SS Connecticut (1938)
tanker ship
SS Connecticut was a 8684 ton tanker ship built in 1938 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation and used for a World War II. She operated her under the United States Merchant Marine act for the War Shipping Administration, with United States Navy Armed Guards to man her deck guns. On 28 December 1941, the Connecticut was torpedoed near Cape Disappointment in the Pacific Ocean by I-25 of the Imperial Japanese Navy. To stop from sinking the Connecticut ran aground and was later salvaged. The attack took place 10 nautical miles off the mouth of the Columbia River near Oregon. The Japanese attack on the Connecticut was under the command of Lieutenant Commander Akiji Tagami.
The Connecticut was later sunk on 22 April 1942 in the middle of the South Atlantic, while in route from Port Arthur, Texas, to Cape Town, South Africa. German light motor torpedo boat Esau (LS-4) from the auxiliary cruiser SS Michel torpedoed the Connecticut at 2:10am. The first torpedo started a fire to her cargo of 84,299 barrels of gasoline and heating oil. The radio operator was able send out a SOS call before the second torpedo hit and blew the ship apart. The attack killed 35 men and one more died aboard the Michel.
“SS Connecticut (1938)” enters the record as tanker ship. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Connecticut, tanker and ship can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“SS Connecticut (1938)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Connecticut, tanker and ship provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q85798521. The first chronological checks are 1938, 1941 and 1942.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “SS Connecticut (1938)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow SS Connecticut (1938) primary sources, SS Connecticut (1938) archive and Connecticut research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “SS Connecticut (1938)”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “SS Connecticut (1938)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.