SS Alcoa Puritan

SS Alcoa Puritan may refer to:

SS Alcoa Puritan (1941)

SS Alcoa Puritan was a cargo ship in the service of Alcoa Steamship Company that was torpedoed and sunk in the Gulf of Mexico during World War II.

The SS Alcoa Puritan provided freight and passenger service between U.S. and Caribbean ports. The ship was typically staffed with 10 officers and 33 crew, and could also accommodate 8-10 passengers.

Torpedoing

On about 1 May 1942, the SS Alcoa Puritan sailed from Port of Spain, Trinidad, alone and unarmed, to Mobile, Alabama loaded with bauxite. Newly in command of the ship was Capt. Yngvar A. Krantz. (The former master of the ship, Axel B. Axelsen, had just left command after unsuccessfully urging shoreside management that the ship be armed.) Among the ten passengers were six survivors from the torpedoed Standard Oil tanker T.C. McCobb.

By April 1942, the German submarine campaign was reaching its height. Records made public after the war revealed that 35 American merchant-marine ships were sunk in March; 42 were sunk in April, and May saw 52 more sent to the bottom.