GLENN ROBERT CURTIS was
born in Pennsylvania in 1924 to James and Nellie Curtis. The family
moved to Oaklyn NJ, where by April of 1930, they were renting a home at
7 Valley Road. The elder Curtis was an electrician. Besides Glenn, there
was an older sister, Dorothy, and a brother, LeRoy Curtis. The family
later moved to Lakeside Avenue in the Ashland section of Delaware Township (Cherry Hill)
NJ. Glenn Curtis shipped put as a messman in the Merchant Marine. He was
aboard the Liberty Ship
SS
Meriwether Lewis
when it was torpedoed in the
North Atlantic.
The
SS
Meriwether Lewis
, a Liberty Ship, was lost on March 3, 1943 in the North
Atlantic at 62-10 N x 28-25 W when the ship was torpedoed and sunk by
the German Submarine
U-634 under the command of
Oberleutnant
zur See Eberhard Dahlhaus. The
Lewis
was part of a convoy
headed for the United Kingdom. Her cargo was ammunition and tires. The
Lewis
was falling behind the convoy when she was torpedoed. The Coast
Guard searched the area for two days, but the only trace of the
SS
Meriwether Lewis
was 30 mile long line of tires. The
SS
Meriweather Lewis
carried a crew of 44 with an armed guard of 28 men and
was lost with all hands. Also serving on the
SS
Meriwether Lewis
was Harry
Jackson Mote, of Camden NJ.
The
SS Meriwether Lewis
was the only ship sunk
by U-634. The U-634 herself was sunk with all 47 hands lost on August 30, 1943
in the North Atlantic
east of the Azores, in position 40.13N, 19.24W, by depth charges from
the British sloop HMS Stork and
the corvette HMS Stonecrop.
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