Evening star., 1941-12-22
Tanker Is Torpedoed
70 Miles Off Coast;
I Americans Killed
Second Vessel Ziezoes
To Safety After Trying
To Ram Raider
~ the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
SAN FRANCISCO. Dec. 22.-Far-
ranging Axis submarines. which
drew American blood in smashing
attacks at shipping in the crowded
steamship lanes of California dur
ing the week end, were hunted
along the length of the Pacific
Coast today.
One submarine, attacking without
warning, torpedoed and shelled the
large American oil tanker Emidio
Saturday afternoon 20 miles of
Blunts Reef, 200 miles north of
San Francisco.
Three of the Emidios lifeboats
were destroyed by gunfire. the Navy
said
The Navy's latest information,
still incomplete today, was that
two of her crewmen were killed, five
we're missing and five others were
injured. The S injured and 26 others
were rescued.
CA Navy Communlque report
that there were 54 crew members
was later described as erroneous
by ship officials. 1t said there
were only SO in the crew.
Second Tanker Escapes.
Several hours before the Emidio
was fired on, another American
tanker, the AgwiWorld. escaped from
submarine off Cypress Point, 100
miles south of San Francisco.
|, inl, eI, 1lc aI
at the Agwiworld from the attack
ers deck gun, the tanker, maneu-
vered by submarine wise skipper,
zigzagged its way to safety in a 30
minute chase. This attack also was
only 20 miles offshore.
On reaching San Francisco the
next morning. the Agwiworld crew.
mems single reaction was:
III we'd only had a gun"
A naval vessel went to the rescue
OF the men on the Emidio. which
was reported still afloat in a rough
sea of Cape Mendocino.
Crewmen Listed as Missing.
Emidio crew members listed as
missing we're:
Winters. San Pedro. Calf
Stuart McGillivray, II, West
Seattle high school boy.
r. w. Pennington, Los Angeles.
Kenneth Kimes. San Pedro.
Fred Potts. Los Angeles.
The rescue vessel that took aboard
the Emidio's survivors found it i'm
possible to reach anchorage yester-
day and efforts to determine iden-
titles of the two men reported killed
and of those saved were unsuc-
cesSful.
The Emidio. with Capt. Clark A.
Farrow of Long Beach, Calf. AS her
master, was southbound without
cargo. She is a 6.9l2-ton craft
owned by the Socony-Vacuum Oil
Co.
Capt. Goncalves of the AgwiWorld,
interviewed in San Francisco, mod
estly attributed to luck his vessels S
escape. but other officers of the ship
and crew members spoke admiringly
of the shippers coolness and sea-
manship under fire.
Sub Unusually Large.
Capt Goncalves described the
submarine as an unusually large
one. which broke the surface nearby
as the Agwiworld plowed northward
about 20 miles from shore outside
of Monterey Bay.
Il cannot understand the subma-
rine being so close and still missing
u.s." the captain said.
We were so close that even a
poor shot with rifle standing on
our deck could have wiped out the
submarines gun crew"
Capt. Goncalves, Brazilian
American citizen from Port Arthur
Tex, who was second officer of a
Norwegian freighter torpedoed in
the North Sea during the first World
War, told this story:
It was early Saturday afternoon
The captain was in his quarters.
Unaccountably he glanced out of
a portfolio just as the submarine
surfaced off the port quarter.
Tries to Ram Raider.
Rushing Immediately on deck. the
captain ordered the ship turned to
keep from presenting a broadside
target. He told his radio operator
to wireless the Navy.
The turn brought the prov of the
Agwiworld directly in line with the
submarine and the tanker bore down
upon the raider as if to ram it.
The submarine was lying about
500 yards due west of us in the path
of the sun" Capt. Goncalves said
Il put the helm hard TO port and
headed straight for the sub.
When the second shot came. I
put the helm hard over to starboard
and then presented the stern to the
sub. There was heavy ground
swell which kept the subs gun deck
awash."
The AgwiWorld headed shoreward,
zigzagging and causing the subma-
rine to roll heavily in the swells
left in the tankers wake
Another shell sniped hawser
That was the only damage to the
Agwiworld, although the submarine
fired eight shots.
After a Commute chase, the sub
marine submerged. The Agwiworld
lay close off Santa Cruz until dark
then steamed northward to San
Francisco.
First Mate Edward Crabtree OBJ
served:
Funny thing. transferred to this
run eight months ago from a New
York-Dutch West Indies run to get
away from the trouble zone. Now
I'm all around it. But it's all right
this time This is our scrap Eight
months ago, it was a foreign affair
mo, there was no panic. Every
man went to his boat station, and
the old man knew what he was
doing all the time"
The Agwiworld, of 1851 tons, is
r,uooAd hy Tho Pirhfeld Oil Corp