Remembering the Loss of the Dorchester The Story of Four Navy Chaplains Who Left a Legacy of Faith and Courage by Vernon Pizer It happened February 3, 1943. The SS
Dorchester, crowded to capacity, was pushing its way steadily on a northeasterly heading in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as part of Convoy SG.19, carrying troops and support forces to Narsarssuack, 'Greenland. These were dangerous waters in which German Uboats constantly prowled for targets among the Allied ships plying the vital sea lanes. It was several hours since the long northern night had closed in around the Dorchester and, except for the crew on duty, almost all of the 904 US soldiers, merchant mariners and civilians aboard the transport were bunked down in their compartments. Suddenly, the early morning quiet was shattered by an explosion and the transport simultaneously jerked and shuddered convulsively as a German torpedo, fired by U-223, found its target, slamming through the ship's starboard side and detonating deep amidships. At once the icy sea began cascading in through the gaping wound in the hull. The vessel lost headway and quickly began to list and to settle lower in the water. The damage control reports telephoned to the bridge could hardly have been more dire: the Dorchester was sinking. All power was lost before a radio distress signal could be sent and there was no steam to sound the ship's whistle. Fearing further U-boat attacks , Dorchester's captain, Hans Danielson, did not dare fire star shell s to illuminate the area. With no alternative course of action open to him , the captain issued orders to abandon ship. Pandemonium rushed through the stricken vessel. Mingled cries of pain and fear pierced the air. Scores had been killed in the detonation and scores more had been injured. The survivors, the injured and the unscathed alike, were stunned by the suddenness of the attack. Those with life jackets wriggled into them; those without searched frantically for them. Soldiers, many of them bleeding and maimed, jammed the canting companionways straining to make their way through the throng, the debris and 18
the sloshing water. Some men , obviously in a state of shock, stood transfixed and others wandered about uncertainly. Amid the chaos and confusion stood four pillars of strength: Army chaplains George L. Fox, Methodist; Alexander D. Goode, Jewish; John P. Washington, Roman Catholic; and Clark V. Poling,
Reformed. Fanning out among the soldiers, the chaplains sought to calm the panic-stricken , to guide the disoriented toward the topside deck, to help the dazed to find and don life jackets, and to direct the milling, frightened men toward whatever lifeboats the crew succeeded in lowering from the badly list-
ing vessel. Moving swiftly and purposefully among the soldiers, the four chaplains were rallying points forthe stunned, the bewildered, the frightened. When no more life jackets could be found, each of the four chaplains unhesitatingly removed his own and strapped it around a soldier who had none. The lifeboats , so loaded that they rode dangerously low in the swirling water, pulled away from the Dorchester. The transport did not suffer a lingering death; in all, her travail lasted less than one hour. The last sight the men in the
lifeboats had before the North Atlantic consumed the transport was the four gallant chaplains standing together on the canting deck, clasping each other's hands and each praying in his own fashion. Due to the enforced silence aboard the Dorchester, the escort vessels, Coast Guard cutters Tampa, Escanaba and Comanche, werenotaware that the Dorchester was sinking until they spotted the red flashlights pinned to lifejackets bobbing on the surface. Escanaba and Comanche stayed near the site through the night, searching for and picking up survivors, while Tampa escorted the remaining two convoy freighters to Greenland. Of the 904 men aboard the Dorchester on that last, tragic voyage, 672 lost their lives. The four chaplains received the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.
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The voyage that ended in the icy waters off Greenland had begun on January 22, 1943 , when the US Army Transport Dorchester left Staten Island's Pier 11. On the same day, fifty years later, over 250 people gathered at the same spot to remember those lost and to pay tribute to the example of the four chaplains. Naval Station New York hosted the ceremony joined by ~ Navy, Army, Merchant Marine ~ and Coast Guard personnel. Speakers at the event included two survivors of the sinking. A marker will be erected at the site of the departure. Such memorial gatherings are supported by the Chapel of the Four Chaplains, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The courage of the four chaplains was the driving force behind the establishment of the Chapel of the Four Chaplains, initiated by Chaplain Daniel A. Poling, father of Chaplain Clark V. Poling. The chapel continues in its mission to foster interfaith and inter-racial !, harmony.
This article has been excerpted from Vernon Pizer' s "Four Brave Men," reprinted by permission, The American Legion Magazine, copyright 1989. SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993