The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1942-02-24
1889 OFFICERS
! and men LOST
CONTINUED from Page n


at Gulfport, Miss, and George
washington university here. He
married the former Dorcas Louise
Barber of Washington and they had
one child, daughter. eight. They
made their home here.
Hickox had been on duty In the
Atlantic since June, l94l. and be-
came commanding officer OF the
Truxton last September.
Built in Philadelphia
The Truxton of 1000 tons was
built at Philadelphia under the
World War ship building program.
1t was launched September %, 1870,
and commissioned on February l6,
1921. Miss Isabel Truxton Brumby.
daughter of Rear Admiral Brumby,
was sponsor.
The Truxtun operated In the
Yangtze patrol of the Asiatic fleet
in the 1920S.
The normal wartime complement
of the destroyer was 125 to $50 men.
The 6,085-ton Pollux, formerly the
Comet, was completed in January,
1940 by the Federal Shipbuilding
and Dry Dock Co., Hoboken, N. j. 1t
previously was owned by the New
York and Cuba Mail Steamship Co.
of Staten Island, N. Y. The vessel
was accepted by the navy on May
"a. 1941, and converted by the
Brewers Shipbuilding and Dry DOCK
Co. of Hoboken, into a general stores
ship.
It had a length of 459 feet and
listed sped of 1875 knots. Arma-
ment was specified as four 5-inch
guns.
The communicate paid tribute to
the people of st. Lawrence, New
foundland. whose heroic action re-
suited in the saving of some mem
bers of the crews.
The communicate concluded by
saying that the next of kin of those
lost "in this tragic drama of the
sea had been notified"
The navy said there was nothing
to report from other areas.
Tanker Did Not Sink
West Palm Beach, Fla, Feb. "a
(UP)-Two torpedoes crashed into
the hull of the 5,287-ton tanker Re-
public off the Atlantic coast Satur-
day night, it was revealed today, but
the 22-year-old ship survived the
blows and did not sink, though five
men were lost.
Twenty EIGHT survivors who
reached port said the submarine at
tack came without warning and
that three of the dead presumably
were killed by the torpedoes. Two
others were last seen jumping over
board.
The tanker, owned by the Petro-
leum Navigation co. of Houston,
Tex, was the third vessel known to
have survived U-boat attack in U.
S. Atlantic coastal waters since
January IA.
Neither the Republics location
nor extent of its damage was dis
closed by the navy. 1t was presumed
that secrecy cloaked efforts to bring
the tanker safely to port for repairs.
Capt. Alfred H. Andersen Hous-
ton, Tex, listed the missing and
presumed dead as: Carter Ray Ebbs,
Sd assistant engineer, Houston;
Ernest r. Beverly, oiler, New Or
leans; Jose Fernandez, fireman, adj
dress unknown; Herman Helker,
messman, Houston, and Phil Dan
cereoux, messman, New Orleans.
Ebbs, Beverly and Fernandez were
on watch below decks when the tor
pedoes struck and presumably were
killed outright, Capt. Andersen said.
Helker and Dancereoux were seen
leaping overheard.
The two torpedoes struck in rapid
succession-"as quick as you can
say one, two" the captain related
knocking sleeping members of the
crew from their hunks.
The tanker listed but there was
no fire.
"She shook off the two torpedo
blows and showed she could do it
some more" First Officer, j. B. Por-
ter, 40, of Melville, Fla, said.
American Freighter Sunk
Havana, Feb. 24.-(UP)-The navy
said today that the 700O-ton Amer
lean freighter Correct, carrying So
900 sacks of sugar from the Cuban
ports of Manzanillo and Jucaro, was
torpedoed and sunk 60 miles off
Cienfuegos Saturday night.