Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "S.S. Stephen Hopkins, Liberty Ship" video.

  1. The Stephen Hopkins was also armed with two .50 caliber and two .30 caliber machine guns. It was these guns, plus the two 37mm guns at the bow, and the sailors who manned them that allowed the single 4" gun on the Stephen Hopkins to cause such damage to the Steir. The machine guns kept up a heavy and accurate fire on the ship, killing crew members trying to get to the 5.9" guns that were concealed on the Steir. The steel plates concealing those guns had to be dropped before the main battery could fire. Every time gunners saw a head pop up to do so, they were shot. Eventually, one German 5.9" gun got in action, and the first round hit and destroyed the bridge of the Stephen Hopkins, the location of the all four machine guns. The machine guns were destroyed and the gunners were killed. The next round hit the 37mm gun tub at the bow, killing their gunners as well. Their combined fire stopped return fire from the Steir long enough for the 4" gun to fire off 20 rounds and fatally damage the Steir. Lt. (jg) Kenneth Willett USNR, had exercised his gun crews mercilessly, knowing the 4" gun was their only hope for a real defense. He practiced for exactly what happened when his ship met the enemy, using the 37mm guns at bow and the machine guns on the bridge to keep the enemy away from their guns while his crew could fire the 4" gun as fast as they could load the shells. With a well trained crew, the gun could fire 6-8 rounds a minute. In about a minute and a half, the gun crew fired off those first 20 rounds before the Stier could answer, a rate of fire that was probably the fastest ever attained with a 4" gun. Even though this single gun couldn't save his ship, the constant training done by Lt. Willett did assure the destruction of a German raider that had already sunk four other merchant ship and was just at the beginning of her voyage. Not only was the SS. Stephen Hopkins the only American ship to sink a German surface ship in combat, she was the first US ship to sink a German surface ship in WWII. [Edited to replace "Hoskins" with "Hopkins" and "Steven" with "Stephen". I was apparently having a bad day. ]
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  2. Edited my posts to get Hopkins in the right places. And no, I meant Willett, the lieutenant in charge of the Hopkins Armed Guard, and posthumous winner of the Navy Cross.
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  3.  @Mondo762  And the "notable part of the story", as you put it, turns out not to be true. This is something you could have found out with a little basic research rather than depending on something you read decades ago.
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  4. Whoopsie. I don't know how Hoskins got in my head rather than Hopkins.
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  5.  @Mondo762  Probably because I chose not to mention him and make the post longer than it already was. However, if it makes you happy, I'll do so now. The person you're referring to is Engine Cadet Edwin Joseph O'Hara. He was a Midshipman from the US Merchant Marine Academy. He fired the last five rounds from the 4" gun after already being wounded. It was a heroic action, but there's no evidence any of those rounds was the "Kill Shot" of the Steir. Although at least four hit (the final round may have caused the gun to explode), the Steir was already a wreck and in a sinking condition. We don't know if any of the 35 rounds fired caused fatal damage to the Steir because Commander Horst Gerlach, captain of the Steir, ordered scuttling charges set before the crew abandoned ship. The immediate cause of the sinking was the effect of those scuttling charges, not shells fired from the Hopkins. O'Hara's role in the sinking has been fictionalized by several authors, but the US Merchant Marine Academy makes no claim that any of O'Hara's shots was fatal. It's always good idea to look for original sources rather than believe the word of one author about anything historical.
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  6.  @Mondo762  Getting a little butt hurt I see. You made an affirmative statement about O'Hara making the "final kill shot on the Steir", not just that he was involved in the fighting. Everyone on the ship was involved in the fighting. Your assertion was not correct, and then you were the one making the condescending crack about me making no mention of what he never did. I've been a historian for 55 years. This is a history forum. If you can't take the time to check to see if a story you're posting is factual, you can expect someone who does know the story to set forth the facts...and facts don't care about your feelings.
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  7.  @Mondo762  Excellent exposition of what butt hurt looks like. Now maybe you can tell me which of my "projections" have all been dead wrong. I kind of doubt you'd get too far in an engineering meeting by telling everyone they are all dead wrong and a bunch of bullshitters without at least one example.
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