OB/DOD: December 8, 1895 (Cambridge, MA) – October 9, 1942; 46 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Married Mary Dumas (1897-1915). She died 2 months after giving birth to their daughter.
CHILDREN: One daughter, Eleanor Elizabeth Lynch LeBel (1915-2000)
LOCAL ADDRESS: East Hartford
SERVICE NUMBER: Z-15263
FAMILY: Born to Mellville W. (1867-1898) and Maria “Mary” E. Debay Lynch Dunn (1875-1933). Stepfather, Harland Dunn (1876-1951). No known siblings.
CIRCUMSTANCES: At 1154 hours on October 9, 1942, the unescorted S.S. Coloradan (Master Robert Hugh Murphy) was hit on the port side by one torpedo from U-159 while steaming on a zigzag course at 9.5 knots about 200 miles southwest of Capetown. The torpedo struck the vessel between the #5 and #6 hatches and destroyed the bulkhead between the holds, blew out the double bottom, and damaged the shaft alley. The watch below secured the main engines as the ship quickly settled and sank by the stern within eight minutes. The crew of nine officers, 30 men, and 15 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in, four 20mm, and two .30cal guns) launched two lifeboats and all four rafts, but two rafts drifted away before they could be used. Six crew members failed to leave the ship. The U-boat surfaced shortly afterwards and went to the boats for questioning. The third mate answered questions concerning the ship and cargo, and the Germans gave him the course and distance to land and wished them a pleasant voyage and good liberty. All survivors were divided equally among the two boats and sailed together until they were separated on the afternoon of October 10th. The next day, the master and 22 men in one boat were picked up by HMS Active (H 14) (LtCdr M.W. Tomkinson, RN), which searched unsuccessfully for the other boat and then landed the survivors in Capetown on October 14th. On October 19th, the other boat in charge of the chief mate with 25 men reached the coast and was towed by a fishing boat to Thorne Bay, South Africa. One day later, these survivors were taken to Cape Town, where many required hospitalization. 15 of the survivors were later repatriated on the Zaandam, which was sunk by U-174 (Thilo) on 2 November. Six crewmen from the Coloradan died.
The fate of U-159
Sunk on July 28, 1943, in the Caribbean Sea, south-east of Haiti, in position 15.57N, 68.30W, by depth charges from a US Mariner aircraft (VP-32 USN/P-1). 53 dead (all hands lost). [Axel Niestlé, December 1997].