SS Alcoa Puritan ( 1941 ) SS " Alcoa Puritan " was a cargo ship in the service of Alcoa Steamship Company that was torpedoed and sunk in the Gulf of Mexico during World War II . The SS " Alcoa Puritan " provided freight and passenger service between U . S . and Caribbean ports . The ship was typically staffed with 10 officers and 33 crew , and could also accommodate 8 - 10 passengers . Torpedoing . On about 1 May 1942 , the SS " Alcoa Puritan " sailed from Port of Spain , Trinidad , alone and unarmed , to Mobile , Alabama loaded with bauxite . Newly in command of the ship was Capt . Yngvar A . Krantz . ( The former master of the ship , Axel B . Axelsen , had just left command after unsuccessfully urging shoreside management that the ship be armed . ) Among the ten passengers were six survivors from the torpedoed Standard Oil tanker " T . C . McCobb . " By April 1942 , the German submarine campaign was reaching its height . Records made public after the war revealed that 35 American merchant - marine ships were sunk in March ; 42 were sunk in April , and May saw 52 more sent to the bottom . Just before noon on 6 May 1942 , a torpedo passed astern of the " Puritan " - its wake sighted by one of the " T . C . McCobb " survivors . General alarm was sounded . A submarine surfaced a few moments later , off , and fired a warning shell that passed overhead and landed in the water ahead of the ship . Krantz ordered the ship to full speed , hoping to outrun the attacker , and steered a zig - zag course . The sub fired a few more shells that missed , but then refined its targeting and barraged the " Puritan " with about 70 hits over the course of about 25 minutes . The shelling laid open the ship ' s superstructure , perforated the funnel , broke all the windows and instrument faces , set fire to parts of the interior , and finally disabled the steering mechanism at the stern . At about 12 : 30 p . m . , with the ship turning in circles , Krantz ordered the engines stopped and personnel to abandon ship . Soon after everyone was in the water , the submarine fired a second torpedo which struck the ship in the engine room on the port side . The " Puritan " started to list heavily to port and soon sank below the surface . The submarine approached the survivors , which had been gathered into lifeboats . The 34 year old captain of the sub shouted across the water that he was sorry and that he hoped the survivors " make it in all right . " He then gave a wave , followed his crew down a hatch , submerged , and departed . In an hour or less , a United States Navy patrol aircraft - summoned by the " Puritan ' s " radio operator during the shelling - spotted the survivors , and at about 4 : 05 pm the United States Coast Guard cutter " Boutwell " arrived on the scene and rescued all the passengers and crew - some of them badly injured . Postwar research revealed the attacking sub to be U - boat , commanded by " Kapitanleutnant " Harro Schacht . Schacht was still in command of the U - Boat when it was bombed and sunk off Brazil on 13 January 1943 , by U . S . Navy aircraft . There were no survivors . Crew and passengers . In addition to Capt . Yngvar A . Krantz , the crew of the ship comprised : The passengers ( apparently an incomplete listing ) were : Discovery . Six decades later , contractors performing deep - tow marine surveys for Shell International Exploration and Production encountered a large shipwreck about south - southeast of the entrance to the Mississippi River , in the Mississippi Canyon area . Based on survey data and historical information , marine archaeologists identified the wreck as the " Puritan . " C & C Technologies was hired by Shell to conduct further investigations , which began in 2002 and continued for several years . Visual inspections by Sonsub ' s ROV vessel " HOS Dominator " found the hull mostly intact , with moderate superstructure damage . Video footage from the " Puritan ' s " resting place at 1 , 965 meters depth shows the " ALCOA PURITAN , NEW YORK " legend on the stern of the ship . The C & C work formed part of a larger project concerning archaeological and biological analysis of World War II shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico , and particularly their artificial reef effect in deep water . Other vessels included in the study were the oil tankers " Virginia , " " Halo , " and " Gulfpenn " ; the German U - boat ; the steamer " Robert E . Lee " ; and the " Anona " ( a steam yacht , repurposed as a freighter ) . All were concluded to be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places , for both their historical and archaeological import .