This Deceased Navy Profile is not currently maintained by any Member.
If you would like to take responsibility for researching and maintaining this Deceased profile please click
HERE
Contact Info
Home Town Montclair, New Jersey
Last Address Bluefield, Virginia Buried at Maple Hill Cemetery, Bluefield, Virginia.
Date of Passing Mar 05, 1964
Wall/Plot Coordinates Unknown
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Yacht Alva was built by the Germans in 1931 and twelve years later she was sunk by the Germans. The USS Plymouth PG-57 began life as the yacht Alva, built at Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft, Kiel, Germany for William K. Vanderbilt II. He used the ship on expeditions to the South Pacific, Mediterranean and South America from 1931 to 1935. On Nov. 4, 1941 he gave the ship to the U.S. Navy, they converted her into a patrol gunboat and used her for convoy escort duty along the U.S. east coast and to Cuba.
On her last voyage she left New York to escort a convoy to Key West when on Aug. 5, 1943 the U-566 slammed a torpedo into her. The ship took on a heavy list and sank in two minuets. Her commander, Lt. Ormsby M. Mitchel Jr., USNR was terribly wounded when he was thrown into a bulkhead after the explosion, but continued to oversee the abandonment of the ship. He survived, but lost a leg from his injuries. For his devotion to duty he was awarded the Navy Cross. Because of the swiftness of the sinking ninty-one crewmen were killed, four died of wounds the following day. Only eighty-five survivors were picked up and landed at Norfolk.
