POTTSVILLE SAILOR CHARLES LEIBIG ON TANKER ROCHESTER SURVIVES A U –BOAT ATTACK

Seaman Charles Leibig

POTTSVILLE SAILOR SURVIVES A U –BOAT ATTACK BY                   U-106

Charles Leibig, Member of a tanker crew, Arrived in Norfolk after sinking. Says men of submarine spoke to them in German.

Norfolk Jan. 31, 1942: Thirty survivors of the the Tanker Rochester told today how a yellow trimmed light blue German submarine sank their vessel with torpedoes and shells at short range.

Three of their shipmates, in the engine room at the time of the attack apparently were lost. The survivors escaped in two life boats.  One of the life boats approached so close to the Axis raider that an oarsman had to take his oar from its lock and fend the off from the submarine.

The 6,836 ton Socony-Vacuum tanker was attacked about noon yesterday while enroute empty from New York to Corpus Christi, Texas, The survivors escaped in two life boats when they launched after the submarine fired fired a torpedo and then rose to the surface and began firing shells.

They were brought to shore by a naval vessel. After more than four hours afloat. In their lifeboats.

The Rochester was the 11^th merchant ship sunk and the 10^th attacked by German submarine prowling the Atlantic coast, seemingly with tankers as their primary objective. The submarines have been reported from Nova Scotia to Florida.

Survivors stated the first torpedo hit near the Rochester’s propeller then circled the ship and sent in another torpedo. The tanker sanl about an hour and a half after the attack started.

T.C. Watts of Elizabeth N.J. chief cook, ruefully remarked that “Davy Jones got a good dinner” because he was preparing dinner when the first torpedo landed and “soup, bread, meat and coffee were sprayed al over the place.

Charles Leibig, a seaman from Pottsville, said the submarine was not more than 50 feet away when it began shelling from the surface.

“We could smell the gun powder and hear the gunners talking,” he said.
In trying to get away we pulled toward the sub and at the same time the sub was approaching us. We got so close that one man pulled out his oar out of the lock, struck it against the side of the sub and pushed away.

“The sub was light blue, trimmed in yellow, the men spoke to us in German.”

Floyd W. May, of Galveston Texas a seaman explained that it took about fifteen minutes to abandon ship. He said he was in the number two lifeboat and that the boat, “stayed near the sinking ship top see if the men in the engine room would ever come up. The submarine also stayed around for 30 minutes, all the time on the surface with the men out on deck., “ he said.” They made no attempt to get any closer to us. As a matter of fact they seemed to pay no attention to us.. We saw no machine guns.:”

A.D. Lewis, seaman from Beaumont. Tx. Said “I was knocked out of my bunk by the first torpedo. He said he went up on deck and, deciding he had time, ran to the forecastle for his clothes and papers. When he returned he said the first life boat already had been lowered, “but I made it in the second boat.”

Charles Leibig enlisted in the Navy 1939.

OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF SINKING

At 18.05 hours on 30 Jan, 1942, the unescorted and unarmed Rochester(Master Alden S. Clark) was hit by one stern torpedo from U-106 while steaming on a zigzag course at 10.4 knots about 85 miles east of the Chesapeake Lightship. One torpedo struck aft in the engine room, killed one officer and two crewmen on watch below, destroyed the engines and communications and damaged the rudder and propeller. The survivors among the eight officers and 27 crewmen abandoned ship in two lifeboats when the U-boat surfaced nearby. The Germans waited until both boats were clear of the tanker to finish her off with the deck gun, but it jammed after firing eight rounds from about 500 yards. At 18.38 hours, a coup de grâce was fired that hit amidships on the starboard side. The tanker immediately developed a list to starboard and sank after one hour.
The Samuel Q. Brown had observed the attack and sent radio messages that forced the U-boat to leave the area. The survivors were picked up after three hours by USS Roe (DD 418) off the Virginia Capes and landed in Norfolk the next morning. They had been spotted by an aircraft that dropped smoke bombs to lead the destroyer to them. One fireman died from burns on 14 February.