Sovereignty at Sea: U.S. Merchant Ships and American Entry into World War I

10. Aztec, Missourian, Marguerite, and Congress

10 Aztec, Missourian, Marguerite, and Congress As Woodrow Wilson delivered his address to Congress on the evening of April 2, word spread through the chamber that another U.S. ship—the freighter Aztec—had been sunk, off Brest, on the north coast of France. The president had already made up his mind before reports of this loss arrived, so Aztec was not part of his decision process. However, members of Congress were quite aware of the news of the sinking of Aztec as they debated the war resolution over the next three days. The Aztec was the first ship armed under the president’s order to provide guns and gun crews to merchant vessels. The regular merchant marine crew consisted of thirty-four seamen and officers, of whom seventeen were American citizens and seventeen foreign citizens. Among the American citizens serving in this crew were five from the territory of Hawaii, at least three of whom were apparently of native Hawaiian ancestry, citizens of the United States since 1900. The gun crew consisted of thirteen men, including a naval lieutenant in charge. All the Navy sailors were U.S. citizens, bringing the total number of American citizens aboard to thirty. Aztec was a 3,727-ton freighter built in 1894 in Newcastle, England. Aztec was owned and operated by the Oriental Navigation Company, a firm that also owned the ship Orleans, one of the first ships to sail from an American port after the German announcement of unrestricted submarine warfare. Orleans had successfully made it to France, arriving with great fanfare on February 26. Aztec left New York March 18 with a cargo of “foodstuffs and general supplies,” bound for Le Havre.1 Early on April 1, some of the crew spotted a periscope, and later that evening , about 2130, when it was nine miles west southwest of the Ushant Light off the coast of France, the ship suffered a detonation. It was quite unusual for submarines to torpedo ships at night, although the British liner Laconia (lost on February 25, 1917) had reported being struck by a torpedo at night, and the Healdton suffered two detonations, at about 2015 at night on March 21. The loss of Healdton, as noted in the previous chapter, was almost certainly due to striking two mines. 142 / Sovereignty at Sea Because Aztec sank at night, and because no survivor in the ship crew or gun crew reported seeing a submarine, American newswriters speculated that the ship might have struck a mine. German records published years later showed that Aztec had been torpedoed by U-46 under the command of Leo Hillebrand.2 The loss of life aboard Aztec was the most serious aboard any Americanregistered ship up to that time in World War I. Ten minutes after the detonation that knocked out the lights and the wireless, the forward end of the ship was entirely underwater, and Captain Walter O’Brien ordered evacuation in lifeboats. The captain had intended to get into boat No. 2, launched on the port side, but after retrieving the ship’s papers, he returned to find that boat, loaded with survivors, had broken up in getting away. The two other boats were lowered successfully from the starboard side, away from the weather, and he hurriedly scrambled into Boat No. 1. The presence of the disciplined Navy sailors in that lifeboat no doubt contributed to his survival. That boat, containing the captain, twelve of the thirteen members of the Navy guard, and six other officers and members of the ship’s crew, was rescued by a French patrol boat later in the night. Boat No. 3, although it had gotten away from the ship, was never found. Altogether there were twenty-eight Figure 19. Aztec. The freighter Aztec was one of the first merchant American ships to be provided with naval guns and crews before sailing. Nevertheless, it was sunk on April 1, 1917. Among the casualties was boatswain’s mate John I. Eopolucci, the first American serviceman killed on duty in World War I. (Reprinted with permission from Mariners’Museum, Newport News, Va.) Aztec, Missourian, Marguerite, and Congress / 143 lives lost, including one of the Navy sailors in the gun crew, boatswain’s mate John I. Eopolucci. Eopolucci was apparently the first American serviceman killed in World War I while on duty with the U.S. armed forces. Among the dead were ten other American members...