“The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all through the war. Never for one moment could we forget that everything happening elsewhere — on land, at sea, or in the air — depended ultimately on its outcome.”
— Winston Churchill
The longest continuous military campaign of World War II, the six-year Battle of the Atlantic pitted German U-boats, battleships and aircraft against Allied ships and warplanes as the Germans attempted to establish a blockade that would keep merchant ships loaded with critical supplies from reaching Allied troops in Europe.
For a while, the Germans were successful, their speedy little U-boats picking off so many Allied supply ships that U.S. shipyards were quickly pressed into service building the wartime cargo freighters that came to be known as Liberty ships.
Savannah’s first Liberty ship — the SS James Oglethorpe — was still under construction at Southeastern Shipbuilding when Nick Craig graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y., in the spring of 1942.
“I was in their first graduating class — a class that was accelerated from four years to less than three because they needed officers for all those ships they were building,” Craig said last week from his home at The Landings.
With little time to get his feet wet, Craig was assigned as third mate aboard the Liberty Ship SS Thomas Sumter, sailing out of New York harbor with $10 million in cargo.
“We had 100 jeeps, 20 armored cars and bomber fuselages without the wings,” he said.
In all, Craig made five trips across the Atlantic on four different Liberty ships — including the Savannah-built Samuel T. Darling — as he worked his way up from third mate to second mate, to chief mate and then captain.
With a front-row seat to the Battle of the Atlantic, Craig had more than his share of adventures and close calls.
He served as chief mate aboard the Liberty Ship Thomas Sim Lee as it traveled from England to Russia in one of two convoys of supply ships. Catching wind of the sailing, the Germans deployed the pride of their naval fleet, the heavy cruiser Scharnhorst, to disrupt the convoy.
The Scharnhorst set sail, unaware she was being lured into a carefully constructed British Royal Navy trap.
“Our convoys were used as bait, basically,” Craig said. “Of course, we didn’t know that.”
Surrounded, with escape cut off on all sides, the Scharnhorst was hit by a total of 11 torpedos and sunk, her wreckage not discovered until 2000.
Craig’s first command was on the Liberty Ship John Mason, sailing from Baltimore with 10,000 tons of high test explosives onboard.
“We were in a 35-ship convoy, stringing out in the Straits of Gibralter, when we were attacked,” he said. “Everyone was going every which way.
“I should have been petrified, but, back then, I didn’t have time to think about it. I put the crew up on deck and put in in the Bay of Bizerte, where we were attacked nightly by German bombers.”
On his second voyage on the Thomas Sumter, Craig and his crew discovered two large cracks in the ship’s hull and had to put in in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for repairs.
“Liberty ships were built in pieces and then welded together, and these cracks were places the welds didn’t hold,” he said.
After leaving Halifax, the Sumter set out to join another convoy heading across the Atlantic.
“At that time, the German U-boats were hunting in what they called wolf packs,” he said. “The convoy was moving in two columns and I was standing on deck when a torpedo came across our bow and hit the ship next to us.”
After the war, Craig said, he was called in and told — because the fleet was returning to pre-war fleet size — there wouldn’t be a ship available for him to captain.
“Having come in right out of the academy, I didn’t have much seniority,” he said. “So I left the merchant marine and opened my own business.”
It’s a decision he hasn’t regretted.
Being at sea doesn’t leave you much time for a family life,” he said.
A lifelong golfer, the twice-widowed Maine native eventually retired to The Landings in Savannah, where he divides his time between the links and his daughters and grandchildren.
Reminders of his days as a mariner — including a world map with pins that chart his Liberty ship voyages — fill his home office. In his family room, an empty spot on the fireplace mantel represents the Liberty ship model he has placed on loan to the Savannah Maritime Trade and Convention Center.
Looking back on his time in service to the war effort, Craig said he realizes how lucky he was to come through unscathed.
In all, nearly 3,000 ships were lost.
“The casualty rate in the Battle of the Atlantic was staggering, with merchant mariners suffering the highest rate of any service.” he said. “But it was important to the eventual Allied victory, and I’m happy to have done my part.”
Senior business reporter Mary Carr Mayle covers the ports for the Savannah Morning News. She can be reached at 912-652-0324 or at mary.mayle@savannahnow.com.
SHIPPING SCHEDULE
These are the ships expected to call on Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City and Ocean Terminals in the next week. Sailing schedules are provided by Georgia Ports Authority and are subject to change.
Terminal Ship name Arrival
GCT MSC EMMA Today
GCT LONDON EXPRESS Today
GCT MSC MARINA Today
GCT PRESIDENT ADAMS Today
GCT MAERSK IDAHO Today
GCT ZIM CALIFORNIA Today
GCT HOECHST EXPRESS Today
GCT ABU DHABI Today
OT ENDURANCE Today
OT SCARLETT Today
GCT MSC MICHAELA Saturday
GCT EVER DEVELOP Saturday
GCT CMA CGM L’ETOILE Saturday
GCT CMA CGM DON CARLOS Saturday
GCT MSC TOKYO Saturday
GCT SEASPAN HAMBURG Saturday
GCT OOCL HONG KONG Saturday
GCT YORKTOWN EXPRESS Saturday
GCT JO KASHI Saturday
OT PIPIT ARROW Saturday
GCT YM ENHANCER Sunday
GCT MARE ATLANTICUM Sunday
GCT ROME EXPRESS Monday
GCT ATHENA Monday
GCT ZIM PIRAEUS Monday
GCT NYK RIGEL Monday
GCT MOL EXPEDITOR Tuesday
GCT CAFER DEDE Tuesday
GCT MAERSK DANBURY Tuesday
GCT MSC MAEVA Tuesday
GCT ZIM TARRAGONA Tuesday
GCT CGM UTRILLO Tuesday
GCT GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE Tuesday
GCT HANJIN SHANGHAI Tuesday
OT TYSLA Tuesday
GCT SEA-LAND RACER Wednesday
GCT MOL ADVANTAGE Wednesday
GCT OAKLAND EXPRESS Wednesday
GCT CONRAD S Wednesday
GCT CLIPPER LEGACY Wednesday
OT SPUIGRACHT Wednesday .
GCT MAERSK ROUBAIX Thursday
GCT CMA CGM CORAL Thursday
GCT UASC JEDDAH Thursday
GCT ZIM BARCELONA Thursday
GCT MSC BARCELONA Thursday
GCT DALLAS EXPRESS Thursday
GCT APL OMAN Thursday