1941 — Dec 19, US freighter Prusa sunk by Japanese sub, ~150-300M south of Honolulu–10

–10 American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
–10 Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com.
–10 Pocock, Michael W. “Daily Even for December 19, 2008.” Maritime Quest.
–8 immediately from torpedo explosion
–1 Radio Officer Lawrence “Lou” Gianella, who refused to leave his post, lost with ship.
–1 crewmember on lifeboat.

Blanchard note on location: One source (Clancey in HyperWar) writes that the loss was “about 150 miles south of Hawaii.” Another source (Pocock in Maritime Quest) writes that the survivors found themselves in lifeboats “about 250 to 300 miles south of Honolulu.” Other sources we cite do not note a location, and we do not know which source is more accurate. Thus we create a range of distance from Hawaii of 150-300 miles, drawing upon both sources.

Narrative Information

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged…
“Date Ship Type Cause Result Location Deaths
“12/19/41 Prusa Hog Islander Torpedo Sunk Pacific Crew 10.”

Clancey. HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in [WW] II, Chapter III 1941:
“Dec 19, Fri.
“Pacific
“….Unarmed U.S. freighter Prusa is torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I 172 about 150 miles south of Hawaii, 16°45’N, 156°00’W…”

Hackett and Kingsepp. Sensuikan! “IJN Submarine I-172: Tabular Record of Movement.”
“19 December 1941:
“150 miles S of Oahu, Hawaiian Islands. At 0530 (LZT), I-72 torpedoes 5,113 ton American cargo steamer PRUSA, en route from Honolulu to Baltimore. A torpedo wrecks PRUSA’s engines and she sinks within nine minutes at 16-45N, 156-00W. Five minutes later I-72 surfaces to establish the identity of her victim, illuminates the lifeboats with a searchlight and submerges shortly thereafter. Eight days later, Coast Guard cutter TIGER (WSC-152) rescues 13 men from one lifeboat. The master of PRUSA and ten others reach Nonouti atoll in the South Gilbert Islands with the second lifeboat after 31 days.”

Moore. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking. 1983. Table extracted by armed-guard.com:
“S.S. Prusa Torpedoed 12/19/41 Freighter Crew 10.” [Killed]

Pocock, Michael W. “Daily Even for December 19, 2008.” Maritime Quest:
“Built by American International Shipbuilding at Hog Island, Pennsylvania in 1919 the Prusa was a Type A cargo ship of 5,113 tons. She was built for the U. S. Shipping Board, but after the war was sold to Lykes Brothers of New Orleans, Louisiana. The ‘Hog Islanders’ as they were known were emergency built ships just as the Liberty and Victory ships of the Second World War. Prusa missed the first war, but was still around for the second.

“Prusa had arrived in Honolulu from Manila, Philippines on Dec. 10, 1941 three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. She sailed for Baltimore via the Panama Canal at noon on Dec. 16, but on December 19, 1941 she fell in with the Japanese submarine I-172. The I-172 was one of the submarines that sortied for the Pearl Harbor attack and she was still patrolling the waters off Hawaii. At 0530 (LZT) a torpedo struck the ship near the #5 hold. The explosion damaged the steering engine, blew out doors, caused a leak in the engine room and caused the loss of electrical power. The master, George. H. Boy, soon ordered the ship abandoned and nine minutes after the torpedo struck, the Prusa sank.

“According to the survivors I-172 (of course the identity of the submarine was not known to them) surfaced five minutes after the attack, but submerged shortly thereafter. Apparently Lt. Commander Ichiro Togami did not attempt to make contact with the men in the boats.

“They were only about 250 to 300 miles south of Honolulu, but the crew of the Prusa would have a difficult time following the sinking….” [There were two lifeboats. There were thirteen men in one boat, all of whom were picked up by the USCG WSC-152 nine days later. The other lifeboat, with the Captain and eleven crew made landfall on January 19 on Nonouti Island, or atoll, in the south Gilbert Island group, after a 2,500 mile journey. One of this group died along the way.]

Sources

American Merchant Marine at War. Chronological List of U.S. Ships Sunk or Damaged 1939 to 1941. Accessed 5-2-2021 at: http://www.usmm.org/sunk39-41.html#anchor325668

Clancey, Patrick (transcriber and formatter for HTML). HyperWar: The Official Chronology of the US Navy in World War II. “Chapter III: 1941.” Accessed 5-2-2021 at: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-Chron/USN-Chron-1941.html

Hackett, Bob and Sander Kingsepp. Sensuikan! [Operational histories of Japanese submarines in WW II.] “IJN Submarine I-172: Tabular Record of Movement (Revision 2).” Accessed 5-2-2021 at: http://www.combinedfleet.com/I-172.htm

Moore, Captain Arthur R. A Careless Word, A Needless Sinking: A History of the Staggering Losses Suffered By the U.S. Merchant Marine, Both in Ships and Personnel, During World War II. American Merchant Marine Museum 1983 (1st edition), 1990. Table extracted by armed-guard.com. Accessed 5-2-2021 at: https://www.armed-guard.com/sunk.html

Pocock, Michael W. “Daily Even for December 19, 2008.” Maritime Quest. Accessed 5-2-2021 at: https://www.maritimequest.com/daily_event_archive/2008/12_dec/19_ss_prusa.htm