SS Dixie Arrow 1942
Marker: recorded wreck position (Second World War).
Key facts
| Name | SS Dixie Arrow | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1942 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Second World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | oil tanker, steamship | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Wikidata P828 has cause (on P793 event): torpedo |
| Nationality / flag | United States | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Sea / ocean | North Atlantic Ocean | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | United States | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 32 km from land |
| Position | 34.9002, -75.7505 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
SS Dixie Arrow was an American steam-powered oil tanker built in 1920–1921 in Camden, New Jersey, by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation. She was owned by the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony) and operated through several subsidiaries and successive companies. The tanker was the last member of the Arrow class, a group of twelve oil tankers owned by Socony.
She operated for just over two decades, beginning her service in late November 1921. Dixie Arrow carried petroleum products and vegetable oils from North America to East Asia during her first two years, but East Asia was removed from her route after 1923. Her service was limited by Socony even further, to only the East and Gulf Coasts, in the early 1930s.
The tanker was torpedoed off of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on the morning of March 26, 1942, by the German submarine U-71. Dixie Arrow sank that evening, with 22 of her 33-man crew surviving. She was one of many ships sunk by U-boats off the Outer Banks during the period that German sailors named "the Second Happy Time".
Diving & visiting
The shipwreck was used as target practice by planes from the Cherry Point North Carolina Marine Air Station all through 1942, and her masts collapsed into the sea in 1943. Dixie Arrow's bell was recovered in 1944 by the USN during a dive to the wreck. The bell was later presented to designer Nicholas Pluymert, who dedicated it to Oscar Chappell. After this, the remainder of the tanker's wreck was then wire-dragged to a depth of 43 feet (13 m) to ensure that Dixie Arrow would not be a hazard for navigation.
Dixie Arrow currently lays on a flat sand plain, roughly 15 miles (24 km) south of Hatteras Inlet, at the coordinates 34°54'1"N, 75°45'2"W, at a depth of 90 feet (27 m). The bow and the stern sit upright, close together and aligned. Both the bow and stern portions of the wreck are in good condition, with much of the machinery in those parts still in its original positions. The stem rises 30 feet (9.1 m) above the sand, and the boilers and engine are the most prominent features of the stern section. Amidships, however, Dixie Arrow's remains appear to have fallen down, leaving it as an unrecognizable mess of machinery, parts, and metal.
A wide array of wildlife inhabit the wreck, which has become an important part of the local marine ecosystem.
Location
- Recorded position: 34.9002, -75.7505 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: North Atlantic Ocean
- Nearest coast: United States
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article SS Dixie Arrow (revision 1372505715), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Wreck”, “Present day”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- USS Tarpon 16 km
- U-576 1942 · 35 km
- SS Lancing 1942 · 44 km
- United States lightship Diamond Shoal 44 km
- Wreck of the Ephraim Williams 1884 · 50 km
- U-701 1942 · 76 km
Browse more: North America wrecks · wrecks off United States · North Atlantic Ocean · Second World War