11. A Liberty ship sunk a German surface raider in a running gun battle
In September 1942, the Liberty ship SS Stephen Hopkins completed its first and only voyage with cargo. Operated by the Luckenbach Steamship Company, Stephen Hopkins delivered its cargo to South Africa, from whence it steamed toward Surinam. There it was to load bauxite for delivery to the United States. On September 27, Stephen Hopkins encountered the German surface raider Stier, in heavy fog. Stier had rendezvoused with its resupply ship, Tannenfels. By the time the American vessel identified the German ships, they were too close to evade. Stephen Hopkins’ naval contingent engaged the Germans in a running surface battle, using the ship’s four-inch gun as well as its anti-aircraft guns to attack the enemy.
Though it severely damaged the German vessels, it took heavy casualties as well. The crew of the American ship were forced to abandon, and only 19 of the men aboard escaped into the ship’s life raft. Of those, fifteen survived the 30-day voyage adrift at sea to a Brazilian coastal village. Unbeknownst to them, the gunnery from their ship had so damaged the German surface vessel that it sank, its crew transferring to Tannenfels. Stephen Hopkins was the only American merchant ship to sink an enemy surface raider during the war, though it did so at a high cost. Tannenfels, though also heavily damaged, eluded the British cruisers in the area and succeeded in returning to a port in occupied France.