Joseph Cudahy (Id.No. 1562)
1917-1918
The U.S. Army Transport Service retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her charter.
(Id.No. 1562: displacement 7,045; length 293'0"; beam 47'2"; draft 22'11"; speed 10.5 knots; complement. 61; armament 2 3-inch)
Joseph Cudahy, a steel-hulled, single-screw tanker, was launched in 1917 by Baltimore Drydock & Shipbuilding Co., Baltimore, Md., for the Sinclair Gulf Corp.; chartered by the Army Transport Service, she carried general cargo between New York and European ports during 1917-18, a Navy armed guard detachment assigned to the ship on 23 June 1917.
In mid-August 1918, Joseph Cudahy, owned by the American-Italian Commercial Corp., of New York, was in ballast, en route from Bordeaux, France, to New York, to be commissioned in the Navy (and assigned the Identification Number 1562) for service with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service when she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-90 (Oberleutnant zur See Helmut Patzig in command) some 370 miles northwest by north of Cape Finisterre. Before Joseph Cudahy sank at 6:30 p.m. on 17 August 1918 all but one of the crew managed to find safety in lifeboats. Oberleutnant zur See Patzig here appeared to exhibit none of the brutality displayed when his previous command, U-86, sank the British hospital ship Llandovery Castle on 27 June 1918, just less than two months before. There were only 23 survivors from the crew of 258 souls.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
13 March 2023
