USAT Dorchester
USAT Dorchester was a
United States Army Transport, sunk when part of a naval convoy during
World War II. In February
1943, Convoy SG-19 left
St. John's, Newfoundland, bound for the Army Command Base at
Narsarsuaq in southern
Greenland. SG-19 consisted of six ships:
Dorchester, two merchant ships leased by the
United States from the
Norwegian government-in-exile,
D/S (Diesel Ship)
Lutz, and D/S
Biscaya. They were escorted by three small
United States Coast Guard cutters:
Comanche (WPG-76),
Escanaba (WPG-77) (both 165 feet), and
Tampa (WPG-48) (240 feet). On the night of
3 February 1943, the ship was torpedoed by U-223. The damage was severe, and
Dorchester sunk in under 15 minutes, taking about 600 men with her out of a total crew of 902.
Dorchester is best remembered today for the story of the Four Chaplains who went down with her.
See USS Dorchester for commissioned United States Navy warships of this name.