
Lou Little, asking him to return to
Columbia University to play football. ==See also==