New Jersey Scuba Diving

Type:

shipwreck, tanker, Norway

Built:

1938, Germany

Specs:

( 414 x 56 ft ) 4956 gross tons, 36 crew

Sunk:

Thursday April 30, 1942
torpedoed by U-752 - no casualties

GPS:

39°48'57" -72°46'07" (US Navy 2004)

Depth:

190 ft

At 05:43 hours on 1 May 1942, the unescorted and unarmed Bidevind (Master Marcus Roberg) was hit by a torpedo from U-752 about 75 miles southeast of Ambrose Lightship. The torpedo struck on the starboard side in hold #4, damaging the generators and radio aerial, shattering most of the cast iron pipes, and slowly flooding the hold and the shaft alley.

The entire crew abandoned ship safely in a motorboat and two lifeboats, but one of them was damaged by debris, which was thrown in the air by a second torpedo that hit aft in the quarter of the crew and injured three of the 17 men in it. They were later transferred to the motorboat which came to assist, and all survivors made landfall at the US Coast Guard station near Toms River, New Jersey the next day. The Bidevind settled by the stern and foundered later that day in 40°13N / 73°46W.