DOB/DOD: May 7, 1895 (Duryea, PA) – February 21, 1942; 46 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
LOCAL ADDRESS: Bristol
PRIOR ENLISTMENT: U.S. Army, September 3, 1918 to October 31, 1918, with Headquarters Company, 35th Artillery Coast Artillery Corps. According to his WWI draft registration card, he was living in Orange, New Jersey, where he farmed.
SERVICE NUMBER: Z-066220
FAMILY: Born to Thomas (1867-1927) and Elizabeth A. Flovienis Flanders (1873-1923). Three brothers, Edward (1889-?), Louis (1898-), and Thomas Jr. (1901-1985). Four sisters, Frances F. Flanders Jacksland (1891-1978), Margaret (1893-1930), and Lucy Flanders Day (1906-1981).
CIRCUMSTANCES: The SS Azalea City was an American cargo steamer of 5,529 tons built in 1920 by Merchant Shipbuilding Corporation, Harriman, Pennsylvania, as the Waterbury SS for the US Shipping Board. In 1929, it was renamed Excelsior SS for American Export Lines Inc., New York, and in 1937 renamed AZALEA CITY SS for Waterman Steamship Co, Mobile, Alabama. On February 21, 1942, when en route from Bahia Blanca, Argentina, Port of Spain (Feb 12) – Philadelphia carrying a cargo of 7,806 tons of Linseed oil, she was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-432.
The fate of German submarine U-432
U-432 was a German submarine Type VIIC. She was sunk on March 11, 1943, in the North Atlantic by depth charges and gunfire from the Free French corvette Aconit. 26 dead and 20 survivors. [from wrecksite.eu)
From MobileBayMag.com on February 3, 2022
By John Sledge
LOST AT SEA: THE MEN OF SS AZALEA CITY
In February 1942, a merchant vessel with a Mobile [Alabama] connection disappeared without a trace
Sometime during the winter of 1942, a dozen crewmen on board the merchant freighter SS Azalea City assembled for this informal photograph. Most of them kept a straight face, though a few smiled, and the two chaps at lower right engaged in a little tomfoolery — one with his booted leg playfully thrown across the shoulder of the other, who appears ready to “cock a snook,” or thumb his nose, a beloved gesture at the time. Mercifully, none of these men knew that within a few short weeks they would be lost at sea, their actual fate only revealed after the conclusion of World War II with American access to German naval records.
The Crew
The Azalea City was a 22-year-old steel-hulled vessel of 5,000 tons owned by Mobile’s Waterman Steamship Corporation. On February 16, 1942, she left Port of Spain, Trinidad, carrying a cargo of linseed oil for Philadelphia. Her master was George Robert Self, a native Mobilian, and the crew included two officers and 35 men — mates, cadets, ordinary and able seamen, engineers, oilers, wipers, mess men, and a cook. Most were American, including a man from north Alabama, and one was British, one Norwegian, one Italian, one German, and one Puerto Rican.
Unarmed
The United States had declared war on Nazi Germany just two months earlier, but the Azalea City’s master was innocent of wartime precautions, sailing unarmed, unescorted, and in a straight line. He was hardly alone in that, and German U-boat captains gleefully exploited their advantage among the lumbering American merchant fleet, declaring the first months of 1942 the “Happy Time” when they sank dozens of allied ships. Only later would the allies adopt seaside blackouts, convoys, destroyer escorts, and torpedo planes in order to improve merchant ships’ chances.
Under Attack
When the Azalea City failed to reach Philadelphia that winter, she was declared lost with all hands, the cause unknown. After the war, German records revealed the full story. On February 21, U-432 spotted the ship in heavy seas 125 miles east-southeast of Ocean City, Maryland. Over the next several hours, U-432 captain Hermann Eckhardt stalked the freighter, but his first torpedo streaked astern of the quarry. Given the conditions, it is doubtful the Azalea City’s crew even knew the ship was under attack at that point. She did not send a distress signal. Eckhardt crossed the merchantman’s wake, came about, and loosed another shot from only a half mile away. His aim was better this time, and the torpedo slammed into the freighter amidships. A third projectile provided the coup de grace, causing the Azalea City to capsize. There were no survivors.
The ship’s roster lists every man on board, but who exactly posed for this image is unknown. Could one of them have been Thomas Abraham Ervin, age 23, the cook; or 33-year-old Stephen Douglas Hester, a wiper; or 44-year-old Thomas Jefferson Lively, the bosun? Alas, we cannot say. But there they are, captured by the camera, poker-faced, smiling or clowning, 80 years after they disappeared beneath the cold, gray Atlantic.