Built in 1926, the S.S. Dorchester was 368 feet long with a 52-foot beam, a 19-foot draft, 5,649 gross tons, a speed of 12 knots, a radius of 5,500 miles, reciprocating engines, capacity for 788 passengers, and cargo space of 187,250 cubic feet. On Jan. 24, 1942, it became the U.S. warship USAT. On Jan. 22, 1943, it departed N.Y. for Greenland on its sixth trip. On Feb. 3, 1943, it was torpedoed in the North Atlantic by U-223 at latitude 59° 23' N and longitude 48° 42' W. Those on board included 15 USA officers, 525 USA enlisted men, a 24-man U.S. Navy gun crew, 33 Coast Guard personnel, 2 USN enlisted men, 155 civilians of the War Dept., 16 Danish citizens, and a ship's crew of 132. Of the 902 on board, 230 were saved and 672 were lost, including the Immortal Chaplains, in the greatest loss of life to that time in WWII of a ship at sea.
