SS Illinois - United States Merchant Freighter June 2, 1942 On the night of June 2, 1942, the US Merchant Freighter, SS Illinois was steaming unescorted at ten knots about four hundred miles north-east of Puerto Rico. The freighter carried a compliment of thirty-eight men, eight officers and thirty crew and was transporting a cargo of manganese ore. Two torpedoes, from the German U boat U-159, hit amidships, just aft of the bridge and the freighter sank within 40 seconds, capsizing to starboard. Only six members of the crew survived, picked up by the American steam tanker Esso Montpelier six days after the attack. They were landed at Port of Spain, Trinidad on June 10, 1942. Among the crew, lost in the attack, was: Name: Edmond Andrew Campbell Rank: Oiler Service: Canadian Merchant Navy S.S. Illinois (Portland, U.S.A.) Date of Birth: December 17, 1896 Place of Birth: Main-a-Dieu, Cape Breton, NS Date of Death: June 2, 1942 Age at Death: 45 Memorial: Halifax Memorial Panel 21 Commemorated on Page 106 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on March 5 and August 2 Edmond Campbell was the son of James Benjamin Campbell (1854-1925) and Honora Burke (1862-1944) and brother of Elizabeth Burke, of Halifax, NS. Sources: Canadian Virtual War Memorial uboat.net Additional Information: My dad and the sinking of the S.S. Illinois