USS Alexander Hamilton (WPG 34)

| Name | USS Alexander Hamilton (WPG 34) | ||
| Type: | Coast Guard Cutter (George M. Bibb) | ||
| Tonnage | 2.216 tons | ||
| Completed | 1936 - New York Navy Yard | ||
| Owner | Unites States Coast Guard | ||
| Homeport | |||
| Date of attack | 29 Jan, 1942 | Nationality: | |
| Fate | Sunk by U-132 (Ernst Vogelsang) | ||
| Position | 64.10N, 22.56W - Grid AE 4756 - See location on a map - | ||
| Complement | 115 officers and men (32 dead and 83 survivors). | ||
| Convoy | HX-170 (dispersed) | ||
| Route | Argentia - Reykjavik | ||
| Cargo | |||
| History | | ||
| Notes on loss | The USS Alexander Hamilton (WPG 34) (Cmdr Arthur G. Hall USCG) escorted the HX-170 from 15 until 24 January and was then on the way to Iceland. One day earlier the store ship USS Yukon (AF 9) suffered an engine failure while on route to convoy ON-57 and was floating helpless in the sea. The cutter arrived on 25 January and took the ship in tow, while the USS Gwin (DD 433) escorted the little convoy toward Reykjavik. By noon on the 29 January, this convoy was only ten miles from their destination and the British tug Frisky was ready to take the store ship in tow. When they were eight miles off Skaggi Point light, near the entrance to the swept channel to Reykjavik, the USS Alexander Hamilton (WPG 34) cast the tow line and proceeded slowly ahead. At 16.10 hours, U-132, which was patrolling off Reykjavik since eight days, fired a spread of four torpedoes at the little convoy, one of them struck the cutter amidships and destroyed all engines, including the emergency diesel generators, so no heat, steam, nor electricity remained. The other torpedoes missed their targets. At 13.15 hours on 30 January, the Frisky took the ship in tow, but at 20.28 hours she suddenly capsized. The USS Ericsson (DD 440) then fired three rounds into the hull and left. As the cutter was reported still afloat in the evening, the destroyer returned to the scene, but found only an oil slick. | ||
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