SS Fort Lee SS " Fort Lee " was a T2 tanker built for the United States Maritime Commission during World War II . The ship was assigned by the War Shipping Administration for operation by the Bernuth Lembcke Co . and operated in the Atlantic and Mediterranean early in its career . " Fort Lee " was torpedo ed and sunk by the German Kriegsmarine submarine " U - 181 " in the Indian Ocean on 2 November 1944 . Nine men aboard " Fort Lee " were killed during the attack . Three of the four successfully launched lifeboats were rescued by other ships within two weeks . The fate of the fourth lifeboat , with 16 men aboard , was unearthed by researchers in 2000 . The boat had drifted over 10 weeks before landing on Japan ese - held Sumba Island with three men remaining . All three perished in custody of the Japanese . Operational history . " Fort Lee " ( MC Hull # 327 ) was laid down on 24 October 1942 at Sun Shipbuilding in Chester , Pennsylvania ; launched on 25 February 1943 ; and delivered on 15 March 1943 . After launching , " Fort Lee " initially operated in the Mediterranean and Atlantic . The ship departed New York on 28 May 1943 for Gibraltar , arriving in mid - June . In July , " Fort Lee " left Gibraltar and steamed for Avonmouth , which it reached later in the month . In mid - August , the tanker sailed from Liverpool and arrived at New York again on 28 August . Sinking and rescue . In late October 1944 , " Fort Lee " left Abadan , Iran , headed to Brisbane , Australia , with of Navy Bunker C fuel as well as rubber and some ores . Some time on 1 November 1944 , " U - 181 " under Kapitän zur See Kurt Freiwald spotted the tanker , sailing alone in a zig - zag pattern . After moving in a straight line path for a time , " U - 181 " was able to get ahead of " Fort Lee " and in a position to fire upon her . At 20 : 02 on 2 November 1944 , " U - 181 " fired a single torpedo that hit " Fort Lee " under the port quarter and destroyed her boilers , stopping her engines and flooding the fire room . Two men in the engine room were killed by the torpedo . At 20 : 18 , as lifeboats # 3 and # 5 were being lowered into the water , a second torpedo hit the starboard quarter . Two men aboard " Fort Lee " were killed by the second blast . Lifeboat # 3 was destroyed by this torpedo , killing 6 of 7 men aboard , and lifeboat # 5 was broken in half , dumping its men into the ocean . Lifeboats # 1 , # 2 , # 4 , and # 6 were successfully launched and recovered the survivors from # 3 and # 5 . " Fort Lee " succumbed to the attack stern first at 21 : 10 . " U - 181 " surfaced and intercepted the four remaining lifeboats , interrogating them as to cargo and destination . Although the crew refused to answer any questions , the U - boat ’ s skipper gave the " Fort Lee " crew a flare gun and flares , some blankets , food , and medicine , and allowed the boats to go on their way . The four boats were traveling within sight of each other for several days before lifeboat # 4 with 16 men aboard disappeared from sight on 5 November . On 7 November , five days after the tanker went down , 16 men in lifeboat # 2 — including Master of the " Fort Lee " , Ottar Andersen — were rescued by the British freighter MS " Ernebank " and landed at Fremantle on 14 November . Two days later , 9 November , American tanker SS " Tumacacori " rescued the 17 men in lifeboat # 6 and landed them at Albany on 14 November . On 16 November , two weeks after " Fort Lee " went down , the men in lifeboat # 1 were rescued by American Liberty ship SS " Mary Ball " . The gunners on " Mary Ball " fired upon the lifeboat before identifying it . None of the 17 men aboard were injured . " Mary Ball " landed the survivors at Colombo , Ceylon on 24 November . By February 1945 , all of the survivors had returned to the United States . Fate of lifeboat # 4 . For 57 years , the fate of lifeboat # 4 and its occupants remained a mystery until Australian researcher Tom Hall discovered a reference to " Fort Lee " while researching Japanese war crime s committed against Allied prisoners of war ( POWs ) in what is now Indonesia . The story , as pieced together by Hall and M . Emerson Wiles III , an employee of the U . S . Army Central Identification Laboratory is that on 13 January 1945 — two - and - a - half months after " Fort Lee " went down — lifeboat # 4 , with only three men remaining , came ashore on the south side of Japanese - held Sumba , from where " Fort Lee " sank . One of the three men , Robert F . Lanning , a member of the Naval Armed Guard contingent aboard " Fort Lee " , was taken to Membora , on the north side of Sumba , where he died that same day . The names and fates of the other two men from lifeboat # 4 are not known . Japanese records suggest that both men died in a Naval hospital within two weeks . But native and POW accounts suggest that the two men survived much longer . One account claims that they were executed , along with other Allied POWs , during a rampage by Japanese officers in September 1945 , a month after the surrender of Japan .