SS Dixie Arrow

SS Dixie Arrow was an American oil tanker built in 1921 for Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc. The ship was sunk off of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, by the German submarine U-71 on March 26, 1942.

Dixie Arrow sometime in the late 1930s
History
Name	Dixie Arrow
Operator	Socony Vacuum Oil Co. Inc.
Port of registry	New York
Builder	New York Shipbuilding Corp.
Yard number	266
In service	1921
Out of service	1942
Identification	KDVT
Fate	Sunk off Cape Hatteras March 26, 1942
General characteristics
Type	Oil tanker
Tonnage	8,046 GRT
Length	468 ft (143 m)
Beam	62 ft (19 m)
Draught	32 ft (9.8 m)
Installed power	3 single boilers, 9 corrugated furnaces 1 × 4-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engine
Propulsion	1 screw
Speed	10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph)

Construction

Dixie Arrow was built in 1921 by New York Shipbuilding Corporation for Standard Transportation Company, Inc. Dixie Arrow was yard number 226, and was just one of many Arrow-class ships built for the company.

Design

Dixie Arrow was 468 feet (143 m) long, 62 feet (19 m) wide, and 32 feet (9.8 m) from the waterline to the bottom of the keel. She was outfitted with a one four-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engine, along with three single boilers and nine corrugated furnaces. The ship boasted three masts and a funnel atop the aft superstructure.

Final voyage

Initial voyage

Dixie Arrow left Texas City, Texas, on March 19, 1942, bound for Paulsboro, New Jersey. The ship was carrying 86,136 barrels (13,694.5 m³) of crude oil to be used for the war effort. The ship constantly received messages of SOS and SSS from ships that had been torpedoed by German U-boats. Not even three months in, 1942 had been rough for the United States Merchant Marine. Before the fighting in Torpedo Junction would be done, over 100 ships would be sunk by German U-boats.

Captain Anders Johanson decided to take an unusual course away from the North Carolinian coast, concerned about the shallow depth of the water there. This decision, however, brought Dixie Arrow right into the hunting grounds of German U-boats. Around 10 minutes before 09:00, Dixie Arrow made its way past Cape Fear and Cape Lookout, and into Diamond Shoals.

Sinking

Dixie Arrow aflame after being torpedoed by U-71

Fifteen miles (24 km) south of Cape Hatteras, at 08:58, U-71 spotted Dixie Arrow. Korvettenkapitän Walter Flachsenberg gave the order to fire three torpedoes, all of which hit Dixie Arrow amidships. The first blew up the forward deckhouse, killing Captain Johanson, as well as a radio operator and a number of other crewmen. The other two torpedoes hit the ship almost immediately after, both slamming into the starboard side. The second two strikes sent the ship ablaze, and caused Dixie Arrow to buckle and break amidships.

The able seaman in the wheelhouse, Oscar Chappell, brought the ship into the wind, keeping the men on the bow from being burnt to death. He was badly wounded, covered in blood and surrounded by the corpses of his crewmates. However, in doing so, he turned the flames on himself and was killed. He was awarded both the Distinguished Merchant Marine Medal and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal for his actions.

Oil poured out of the ship in gallons, and the inferno completely engulfed the ship. The crew of U-71 was unable to see their target. Two of the four lifeboats were destroyed in the flames. A third swung uncontrollably on its davits and ended up crushing one crewman to death. The fourth boat managed to launch, with eight crewmen aboard it. As it pulled away from Dixie Arrow, two crewmen jumped from the deck of the ship and perished in the flames. One life raft was covered in burning oil after tanks aboard ruptured, killing everyone on it. As the radio operator was killed in the initial explosion, no distress call was ever sent out. In addition, the lights in the engine room were destroyed by the subsequent explosions, forcing the crewmen there to scramble up on deck.

Rescue operations

USS Tarbell, the ship that rescued Dixie Arrow's survivors

The United States Navy destroyer USS Tarbell spotted the flames of Dixie Arrow, and the ship's crew came to investigate. Tarbell dropped lifeboats for Dixie Arrow's survivors, and proceeded to circle the flaming ship in search of U-71. The ship dropped a few depth charges, which killed several survivors of Dixie Arrow and did nothing to the submarine. Tarbell ended picking up 22 survivors, taking them to Morehead, North Carolina.

U-71 managed to escape and was one of the few U-boats to survive until the end of the war. It was scuttled on May 2, 1945 at Wilhelmshaven, Germany.

Wreck

Dixie Arrow continued to drift aflame, eventually being found inshore near the Cape Hatteras minefields. The ship's three masts were the only thing sticking out of the water. The buoy tender Orchid was sent to the wreck, where she placed a red buoy to warn other vessels about the shipwreck. The masts and wreck site of Dixie Arrow were used as target practice by the Cherry Point North Carolina Marine Air Station, but the masts collapsed into the sea in 1943, and the remainder of the wreck was wire-dragged and demolished in 1944.

Present day

Boilers in the stern section of Dixie Arrow's wreck

Dixie Arrow lays under 90 feet (27 m) of water, 15 miles south of Hatteras Inlet. She sits upright, intact, half-buried in the seabed. The ship's bow and stern are in the best condition, with much of the machinery in the bow still in its original places. The boilers and engine are the most prominent features of the stern section. The triple-expansion steam engine lies in the middle of the remains of all sorts of pipes, valves, and fittings. Amidships, the ship is an unrecognizable mess of parts and metal.