The SS Muskogee was an American merchant ship owned by Standard Oil Co of New Jersey. The unarmed, unescorted tanker, with a cargo of heavy crude oil, had left Venezuela earlier and on March 13, 1942 it left Trinidad, this time bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia. On the afternoon of the 22nd, about 450 miles north-northeast of Bermuda, German submarine U-123 fired a torpedo at Muskogee. It missed. About 30 minutes later, the U-boat fired another torpedo which hit the engine room, causing the tanker to sink, stern first, within 16 minutes. Ten men made it onto two life rafts and were photographed and questioned by the U-boat commander before leaving the area. They were never seen again. There were 34 Merchant Mariners on board; none survived. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- Epilogue: As the Muskogee was sinking, U-123 surfaced and while the captain questioned some of the survivors, a photo-journalist took pictures, including one of seven men on a life raft. Sometime later, the photos were part of a full-page spread in a German weekly publication. Captain George Duffy, USMM, a prisoner aboard a German supply ship, picked up a copy to read and realized the ship was a US tanker that had been torpedoed. Thinking the men on the life raft survived, he tore out the page, folded it and kept it to show them. After many years of searching, the ship was finally identified as the SS Muskogee. Even though there were no survivors, the search continued and eventually four of the seven men on the life raft were identified as O.S. Vincent V. Baker, A.S. Anthony Sousa, Third Mate Nathaniel Foster and Chief Mate Morgan Finucane.The photo became the inspiration for the Merchant Marine Memorial at Battery Park, NY. On a plaque at the memorial can be found these words: “Left to the perils of the sea, the survivors later perished.”