Boat Compass
date: label: date made
content: late 1930s
label: Alcoa Guide sank
content: 1942-04-16
name: label: captain of Alcoa Guide
content: Cobb, Samuel
label: maker
content: Marine Compass Company
notes: label: Description
content: This boat compass was used by merchant seamen aboard one of the lifeboats from the SS <I>Alcoa Guide</I>, an American freighter sunk by the German submarine U- 123 three hundred miles east of Cape Hatteras on April 16, 1942. The donor, Waldemar Semenov, was a Junior Engineer aboard the vessel and one of twenty-seven men who survived the attack. After drifting for three days, crowded into two lifeboats, they were spotted by a search plane and rescued a day later by the USS <I>Broome</I>, a navy destroyer. A life raft carrying another four members of the freighter’s crew was not found until three weeks had passed, at which point only one man was still alive. Seven lives were lost in the attack.
label: Description
content: Nineteen forty-two was a deadly year for shipping in the waters of the Atlantic. U-boats roaming the seas destroyed over 400 ships, including 82 American merchant vessels, in the first six months alone. The <I>Alcoa Guide</I> was the fourth U.S. merchant ship sunk by U-123 in the first two weeks of April. Unarmed and without an escort, the ship was vulnerable as it steamed from New Jersey toward the island of Guadaloupe with a load of U.S. Army equipment for troops stationed in the West Indies, and a cargo of flour for the island. After detecting the freighter, U-123’s commander, Lt. Reinhard Hardegen, ordered the sub to the surface and began firing. Desperate to defend his ship, the <I>Alcoa Guide</I>’s master, Capt. Samuel Cobb, attempted to ram the sub, but to no avail. The bombardment continued and, after two hours, the freighter sank.
place: label: Alcoa Guide sank
content: United States: North Carolina, Cape Hatteras
label: Alcoa Guide sailed from
content: United States: New Jersey
label: Alcoa Guide sailed to
content: Guadeloupe
topic: label: related event
content: The Great Depression and World War II
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
label: See more items in
content: Military
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
label: See more items in
content: On the Water exhibit
label: Exhibition
content: On the Water
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: National Museum of American History. On the Water exhibition website
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Waldemar Semenov
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2005.0295.01
label: accession number
content: 2005.0295
label: catalog number
content: 2005.0295.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: compass
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 in x 4 1/2 in; 5.08 cm x 11.43 cm