After midnight on April 8, 1942, the German submarine U-123 lay off the St. Simons Island sea buoy and minutes later chased and torpedoed the tankers Oklahoma and Esso Baton Rouge, killing twenty-two crew members. Survivors were brought to the U.S. Coast Guard Station for debriefing. Five of those killed were buried in Brunswick's Palmetto Cemetery as "Unknown Seamen," but were positively identified in 1998. The ships were raised, towed to Brunswick for emergency repairs, and returned to service, but both were sunk in the Atlantic Ocean before the end of World War II.
