USS Buena Ventura (ID-1335) - Loss

Loss

At about 20:45 on 16 September 1918, the German submarine U-46 came across the unescorted convoy and fired two torpedoes into Buena Ventura. The first struck amidships, directly beneath the flying bridge about 4 ft (1.2 m) below the waterline and tore a hole that measured 10 ft (3.0 m) long by 4–6 ft (1.2–1.8 m) wide. The blast from the explosion coursed upward, splintering the lifeboat suspended in its davits just above and knocking the wireless out of commission. The second torpedo hit in the after end of the empty hold number four.

Buena Ventura, mortally stricken, soon slowed in the rising swells, listing to port. Her siren blasted out the submarine warning signal while her after gun fired one shot. After throwing the confidential publications and codes overboard in weighted bags, the crew abandoned their rapidly sinking ship in the four undamaged lifeboats. Her commanding officer — Lt. Cdr. Fitzsimons — remained on board to be sure that everyone who could abandon ship had done so and, when thus assured, stepped into the last boat and ordered it lowered away. That boat, damaged in bumping against the side of the ship due to the Buena Ventura's port list, required unceasing efforts to bale out the water that had gained entry through several leaks. Fitzsimons, his executive officer, and the 27 enlisted men in the boat, separated from the other three boats in the darkness and rising seas, steered in the direction of the Spanish coast.

On 18 September, the French destroyer Temeraire rescued 45 of Buena Ventura's crew, while on the morning of 20 September, the Spanish coaster Lola took Fitzsimons and his remaining sailors on board and landed them at Corunna, Spain on 22 September.