Seeking survivors:
Crews of foreign-flagged ships faced death, loss of
countries and families
BY
SANDY SEMANS, SENTINEL STAFF
 |
| This photograph was
taken Jan. 19, 1942 as the torpedoed Ciltvaira
was slowly sinking to join other ships in the
Graveyard of the Atlantic. Photo From The
National
Archives | | Editor's note: Earlier this year, a
reporter for Chas (The Hour), a Russian-language
newspaper based in Riga, Latvia, e-mailed this writer to
ask for assistance in gathering information for a story
he was researching. The information that followed that
first communication guided this story down a path that
was cluttered with past political agendas and
misunderstandings, but in the end opened up to reveal a
remarkable story of perseverance, courage and the thirst
for freedom.
Jan. 19, 1942, a unique part of
Latvia was sunk off Nags Head when the freighter
Ciltvaira was torpedoed by the German submarine U-123.
The "Cilt," as it is referred to by divers, did not give
up its seafaring ways easily.
"She floated for
two days after that," said Kevin Duffus, producer of the
documentary "Torpedo Alley."
According to
survivors' reports, the U.S. tanker Socony Vacuum and
the Brazilian freighter Bury picked up the crew. But
fearing that the Germans were still in the area, both
left the scene after the Bury made an unsuccessful
attempt to tow the damaged vessel. The Bury sailed to
New York with nine of the men. The Socony Vacuum left
the scene at the same time, heading for Charleston,
S.C., with 21 crew members.
Duffus, also a board
member of the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, said
that about six hours after the Ciltvaira was hit, the
U.S. Navy tug Sciota arrived on the scene to lend aid to
the ship, which by that time had been abandoned by the
crew. The tug also attempted to tow it before finally
making the decision to let it take its place among the
thousands of other vessels that make up "the Graveyard
of the Atlantic."
The freighter was the first
Latvian vessel to be sunk in the Western Hemisphere
during World War II. Five other Latvian-flagged vessels
and hundreds of other ships eventually met the same fate
at the hands of the Germans and Italians during the
first several months of 1942. Although fires from ships
routinely lit the night sky along the Outer Banks, the
U.S. government denied that the waters off the nation's
coast had become a killing field where the German
submarines and U-boats roamed at will. Before the
Germans were thwarted in their mission late in 1942,
almost 400 ships and about 5,000 merchant seamen and
passengers were lost along the Eastern Seaboard, the
Gulf of Mexico and the Carribbean.
Passing ships
silhouetted against the lights on shore were easy
pickings for the subs, Duffus reported in his
documentary. Outer Banks residents watched the fires
burn as ship after ship was torpedoed. Some Bankers used
their fishing boats to rescue crews, buried bodies that
washed ashore and fed those who lived to sail another
day.
The Cilt had left its home port in
Latvia about two years before, when the crew said their
goodbyes and made plans for their eventual return to
their homeland. They didn't know that many, if not most,
would never return. And they couldn't have imagined that
although their national flag would continue to wave
above the deck of their ship, their country would cease
to exist except in their hearts and would not be reborn
for more than a half century.
Eight Latvian
vessels -- including the Cilt -- were working in the
Atlantic Ocean, primarily off North and South America,
when the Soviets gained control of the country in
1940.
The Soviets ordered the ships to return to
their home ports, but the captains and crews refused to
recognize any orders that didn't come from their own
government, which now existed only in
exile.
Latvian embassies in Washington, D.C., and
London never received the official status of government
in exile. But most of the Allied nations recognized the
embassy officials' authority to represent the Republic
of Latvia during WWII, and the embassy in Washington
remained in operation without interruption until 1991,
when Latvia reestablished its
independence.
Disobeying Soviet orders translated
into a death sentence for those unwilling to return.
Some crew members did go back to what had become an
occupied country. But most steadfastly stayed with their
vessels, flags and tenacious allegiance to their
country.
The small fleet joined hundreds of other
vessels that became part of the Allied effort even
though they were from countries that were under German
or Soviet occupation. In a strange turn of events,
because the Soviet Union became an Allied country after
being attacked by Germany in the summer of 1941, the
Latvian crews that refused to acknowledge Soviet
authority indirectly helped the Soviets through their
work on the side of the Allies.
Kevin Foster,
maritime historian for the U.S. Department of Interior,
said that other occupied countries including Poland,
Norway, Greece, Denmark and the Netherlands had ships
operating on both sides of the Atlantic
Ocean.
Ships from most other countries were later
recognized for their contributions to the Allied war
efforts, but the Latvian vessels weren't. In fact, the
fate of the fleet remained a mystery to many in Latvia
during the five decades of Soviet occupation. They were
an embarrassment to the Soviets, who decided to simply
erase evidence of their existence. Today's official
history doesn't note the fact that Latvia as a state
played any role in the World War II although these
sailors were the only known group of Latvian citizens
who fought in WWII under lawful authority of their
exiled government. The only recognition of the fleet to
be found in the U.S. or Latvia is a street in South Nags
Head named after the Ciltvaira.
Many of the
foreign-flagged vessels' crews became part of the U.S.
Merchant Marine, hauling materials and men to and from
the war in Europe. And while they were trying to help
end the war, it took huge tolls on their
countries.
As Latvian mariners risked their lives
in the Atlantic, friends, family and neighbors were
being slaughtered or simply disappeared, never to be
heard from again. Soviet domination of the country
briefly ended in 1942 when the Germans invaded. Later in
the war, the Soviets regained control. During both
occupations, Latvian citizens were drafted to fight. The
Jewish community of approximately 90,000 was
exterminated during the German occupation.
The
Soviets repressed and caused the deaths untold tens of
thousands by sending them to Gulag camps in Siberia,
where the chances of survival were not good. When the
Germans began retreating in 1944-45, many Latvians left
with them, fearing the Soviets' brutality.
When
victory in Europe was declared on May 8, 1945, thousands
of Latvians were already living outside the country --
torn away from their homeland and other family members.
Many became citizens of other countries, changed their
names to fit into their new cultures and were left with
only memories of their former lives.
The Soviets
replenished the Latvian population with "settlers" that
they brought in from Slavic republics of the
USSR.
For the next five decades, the stories of
the Ciltvaira and its seven sister ships, the Everasma,
Abgara, Everalda, Regent, Everelza, Kegums and Everagra,
remained unfinished. Earlier this year, reporter Alex
Krasnitsky received permission from the decision-makers
at Chas newspaper to take on the enormous task of trying
to reclaim at least part of the nation's history.
Subsequently, Krasnitsky set out to find what exactly
had happened to the fleet, whether there were any
survivors and, if so, where they
are.
Krasnitsky's research has led to a series of
articles that have helped bring the paper's readership a
step closer to knowing the facts. He is still searching
for survivors, however.
At 8 a.m. Thursday, May
8, the Outer Banks Sentinel will host a memorial service
to recognize the contributions of the many
foreign-flagged merchant vessels and their crews that
served during WW II, particularly those of the Latvian
fleet. A wreath will be placed in the water, and the
U.S. Coast Guard will provide military honors.
Simultaneously, Chas will host a similar ceremony in the
waters near Riga, Latvia. After the ceremony, the papers
will exchange photographs and stories so that readers on
both sides of the Atlantic Ocean can see how the events
were memorialized.
The public, especially WWII
veterans, are invited to attend the ceremony on the
beach at the end of Ciltvaira Street in South Nags Head.
Those wishing to participate may bring a fresh daisy to
toss into the water at the end of the ceremony. Please
don't bring anything with ribbons or wires. The daisy is
Latvia's national flower and is also a symbol of
innocence and freedom.
Anyone willing to share
information about survivors from any of the Latvian
ships can contact the Sentinel by sending e-mail to editor@obsentinel.com
The information will be shared with Krasnitsky so that
it can be incorporated into that paper's
work.
(Sandy Semans can be reached at 480-2234 or
editor@obsentinel.com
)
|
