TODAY IS A DAY of remembrance. National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day set aside to honor and remember the victims of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It has been 83 years since that “Day of Infamy.”
At the same time, post Pearl Harbor hysteria caused many to fear an imminent invasion from Japan.
For the people on the Olympic Peninsula there was a local military presence. We had Coast Watchers looking out for enemy ships and aircraft. People were seeing spies everywhere.
Six months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor the war got a bit closer to home. On Sunday, June 7, 1942, the merchant vessel SS Coast Trader was torpedoed about 35 miles west of Cape Flattery.
The SS Coast Trader was a 334-foot freighter built in Edison, New Jersey. It had a displacement of 7,615 tons. The ship was completed in May 1920 as assigned to the United States Shipping Board. The ship could make 10.5 knots (12 mph). So, it was a slow-moving target.
The Coast Trader was sunk by the Japanese submarine I-26, which was a Type B class submarine built in Kobe, Japan. It is believed there were nine such boats prowling the West Coast. Some of these boats may have been spotted within the Straits.
Often, we do not remember that Merchant Mariners faced extreme danger. There are plenty of movies and books about the dangers faced by the Navy, Army, Army Air Corp, and the Marines. Even so, the Merchant Mariners experienced higher casualty rates than any other branch of the military,
Merchant Mariners faced submarines, mines, destroyers, and aircraft with little protection. Around 8,300 Merchant Mariners were killed at sea. Another 12,000 were wounded. By June 1942 there had already been 263 ships sunk.
The danger was very real even though the SS Coast Trader was not carrying military cargo. The ship was loaded in Port Angeles with 1,250 tons of newsprint. It was scheduled to deliver the newsprint to San Franscisco.
After leaving the Strait of Juan de Fuca the ship steered a non-evasive course south. Lookouts were posted on the ship, but they did not spot the submarine. Second Officer Willard Jackson was navigating the vessel. There was no warning of the sub’s presence.
Around 2:00 pm the ship was rocked by an explosion. Chief Engineer Norman J. Irvine was resting in his bunk when the torpedo struck just forward of his room. The blast threw him violently from his bunk, but he miraculously landed on his feet.
Captain Lyle G. Havens knew the damage was catastrophic. He gave the order to abandon ship. He was well known along the Port Angeles waterfront. He had often picked up cargo in Port Angeles.
Many men were dazed by the realization of the blast. Irvine made a quick survey of the damage and said he had never seen such havoc confined to a small space. In the engine room pipes were twisted and steam was fast escaping. In the holds, heavy rolls of newsprint were ripped open, and hundreds of yards of paper were floating in the water with the fuel oil.
Irvine was a veteran of the sea. He made sure he was adequately dressed before taking to the lifeboat. Many others left the ship in such a hurry that they took very little clothing with them. As a result, many suffered from exposure to the cold and rain. One man had a coat but no trousers. Others had very light clothing since they worked in the boiler room.
Private James Bartlett was a medical corpsman and a member of the armed guard aboard ship. Bartlett attended to Stephen Chance, who was the most seriously injured. Chance later died of exposure. He was only the only death from the sinking.
The explosion smashed one of the two lifeboats. Within 10 minutes the entire crew got underway in the one remaining lifeboat and two life rafts. First Officer E. W. Nystrom carried a Lewis machine gun to the lifeboat in case the sub should surface again.
The lifeboats and rafts made way to separate themselves from the sinking vessel. They stood off several hundred yards and waited for the ship to go down. The SS Coast Trader then suddenly went down by the stern.
The radio antenna fell almost immediately after the explosion. It was unknown if their distress call was heard. So, they began rowing towards the coast. The weather was fairly calm until evening. Around midnight there were 60-know winds and heavy seas. The lifeboat and life rafts became separated.
It must have felt hopeless in the open ocean so far from shore. Around 4:00 pm the next day the crew of the lifeboat spotted a fishing vessel. It was a halibut schooner, the Virginia I. The crew members in the lifeboat were taken to the Naval Section Base at Neah Bay. From there, Captain Havens was able to supply the approximate location of the two life rafts.
The Coast Guard dispatched aircraft to search for survivors. Before dawn on Tuesday, the survivors saw a Coast Guard V-206 circling overhead and fired a signal flare into the air. After 40 hours without food or shelter, hope was finally on the horizon.
The Canadian corvette HMCS Edmunston was guided to their location. Survivors were brought to Port Angeles for medical treatment. Two crewmen, Vern Wickert and Steve Malone, had injuries serious enough to warrant transport to the marine hospital in Seattle.
Captain Havens said he was proud of the way his men behaved. He was happy that the loss of life was not greater.
The SS Coast Trader had a crew of 56. That included nine officers, 28 crewmen, and 19 deck gunners. There was only one fatality, that of cook Stephen Chance.
As can be the case sometimes, a Naval Board of Inquiry found the SS Coast Trader was sunk from an internal explosion. This was contrary to the evidence. It was a public relations concern for the Navy. The thought of an enemy submarine that close to the coast was unimaginable.
However, on July 7, 1942, the commander of submarine I-26 reported the sinking of a merchant vessel on June 7th at this location.
War is very traumatic. In this case, 55 men survived by relying on their training, doing what needed to be done, and striving to survive as long as necessary. Let’s not forget their service to our nation.
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John McNutt is a descendant of Clallam County pioneers and treasurer of the North Olympic History Center Board of Directors. He can be reached at woodrowsilly@gmail.com.
John’s Clallam history column appears the first Saturday of every month.
