Harry Jackson Mote Jr.
Rank: Second Engineer, United States Merchant Marine
Ship: SS Meriwether Lewis
Entered service from: New Jersey
Died:
Biography
Harry Jackson Mote Jr.
Harry Jackson Mote Jr. was born in Camden in 1911. He was the son of Harry Jackson and Mary Anna Wolff Mote of 1102 Lois Avenue in the Cramer Hill section of Camden, New Jersey. His father was a machinist at the Cramp Shipyard in Camden and also a well known baseball player in the Camden area, playing for the 11th Ward Republican Baseball Club and later for the Westville team. Called “Brud” by family and friends, he was the second of three children, coming between brother Augustus “Gus” and sister Clara V. “Sis” Mote. His uncle, Louis R. Mote, served as Assistant Superintendent of Streets for the City of Camden in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
By 1930 Harry J. Mote Jr. had left school and was working in a factory. Eventually he went to sea and achieved the rating of 2nd Engineer. By 1940 he had married Lois McNichol, and lived with his wife, daughter Mary, and son Harry Jackson Mote III at 383 South 27th Street. The Motes had purchased the newly built home around 1940.
Harry Jackson Mote Jr. served as 2nd Engineer of the SS Meriwether Lewis, a Liberty Ship. He was lost on March 2, 1943 in the North Atlantic at 62°10′N, 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 a 30-mile-long line of tires. The SS Meriwether 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 Glenn Robert Curtis, of Delaware Township (Cherry Hill), New Jersey.
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°13′N, 19°24′W, by depth charges from the British sloop HMS Stork and the corvette HMS Stonecrop.
Harry Jackson Mote Jr. was 32 at the time of his death. He was survived by his wife, son, parents, brother Augustus, and sister Mrs. Clara Snyder. His father passed away shortly thereafter, on August 13, 1943, and sister Clara died in 1949.
Harry Jackson Mote Jr. lived in this home at 383 South 27th Street in Camden, NJ
Family Photos
Harry Jackson Mote Sr. and Mary Anna Wolff Mote, photographed in Cramer Hill, Camden, N.J., in 1908.
1102 Lois Street, Cramer Hill, Camden, N.J., in the 1920s.
Harry J. Mote Jr., Clara V. Mote, and Augustus Mote at the rear of 1102 Lois Street, Cramer Hill, Camden, NJ — early 1930s
1102 Lois Street, Cramer Hill — 2004
1102 Lois Street, Cramer Hill, Camden, N.J., photographed July 10, 2004.
1102 Lois Street, Cramer Hill, Camden, N.J., photographed July 10, 2004.
1102 Lois Street, Cramer Hill, Camden, N.J., photographed July 10, 2004.
Harry J. Mote Jr. (standing in front of window at far left), Clara V. Mote, and Augustus Mote — 1102 Lois Street, Cramer Hill, Camden, NJ
Named: 1100 Block of Lois Street, Cramer Hill, Camden, NJ, as seen from the southeast corner of Lois and Pierce Streets, and July 10, 2004.
Images courtesy of David Mote, grandson of Harry J. Mote Jr.