User:Buster40004/Sandbox/Projects/SS Cape Constance

SS CAPE CONSTANCE

To start off with .....I was unable to obtain a great deal of data on the SS Cape Constance, but I was able to uncover one incidence that she was involved in on November 4th 1944.

The Cape Constance was built for the WSA [War Shipping Administration] in 1943 as a C1-B, 6,711 ton freighter, and was operated by the Grace Lines.

On October 14th 1944 the Cape Constance [Master: A. E. Uldall] sailed from Hollandia, New Guinea, to Leyte, Philippine Islands with 3,500 tons of general cargo. She arrived at Leyte on the 24th of October, and for several days the Japanese kept the ships in the harbor under attack.

A lone enemy bomber approached the Constance as she anchored in a large group of merchantmen and LST’s in Tacloban Bay.

The plane started its dive toward the midships house under a scathing fire maintained by the armed guards; however, it hit the starboard boom at the #3 hatch. The plane exploded; scattered wreckage over the bridge, the boat deck and the after deck; and then crashed in the water on the port side.

Small fires started on the after deck, but the crew quickly extinguished them. The ship had eight officers, forty-three men, twenty-eight U.S. Navy Armed Guard, as well as one passenger. Only the armed guard officer received a slight wound. The damage to the ship was listed as slight in this close call.

-

Author: Bud Shortridge