 Sinking of SSCynthia Olson; photograph taken by Saburo Hayashi, a crew member of the Japanese submarineI-26. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Operator |
|
| Port of registry |  |
| Builder | Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company,Manitowoc, Wisconsin |
| Yard number | 100 |
| Launched | November 30, 1918 |
| Out of service | December 7, 1941 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Sunk byJapanese submarine I-26 about 1,200 miles west ofSeattle on December 7, 1941 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Cargo ship |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | 250 ft 5 in (76.3 m)registered length |
| Beam | 43 ft 7 in (13.3 m) |
| Depth | 20 ft 1 in (6.1 m) |
| Installed power | 1250i.h.p. |
| Propulsion | 1triple expansion steam engine, 2 boilers, 1 screw |
| Speed | 10 knots[1] |
| Crew | 35 |
SSCynthia Olson was acargo ship originally built inWisconsin in 1918 as the SSCoquina. Renamed in 1940, in August 1941 she was chartered by theUS Army to transport supplies toHawaii. While in passage betweenTacoma, Washington andHonolulu on December 7, she was intercepted by theJapanese submarine I-26, which sank her with gunfire. Although the commander of the submarine ensured that all of the crew had escaped into boats, none of them were ever found.Cynthia Olson was the firstUnited States Merchant Marine vessel to be sunk after the entry of the United States intoWorld War II.
SSCoquina was ordered by theUnited States Shipping Board duringWorld War I. She waslaid down in the late summer of 1918 and being built inprefabricated steel sections, was able to be launched on November 30.[2] The ship was one of nineEmergency Fleet Corporation Design 1044 hulls known as "Laker, Manitowoc Type" ordered from theManitowoc Shipbuilding Company inManitowoc, Wisconsin. The yard is known to have completed six hulls withCoquina, yard hull number 100, being completed in April 1919 assigned official number 217871 and signal letters LQRK.[3][4] Ship's characteristics were 2,153 GRT, changed in the 1920 register to 2,140 GRT, 250 ft 5 in (76.3 m)registered length, 43 ft 7 in (13.3 m) beam with a depth of 20 ft 1 in (6.1 m).[4][5][6]
Hostilities having ended with theArmistice of 11 November 1918, she was surplus to requirements and on completion, was laid up onLake Michigan. In December 1919,Coquina was chartered to help export stocks ofwhisky which had been made unsaleable by theVolstead Act that had introducedprohibition in the United States. There followed another period of lying idle, this time in New York, until she was purchased in 1925 by Pillsbury and Curtis for theWest Coast lumber trade. After a conversion and refit, she arrived inSan Pedro Bay, California but was again laid up. In 1931, she was sold on again for the sum of $10 to theLos Angeles Steamship Company, which like Pillsbury was a subsidiary ofMatson Navigation. In 1933 she was sold on to another Matson subsidiary, the California Steamship Company, and in 1936, was transferred to the parent company and finally began to work on chartered voyages along the West Coast carrying lumber.[2][3][6] On January 1, 1940, theCoquina was put up for sale and was purchased byOliver J. Olson & Company of San Francisco for $85,000, who renamed herCynthia Olson. She wasbareboat chartered by theUS Army Transportation Corps in August 1941.[7][8]
On December 6, 1941, SSCynthia Olson was in the Pacific about midway on thegreat circle between Tacoma, Washington and Honolulu, Hawaii with a cargo of lumber for theUS Army.[1] At about 22:00Hawaii Time, she was spotted by the Japanese submarineI-26 which overtook theCynthia Olson and conformed to her course while running ahead of her on the surface throughout the night. The submarine's captain, CommanderMinoru Yokota, had been ordered not to open hostilities against American vessels until 08:00 on December 7, which was the intended time of theAttack on Pearl Harbor. Eight hours after the attack, aJapanese declaration of war on the United States would be printed in Japanese newspapers on December 8, 1941.[9] When zero-hour arrived,I-26 fired a warning shot with the14 cm deck gun intended to halt theCynthia Olson but she continued to run on. The submarine then fired a torpedo which missed, but brought the freighter to a halt. Yokota observed the crew taking to the ship's two lifeboats before attempting to sink her with gunfire.[10] Before abandoning ship, the ship's radio operator had managed to broadcast adistress call stating that they were being attacked by a submarine; this was received by the Americanliner,SS Lurline, which was a considerable distance away bound for San Francisco.[11]
Meanwhile, 18 shells had failed to sink theCynthia Olson, so Yokota dived and fired a second torpedo without a result. Surfacing again, a further 29 shells were fired into the ship,[11] before she finally turned over onto her port side andI-26 left the scene, some five hours after the start of the engagement.[10] The next day, theJapanese submarine I-19 gave some food to some of the survivors, but following that, no trace of the 33 crew members and two Army passengers was ever found.[11]Cynthia Olson was the first American flagged merchant vessel to be sunk after the entry of the United States into the war.[12] On the following day, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt alluded to her loss in his speech to theJoint session of the United States Congress which has become known as theInfamy Speech.[13]
