TDIH: USS Benevolence

On this day in 1950, rescuers search the icy waters near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. They’d pulled hundreds of people from the frigid waters the evening before, but dozens were still missing.

The missing had been aboard the hospital ship USS Benevolence when she abruptly sank.

Benevolence is perhaps best known for her work after World War II. She’d been in Tokyo Bay, helping newly released POWs. “We took on a tremendous load of patients,” nurse Alene Duerk said. “I think we processed twelve hundred patients in thirty-six hours.”

The patients, she remembered, were “pitifully thin” and “covered with sand fleas.”

Benevolence would ultimately make several “Magic Carpet” runs, carrying POWs home. Then she went into reserve—at least until the Korean War began.

She was on her way back to port after an August 25 shakedown cruise when a dense “pea soup” fog hit.

The hospital ship was on a collision course with merchant ship SS Mary Luckenbach, but no one realized it until too late. “We had five ships on the [radar] screen and not one was near us,” an electrician’s mate aboard Benevolence explained, “and all of a sudden, we get rammed.”

Engineman third class Leland Ray thought the hit wasn’t very hard. “It was more like a grinding into the side,” he explained. Another crewman, however, thought it “sounded like a torpedo.”

Corpsman Bob Packwood was waiting for chow when the ship was hit. He remembered an officer seeing the writing on the wall: “He said, ‘I’ve been on two ships that sank, and this son of a b*tch is sinking.’”

The captain never gave the order to abandon ship, but passengers and crew began jumping into the water anyway.

“Our first impulse was to get off the ship,” chief pharmacist’s mate Jack McLean said. “We didn’t have time to do much thinking. The Benevolence went down so fast. Once in the water, all I could think of was my wife.”

In the meantime, a Navy doctor helped the nurses: He found rope and tied eleven of them together, gathering planks and improvising a raft. The nurses went into the cold water, contending with swelling waves. One nurse began singing “Merrily We Roll Along” to keep up spirits. Others had rosaries and began to pray.

“I’m not Catholic,” Lt. Gail Matthews said, “but I prayed with them.”

A junior officer remembered that the men were forming rings as well, working to keep those without life preservers afloat. “Everyone was really cooperating with everyone else,” Carl Totten concluded.

Astonishingly, Benevolence sank in roughly 15 to 20 minutes, leaving hundreds stranded in the frigid water. Military and private rescue vessels responded to her distress signal, but the fog was complicating everything. Worse, the tide was going out, so survivors were getting pulled further out to sea.

Matthews was tied to a nurse who started panicking. “We were within ten feet of the army tug when she began to froth at the mouth. She died while they pulled her aboard. It’s hard to believe . . . .”

Luckenbach was among the vessels pulling survivors out of the water, although she hadn’t helped right away. Her captain at first didn’t realize that he’d badly damaged Benevolence.

Another rescuer was a salmon fisherman who released his catch—450 pounds of salmon—so he could cram people into his boat. For six hours, he picked up survivors, taking them to larger rescue vessels, then returning for more.

The selfless fisherman was just one of many who answered the call that night. In the end, 505 people were rescued from the cold Pacific. Only 23 aboard Benevolence were lost.

Benevolence had spent World War II caring for others. How fitting that such a large effort spontaneously arose to help in her time of need.

A note for those who are interested: Some of you might know I am running an experiment in history reels. If you are so inclined, check out my YouTube channel and/or subscribe to those HERE. Don’t miss the reel I wrote to complement my 19th Amendment story, posted over the weekend.

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Primary Sources:

• Benevolence (AH-13) (Naval History and Heritage Command)

• Benevolence Sunk! 18 Dead, 405 Saved, 82 Missing after Golden Gate Crash in Fog (Times-Herald; Aug. 26, 1950) (p. 1)

• Bill Van Niekerken, When the bay’s fog claimed a Navy ship and 23 souls (S.F. Chronicle; Aug 22, 2016)

• Crash Sinks U.S. Hospital Ship: 17 are dead, 66 feared lost; city nurse among survivors (Scranton Tribune; Aug. 26, 1950) (p. 1)

• Gary Peterson, USS Benevolence: A ship lost at sea, and in time (East Bay Times; August 23, 2012)

• H-071-2: U.S. Navy Surface Ship Accidents Since World War II Resulting in Fatalities or Loss of Ship (Naval History and Heritage Command)

• Kim Guise, Benevolence in Tokyo Bay: The USS Benevolence (AH-13) (National WWII Museum; September 2, 2020)

• Lynn Gray, Crewmen Tell Graphic Story of Sinking of Benevolence (Times-Herald; Aug. 27, 1950) (p. 2)

• Nurses, On Raft After Ship Sinks, Sing, Pray (Daily Times; Aug 26, 1950) (p. 1)

• Oral History (Arlene Duerk; July 12, 1988) (transcript HERE)

• Richard M. Macfarlane, Mercy Ship Sinking Touches off Dispute (San Francisco News; Aug. 26, 1950) (p. 1)

• Survivors Describe Collision of Ships, Bitter Cold of Fog Shrouded Pacific Before Rescue (Progress-Bulletin; Aug. 26, 1950) (p. 1)

• Wauhillau La Hay. Adm. Duerk Remembers POWs, Recalls Men of World War II (Albuquerque Tribune; March 13, 1973) (p. B-4)