AH-WR-1774

Malchace

Freighter · United States · Lost 1942 · The Outer Banks

Malchace was torpedoed twice by U-160 off North Carolina in 1942; twenty-eight of twenty-nine crewmembers survived.

Become Captain of Record See Shipwreck on Map

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Interpretive Reconstruction, drawn to convey the vessel's era, type and general form. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Malchace was built at Jacksonville, Florida, in 1920 and first sailed as Chickamauga for the United States Shipping Board. The steel freighter was carrying soda ash from Baton Rouge toward Hopewell when U-160 attacked on April 9, 1942. Two torpedoes struck the port side, flooding the engine room; the ship subsequently sank. Twenty-eight of twenty-nine crewmembers reached lifeboats and were rescued by Faja de Oro. NOAA documents the nearly inverted hull in about 205 feet of water southeast of Ocracoke.

Vessel

Built: 1920
Builder: Merrill-Stevens Ship Building Corp.
Yard: Jacksonville, Florida
Material: Steel
Length: 333.8 ft
Beam: 48 ft
Tonnage: 3,516 gross tons
Propulsion: Triple-expansion three-cylinder steam engine; oil fuel
Owners: United States Shipping Board (as Chickamauga, 1920–1929); Marine Transport Lines, Inc., New York

Loss

Date: April 9, 1942
Cause: Enemy action
Location: Southeast of Ocracoke, North Carolina, in the Gulf Stream
Water: Atlantic Ocean
Voyage: Baton Rouge, Louisiana → Hopewell (state disputed in NOAA sources)
Cargo: 3,628 tons of soda ash
Aboard: 29
Lives lost: 1
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: 205 ft
Condition: Basically intact hull lying on its extreme port side, almost upside down; boilers visible and stern forms the greatest relief.
Orientation: Extreme port side, nearly upside down
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: 34.60° N 75.79° W
Accuracy: Approximate position
Nearest: Ocracoke, North Carolina
Region: The Outer Banks

NOAA publishes decimal and sexagesimal positions with multibeam and side-scan survey documentation. Offshore Gulf Stream site; not an inlet location. Published NOAA wreck-site point retained; page does not certify positional uncertainty or datum, so displayed as approximate rather than accuracy-certified.

Evidence

Overall confidence: Well documented (91/100)

NOAA’s destination state is not independently resolved; home port, discovery date and salvage history are not established here. Whole-vessel artwork is interpretive.

NOAA — Monitor National Marine Sanctuary
Construction and dimensions, former names and service, cargo and completed loss, survivors, full historical narrative and current site description; survey coordinates, depth and imagery. Registry-port labels and unresolved naming/route particulars distinguished.
NOAA — 2010 Battle of the Atlantic expedition vessel histories
Alternate Hopewell, Virginia destination and elapsed sinking-time account; conflicts with the individual NOAA vessel page preserved rather than silently resolved.