My Grandfather a U.S. Merchant Marine and my Hero.
Posted by Brian K. Lupton on March 9, 2010, 8:37 am
My Grandfather was Sherman Elexander Lupton. He was certified as a Chief's Mate; however he was sailing as 3rd Mate aboard the S.S. Pan New York, when it was torpedoed and sunk on 29 Oct. 1942. This ship was in convoy HX212; from New York, via Halifax, Nova Scotia to Glasgow, Scotland. I have letters of his downloaded to a computer disk that my cousin's wife made. He did complete one full transatlantic voyage in Convoy HX-209; in late July '42. In one of his letters; dated 24 June 1942, he states that he was reinstated in the Navy Reserve as a full Lieutenant. Are you aware of any information I can obtain; or which agencies I can contact to confirm this? Also I have his Merchant Marine Service #166554; is this number sufficient to obtain the information I seek?
Sincerely yours: Brian K. Lupton
Re: My Grandfather a U.S. Merchant Marine and my Hero.
The tanker SS PAN NEW YORK, with a cargo of aviation gasoline, was sunk by a torpedo on 29 October 1942, with the loss of 26 members of her merchant marine crew and 17 of her U.S. Navy Armed Guard crew. Out of her total crew of 57, only 14 survived. It is not clear from your message whether your grandfather was one of the survivors; if so he was very fortunate. PAN NEW YORK was attacked by U-624, which was itself sunk with the loss of all hands four months later. See http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/2318.html and http://www.uboat.net/boats/u624.htm.
It was and is very common for merchant marine officers also to have commissions in the U.S. Navy Reserve. It was and is also very common for merchant marine officers to sail in lesser shipboard positions than the licenses they hold (e.g., a person licensed as chief mate sailing as a third mate).
As I mentioned in my response to another posting to this message board earlier today, the subscription website Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com), which is more commonly used for genealogical research, includes databases of the names of passengers and crew of ships that arrived at various U.S. ports of entry as early as about 1820 and continuing as late as 1957, depending on the port in question. I made a search of Ancestry.com and found a number of records for a Sherman E. Lupton, arriving in New York on a number of different ships as early as 1925 and continuing through 1942. In several cases his shipboard position was that of able seaman (a non-officer position) even after he had sailed as a third mate on earlier voyages, so again examples of sailing in lesser positions than that for which one is qualified. In the 1942 record he was third mate aboard PAN NEW YORK, which was probably her last voyage before being lost and also probably the voyage that you refer to as being part of convoy HX-209. The fact that I found no records later than 1942 suggests he may not have survived the loss of PAN NEW YORK.
I also found a record for a "Shuman Elaxandria Lupton," arriving in Seattle in 1927 as a passenger aboard a Japanese ship that had sailed from Kobe, Japan. In this record his birthplace and residence is noted as Lowland, North Carolina.
Finally I found a record for a "Sherman E Lukton," arriving in New York in February 1927 as a third mate, which I suspect may also be a record of your grandfather.
You may be able to obtain your grandfather's merchant marine and U.S. Navy service records by contacting the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. National Archives, respectively.
See this page of the Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website for information on contacting the Coast Guard's National Maritime Center: http://armed-guard.com/searchmil.html. In particular see section A.2. Records of Individuals - Merchant Marine. The Coast Guard was and is responsible for maintaining records of merchant seamen and officers. Additional information may include other voyages in addition to the ones I found. The merchant marine identification number that you have will be very useful in identifying your grandfather.
The same web page, at A.1. Records of Individuals - U.S. Military, has information on contacting the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, to obtain the service records of a member of the military. Be aware that since you are not next of kin to your grandfather, not all portions of his record may be available to you. Therefore if someone who is next of kin is still living (presumably your father or another child of your grandfather), that person should make the request rather than you. Of course you can do the legwork but the next of kin should actually submit the request. You should supply as much identifying information as you have such as name, Social Security Number, birthdate and location, death date, etc. Your grandfather's merchant marine identification number may not be useful in this case but there is no harm in quoting it. Note that as a merchant marine officer, although he had a U.S. Naval Reserve commission, he may never have served on active duty with the Navy. Nonetheless there should be a record for him.
Good luck and I hope the above information is useful.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com