Honouring the Men who gave their lives whilst serving in the Merchant Navy
and whose names are on the Australian War Memorial Commemorative Roll

S.S. COIMBRA  -  WW2

S.S. Coimbra was hit on 14 January 1942 by a torpedo fired by German submarine U-123 and sunk by gunfire  (near Long Island New York).

Cairns Post (Qld)  19-1-1942
TORPEDOED TANKERS
DRAMA OFF LONG ISLAND.
(Australian Associated Press)
WASHINGTON. January 17.
The United States Navy Department has announced that a second tanker, the Coimbra (6768 tons) was "torpedoed on Long Island, within 75 miles of New York, yesterday.
Reports from Long Island said that men floating in a lifeboat had been sighted, and one police report said that a tanker had been, sighted in process of sinking, but no survivors have yet been picked up.
Captain, Harald Hansen, of the Norness, which was torpedoed earlier, said that the torpedo struck his ship at 1 a.m. on January 14.  It threw a wave of oil over the vessel. The crew were ordered into the boats while the U-boat circled round. It launched a second torpedo, sending the Norness to the bottom. Two of the crew were drowned in the darkness when lifeboat ropes, which were soaked with oil, slipped during the lowering process, throwing the men into the sea.