William H. Gerth
Named: SS Caribou, St. Johns NL Canada, and 1925..
Civilian Employee, Department of War
S.S. Caribou
Entered the Service from: New Jersey
Died: October 14, 1942
Memorialized at: S.S. Caribou Monument
Port aux Basques, NL, Canada
Introduction
William H. Gerth was born in Camden around 1890. He served in the United States Army during World War I, and was decorated for bravery. Upon his discharge, he took a position with the Western Electric Company of Syracuse NY, as an electrical engineer. Unmarried, he made his home in Camden with his brother, Paul E. Gerth, of 2009 Federal Street, a few doors away from Samuel “Buddy” Leyman’s sandwich shop.
William Gerth was among a group of electrical engineers who had volunteered their services to the American military for duty in Newfoundland. On October 13, 1942, he boarded the S.S. Caribou to journey from Nova Scotia to St. Johns, Newfoundland. The Caribou was torpedoed by the German submarine U-69 near Port aux Basques, Newfoundland. 137 of the passengers and crew were lost.
William H. Gerth was survived by his brother Paul and niece, Mrs. Pauline Schwoeri, of the Federal Street address.
U-Boat Sinks Canadian Ship And Kills 137
Camden Courier-Post —
U-BOAT SINKS CANADIAN SHIP AND KILLS 137
Women, Children, Service Men and Civilians Perish in Night Attack
102 PERSONS SAVED; SKIPPER, 3 SONS DIE
Sydney, N. S., Oct. 17 (UP)—The death toll of the Caribou, a small passenger steamer sunk Wednesday in Cabot Strait by a German submarine, was set at 137 Canadians and Americans today.
Rescue vessels have landed 102 survivors here. The missing totaled 137—members of the Canadian and American armed forces, civilian men, women and children—and it was feared that all had perished.
Missing United States service men include J. M. Burns, E. T. Bethea, E. J. Schultz, J. G. Abernatchy, F. Hand, R. M. Penfield and J. Waldman. Their ranks and addresses were not immediately announced.
Camden Civilian Missing
Missing American civilians included: William H. Gerth, 42, Camden, N. J.; James Flynn, 32, New Haven, Conn.; Louis Gagne, 23, Woonsocket, R. I.; John Sheppard, 32, Auburn, N. Y., and Charles Berry, 43, Mt. Vernon, N. Y.
The other missing were 44 Canadian civilians including four mothers and their children, 31 members of the crew, 18 members of the Royal Canadian Air Force, 20 members of the Royal Canadian Navy, including one woman nurse, and 11 Canadian Army officers and men.
Dispatches from St. Johns, NFD., said 30 bodies had been recovered.
Navy Minister Angus MacDonald, announcing the sinking, the most tragic in Canadian waters since the war started, supplied no details. He said “a score or more of women and children” were killed by the explosion of the torpedo or drowned.
The often incoherent stories of survivors revealed that the Caribou, a 2222-ton vessel owned by the Newfoundland government, was attacked between midnight and dawn while she was plying between Sydney and Port-au-Basque, Nfd., and after the torpedoing, survivors heard an escort ship’s depth charges exploding.
The Navy told of one private soldier who gave his lifebelt to his wife and threw her overboard, so she might have a chance of being saved. Within minutes after the torpedo smashed into the Caribou, she sank.
Dispatches said the bodies of three women and four children were among those found. The nurse lost was Nursing Sister Wilkie of the Navy, the first of its nurses to lose her life in the war.
Skipper, Three Sons Perish
Whole families were missing. Capt. Benjamin Traverner, master of the Caribou, and his sons, Stanley, James and Harold, mate, second mate and third mate, respectively, went down with their ship.
“If there were any Canadians who did not realize that we were up against a ruthless and remorseless enemy, there can be no such Canadians now,” MacDonald said. “If anything were needed to prove the hideousness of Nazi warfare, surely this is it. Canada can never forget the SS Caribou.”
American service men among the survivors are Capt. E. D. Van Alstyne, K. W. Plitz, G. A. Smothers, F. Childers, M. F. Derwis, F. J. Scheller.
American civilians saved included Howard H. Porter, Syracuse, N. Y., and Joseph J. Weisansal, Lockport, N. Y.
Missing Boat Costs Camden Man Life
Camden Courier-Post —
W.H. Gerth Sails Belatedly on Ship Sunk by Sub; World War Hero
Because the material he was to use was not ready, William H. Gerth, 52, of 2009 Federal street, missed his scheduled boat to Newfoundland and sailed on the Newfoundland-Nova Scotia steamer Caribou, which was sunk Wednesday by a German submarine. He is among the 137 missing.
Gerth, an electrical engineer employed by the Western Electric Co., of Syracuse, N. Y., was among a group of engineers who had volunteered their services to journey to Newfoundland with American armed forces.
According to his niece, Mrs. Pauline Schwoeri, of the Federal street address, Gerth was to have sailed on Aug. 25, but a last-minute notice that their material was not yet ready forced the volunteers to cancel their sailing.
Following the cancellation of their trip, Gerth remained in Syracuse until the material arrived and then wrote his niece that he was leaving. Mrs. Schwoeri said that only yesterday she received a postcard from Gerth stating that he was in Nova Scotia and was leaving that day for Newfoundland. The card was postmarked Oct. 13.
Gerth, a native of Camden, had been employed by the electric company ever since his discharge from the Army after the World War. He was decorated for bravery during the war.
Gerth made his home here with his brother, Paul F. Gerth. He is unmarried.