Military service
Burial/memorial information
In December 1941, the Donerail left Suva, Fiji, for Vancouver, British Columbia. On 9 December, she came close to accidentally ramming the Japanese submarine I-10 700 nautical miles (810 miles/1,300 km) south-east of Hawaii, in position 08°00'N/152°00'W. After diving, the I-10 launched a torpedo that missed the Donerail. It surfaced and fired twenty shells from its deck gun. It destroyed a lifeboat containing 2 women, 4 men and an 18-month-old baby. Of the 36 sailors and 7 passengers, only 24 were able to reach a lifeboat. After 38 days drifting over 2,500 miles (4,023 km), they reached the island of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands, but only eight were still alive and were taken prisoner of war by the Japanese.
In the Books of Remembrance
Commemorated on:
Page 180 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance.
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