City of Birmingham
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| Name | City of Birmingham | ||
| Type: | Steam passenger ship | ||
| Tonnage | 5.861 tons | ||
| Completed | 1923 - Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co, Newport News VA | ||
| Owner | Ocean SS Co, Savannah GA | ||
| Homeport | Savannah | ||
| Date of attack | 1 Jul, 1942 | Nationality:  American | |
| Fate | Sunk by U-202 (Hans-Heinz Linder) | ||
| Position | 35.10N, 70.53W - Grid CA 9758 - See location on a map - | ||
| Complement | 381 (9 dead and 372 survivors). | ||
| Convoy | |||
| Route | Norfolk, Virginia - Bermuda | ||
| Cargo | 2400 tons of general cargo | ||
| History | | ||
| Notes on loss | On 1 Jul, 1942, the City of Birmingham (Master Lewis P. Borum) was en route to Bermuda at 11 knots about 250 miles east of Cape Hatteras, escorted by the USS Stansbury (DMS 8), which took station a mile distant. At 01.27 hours, just after the escort ship had signaled by flags and blinkers for a change of course, two torpedoes from U-202 hit the City of Birmingham in quick succession on the port side and another was seen passing ahead of the ship. The first torpedo struck about 100 feet abaft the bow in the #1 hatch and the second under the bridge. The second hit caused all the sections in the forward part of the ship to flood. She quickly listed 45° to port and sank within five minutes. Most of the ten officers, 103 crewmen, five armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in and two .30cal guns) and 263 passengers on board abandoned ship in an orderly fashion in five lifeboats, five rafts and seven floats. The armed guards left last and jumped into the water. The survivors were picked up by the USS Stansbury (DMS 8) within two hours after she had dropped depth charges to chase away the U-boat. Five crewmen, one stewardess and two passengers were lost and one of the crew later died on board the escort. In the First World War, Lewis P. Borum was master on the American steam merchant City of Memphis (5252 tons, built 1902), which had been en route from Cardiff to New York in ballast on 17 Mar, 1917, when she was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat UC-66 (Pustkuchen) south of Fastnet. | ||
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