Italian submarine fates

Ships hit by Italian submarines

Type	Cargo ship
Country	British
Built	1923	GRT	7,011

Date of attack	6 Mar 1942	Time	0402 2200/5 (e)
Fate	Sunk by submarine Giuseppe Finzi (C.C. Ugo Giudice)
Position of attack	23° 36'N, 62° 28'W
Complement	49 (no casualties, 49 survivors)
Convoy	OS 19
Notes	At 2055 hours on 5th March 1942, a smoke was sighted on the horizon at a range of 10,000 meters in 24°00' N, 61°42' W. It turned out to be a tanker steering 265°. At 0308 hours on the 6th, Giuseppe Finzi closed to 1,200 metres and , she fired a pair of torpedoes (533mm) from her bow tubes. One torpedo apparently hit amidship and another hit the stern. However, survivors later reported that only one torpedo hit under the bridge. This was the British *Melpomene* (ex-French, 7,011 GRT, built 1923) bound from Belfast to New Orleans in convoy O.S.19. The crew began to abandon ship. At 0337 hours, the submarine fired a third torpedo from a bow tube at *Melpomene* and hit her again, but she failed to sink. At 0402 hours, a fourth torpedo was fired and squarely hit *Melpomene* which finally sank at 0423 hours. The forty-nine men of her crew had taken to three lifeboats and made for San Juan (Puerto Rico). They were all rescued (including three seriously wounded) by the American steamer *Idaho*.