SS Fairport (1941)

Fairport was laid down as the first ship constructed at Gulf Shipbuilding of Chickasaw, Alabama.^[3] Constructed under a United States Maritime Commission contract (MC hull number 849) on behalf of the Waterman Steamship Company of Mobile, Alabama,^[3][4] she was launched on 15 November 1941.^[3] After Fairport's April 1942 completion, she was registered at Mobile and armed with a 4-inch (100 mm) deck gun and six machine guns, and took on fourteen Naval Armed Guardsmen to man the guns.^[1]

On 13 July 1942, Fairport departed New York with convoy WS 4 for the Persian Gulf.^[1] She was carrying a cargo of 8,000 long tons (8,128.375 t) of materiel which included a deck load of tanks,^[5] (fifty-two tanks, eighteen self-propelled guns and other supplies) and also carried 66 passengers.^[1] The convoy consisted of six other merchant ships and an escort of three destroyers; Fairport's station in the convoy was in position #12, the second ship in the port column.^[1]

At 09:45 on 16 July,^[1] near position 27°10′N 64°33′W / 27.167°N 64.550°W / 27.167; -64.550 or about 500 nautical miles (930 km) northwest of the Virgin Islands, Fairport was struck by two torpedoes launched by Korvettenkapitän Albrecht Achilles, the commander of U-161.^[5] The first torpedo struck the cargo ship's #4 cargo hold on the port side, starting a fire that was quickly extinguished by inrushing seawater. The second torpedo struck ten seconds after the first, and opened a 30-by-25-foot (9.1 by 7.6 m) hole near the #1 hold. The engines were secured and the vessel ordered abandoned five minutes later. Fifteen minutes after the attack, Fairport sank by the stern.^[1] All 123 persons aboard the ship (10 officers, 33 men, 14 Naval Armed Guardsmen, 66 passengers) were rescued by destroyer Kearny,^[1] and landed at New York on 21 July.^[5]

• Browning, Robert M. (1996). U.S. Merchant Vessel War Casualties of World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-087-8. OCLC 32310902.