Italian submarine fates
Ships hit by Italian submarines
Ben Brush
| Type | Tanker | |||
| Country |  Panamanian | |||
| Built | 1928 | GRT | 7,691 | |
| Date of attack | 13 Apr 1942 | Time | 0102 1900 EW (e) | |
| Fate | Sunk by submarine Pietro Calvi (C.C. Emilio Olivieri) | |||
| Position of attack | 4° 21'S, 35° 35'W | |||
| Complement | 35 (1 dead and 34 survivors) | |||
| Convoy | ||||
| Notes | At 2328 hours, one torpedo (450mm) was fired from a bow tube at a distance at 800 metres. It hit after 42 seconds but failed to sink her. This was the Panamanian Ben Brush (7,691 GRT, built 1928, ex Danish Caroline Maersk) bound from Aruba for Buenos Aires. Between 2337 and 2349 hours, the submarine used her forward gun to deliver 15 rounds from a distance of 800 metres, claiming a dozen hits and causing further damage. At midnight, the submarine having turned to present its stern, fired two torpedoes (one 533mm and one 450mm) from a range of 600 metres. Both hit, but the target still did not sink. At 0017 hours on 13th of April, the submarine resumed firing with her deck gun, but after 25 rounds 20 of which were claimed to have hit the tanker, Ben Brush was still afloat. At 0102 hors, Pietro Calvi finished off the Panamanian ship with seventeen rounds from her forward gun. Ben Brush finally sank, she had one killed and thirty-four survivors. | |||