5.5 X 3.5 inch real photo postcard. some wear from use age and storage edge bumping and wear no creases or folds. Guaranteed Original. Please see photos they are a key part of the item and condition description. We will get back to you ASAP with answers to any questions you may have prior to bidding.At 04.12 hours on 13 June 1942 the unescorted Sixaola (Master William H. Fagan) was hit on the starboard side by two torpedoes from U-159, while steaming on a righthand zigzag pattern at 12.5 knots about 50 miles off Bocas del Toro, Panama. The first torpedo struck in the bow and the second in the center of #2 hold. The most of the eight officers, 79 crewmen, six armed guards (the ship was armed with one 3in and two .50cal guns) and 108 passengers on board abandoned ship in five lifeboats and six rafts two minutes after the hits and stopping the engines. 29 crewmen died in the explosions, most of them lay sleeping in the quarters of the crew in the bow. Just after the master and chief officer left the ship, she was hit on the port side amidships by a coup de grâce at 04.31 hours and sank by the stern about 06.15 hours. The Germans questioned the survivors, offered medical aid, gave exact course and distance to the nearest land and two packages of German cigarettes and then left the area.
32 survivors in one boat were picked up by the American steam merchant Carolinian and later transferred to the American gunboat USS Niagara (PG 52), which also picked up 75 survivors in two other boats that had been spotted by aircraft and landed them all in Cristobal. 23 survivors in another boat were rescued by the US Army tug Shasta, after their boat landed on Bocas del Toro on 16 June. The remaining 42 survivors made landfall in their lifeboat in the delta of Coloveboran River after four days and were brought to Cristobal by the American submarine chaser USS PC-460.
Built in 1911 by Workman Clark and Co., Belfast, Ireland
Acquired by the Navy 19 September 1918 and commissioned USS Sixaola (ID 2777) the same day
Caught fire and partially sunk 23 February 1919 at pier in Hoboken, NJ, towed to shipyard, two killed
Decommissioned 12 June 1919 and transferred to the War Department
In April 1922 the Government's Joint Merchant Vessel Board changed her registry number from ID-2777 to ID-4524, but this appears to have been of bureaucratic significance only
Returned to her owners, the Carillo Steamship Company of New York, part of the United Fruit Co. fleet
Sunk 12 June 1942 by the German submarine U-159 off Colon, Panama Canal Zone.