SS Dixie Arrow

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 sucessive 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".

The wreck of ''Dixie Arrow'' is presently an marine habitat that sports an abundance of aquatic life, as well as a popular site for wreck diving. It is registered as a National Historic Place and is a part of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

Construction

''Dixie Arrow'' was a member of the Arrow class, a group of oil tankers designed for service in the Far East. The tankers were designed by Nicholas Pluymert, head of Socony's Marine Transportation Department and the company's naval architect. In 1920, Socony was authorized by the United States Shipping Board to construct ten tankers under the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, which allowed shipping operators to offset taxes on profits against building new ships. The construction of four of these tankers, all members of the Arrow class, was assigned to the New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, New Jersey.

The last ship of the class, yard number 266, was ordered on November 1, 1919. Her keel was laid on August 11, 1920, in the South Yard, and she was subsequently given the name ''Dixie Arrow''. The tanker had "a most successful launching" on September 29, 1921. She was sponsored and christened by Isabelle Brown of Dallas, Texas; daughter of E. R. Brown, president of the board of the Magnolia Petroleum Company, which was a subsidiary of Socony.

''Dixie Arrow''s sea trials were conducted on November 23 and she was delivered to the Standard Transportation Company on November 29.'''' The tanker was assigned the United States Navy (USN) designation ID-4789, the US official number 221735, and the code letters MDHC.''''

The South Yard, where ''Dixie Arrow'' was constructed, had been built for war purposes for a cost of US$10,000,000 at the end of World War I. It was owned by the United States Shipping Board and covered an area of . It was located in Gloucester City, a city in Camden County, but bordered the city of Camden where New York Shipbuilding's North Yard was located. The South Yard was closed by the end of November 1921 following the completion of ''Dixie Arrow'' and another ship, .

Design and specifications

''Dixie Arrow'' was long, wide, and from the waterline to the bottom of the keel. In the aft portion of the bottom deck, the tanker was outfitted with a four-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engine, capable of producing up to and fed by three single-ended Scotch marine boilers with three corrugated furnaces on each, nine in total. With a single propeller, she had a maximum speed of 11 knots. ''Dixie Arrow'' had a gross register tonnage of 8,046, a net register tonnage of 4,960, a deadweight tonnage of 13,400 tons, and an underdeck tonnage of 7,834. The tanker's displacement was measured at 18,277 tons.

''Dixie Arrow'' boasted three masts, the third of which was shorter than the other two. On the ship's funnel was white "S". The funnel sat atop the aft superstructure. The tanker had room for a maximum of of fuel that would allow her to steam a maximum length of 46 days, or .

The tanker had ten double cargo holds for bulk oil able to carry roughly gallons of commercial oil. A tween deck, designed to carry general cargo, was located between the hold and the main deck, and the space was used significantly during the tanker's service in East Asia. Located on the main deck were five deck cranes, used to transport cargo in and out of the holds. For this purpose, there were eight removable hatches on the main deck.Gordon, Arthur. 1991. ''The Mobil Book of Ships: A Century at Sea''. Mobil Shipping Company. London, England. She carried four wooden lifeboats—two on the forward superstructure and two on the aft superstructure—as well as multiple wooden life rafts.

The tanker's forward superstructure was three decks high, and the aft superstructure was one deck high. Amidships, on the starboard side, was a removable accommodation ladder that ran down to the waterline. It was reported that the ship could carry up to 62 crewmen. In a 1921 Lloyd's Register survey, ''Dixie Arrow'' was given a rating of 100A1, meaning she was suitable for seagoing service and could carry dry and perishable goods.

''Dixie Arrow''s radio system had a maximum telegraphical range of 800 nautical miles while on a frequency of 375 kilocycles, which was controlled by the Radio Corporation of America. The tanker also had a system of electric lights controlled from a panel in the bridge, with the dynamo having a capacity of 182 amperes at 110 volts.

Ownership

While ''Dixie Arrow'' was built for the Standard Transportation Company, in actuality she was owned by Socony. Standard Transportation Company was a subsidiary of Socony, which was not unusual for large companies at the time. Socony had emerged as one of two major companies to rise from the breakup of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the other being Standard Oil of New Jersey. The two companies would conduct multiple joint ventures before finally merging to form ExxonMobil in 1998.

Lloyd's of London's registers linked the operator of ''Dixie Arrow'' to the Standard Transportation Company for ten years, from 1921 until 1931. The tanker was then registered under Standard Vacuum Transport Company for three years, following the merger of Socony and another oil company, Vacuum, in 1931. After the parent company renamed to Socony-Vacuum Oil Company in 1935, ''Dixie Arrow'''s operations were handed over to the parent Socony-Vacuum. Confusingly, the owner of the tanker for the ten years that followed 1921 was Socony itself. After the 1931 merger, the tanker's ownership was given to the newly formed Socony-Vacuum Transportation Company, and then again to its successor—Socony-Vacuum Oil Company—after the 1935 renaming.

For the entire duration of her service, ''Dixie Arrow'' flew the American flag as her ensign and was registered in New York City, New York. The tanker flew the Socony-Vacuum house flag from her mainmast following the 1931 merger of the two companies, consisting of a white swallowtail with blue stripes running along the top and bottom of the flag and a red pegasus located in the center of the field. Prior to this, ''Dixie Arrow'' flew Socony's house flag, which merely consisted of a white S on a rectangular blue field as the red pegasus was the logo of Vacuum Oil Company.

Service history

Interwar period

The first year of ''Dixie Arrow''s service had among her longest trips, going from New York City, through the Panama Canal, and to East Asia. This route was given to all of the Arrow class ships, only a handful would remain on that route until the beginning of World War II. ''Dixie Arrow'' departed for her first voyage in December 1921, carrying 10,000 tons of fuel oil. The tanker departed from New York City, first docking in the Panamanian city of Colón, then in San Francisco, and finally steaming across the Pacific Ocean to the British territory of Hong Kong. After unloading her cargo in the British territory, ''Dixie Arrow'' would sail to the US territory of the Philippines to load various vegetable oils in Manila, such as coconut, nut, and what was referred to as China wood oil. These unusual cargos would fill her empty oil tanks before she took the voyage in reverse, returning to New York. Ships traditionally sailed empty on their return trips with only ballast in the hold, though Socony opposed this approach in order to secure higher profits on each transpacific voyage. Each of these voyages took around six months to complete, and served as "a testament to the Arrow lass'seaworthiness and range."

After three voyages and serving less than two years in East Asia, ''Dixie Arrow'' was rerouted to the domestic oil trade in 1923. The tanker's route was changed in order to carry oil back and forth across North America, steaming between the three largest oil-producing and -consuming states: New York, Texas, and California. This change came after oil fields opened up in the area surrounding Los Angeles earlier that same year, and Socony rerouted several other Arrow-class ships "since their design of being both a general cargo carrier and bulk oil carrier proved to be versatile and efficient."

''Dixie Arrow'' would conduct voyages through the Panama Canal to the cities of San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, steaming from port cities in the northeast such as New York City, Boston, and Providence. While primarily carrying her traditional cargo of petroleum, the tanker also carried general freight, as she was flexible in both her route and cargo type. She also carried bunker fuel to New York City, San Francisco, and the Panama Canal Zone for use by transiting vessels. ''Dixie Arrow'' would also make intermediate stops in various Texan ports while on these voyages. Unlike her service in East Asia, ''Dixie Arrow'' solely sailed in ballast when on her voyages towards California. This practice would be continued for the rest of the tanker's service.

In 1931, following the merger between Socony and Vacuum Oil Company, the tanker's operations were handed over to another subsidiary: Standard Vacuum Transport Company. This subsidiary was a combination of the assets of Standard Transportation Company and Vacuum Oil Company. The number of oil tankers steaming to and from California and through the Panama Canal had lessened since 1927, with the Californian oil fields becoming insignificant by the early 1930s. Soon afterwards, Socony-Vacuum removed California from the tanker's route. ''Dixie Arrow'' was instead rerouted to directly service Texan ports, rather than merely stopping over at them on her way to California. The docks that the tanker stopped at while in these ports were operated by one of Socony-Vacuum's affiliates, either the Magnolia Petroleum Company or the Humble Oil and Refinery Company. The ports directly serviced the East Texas Oil Field, which was the largest petroleum reservoir in the state of Texas.

In March 1932, a large storm swept across the East Coast and damaged seven ships steaming off Virginia, including ''Dixie Arrow'', which was the largest vessel affected by the storm. Her steering gear broke down and the tanker became unable to maneuver. The US Coast Guard Cutter '' Mendota'' soon arrived to assist ''Dixie Arrow'', which was towed to Newport News for repairs by the steamship ''Argon''. The two ships arrived around 4:00 a.m..
On her voyages up and down the East Coast, ''Dixie Arrow'' carried case oil, a cargo consisting of two five-gallon oil drums packed together in a small wooden box. The types of oil packed into these drums primarily consisted of petroleum and gasoline. Some drums also carried benzene, kerosene, and lubricating oil, among other types of oil. The operations of ''Dixie Arrow'' were returned to her parent company, Socony-Vacuum, in 1936. With the change that same year that changed a ship's unique four-letter identification from signal letters to a maritime call sign, ''Dixie Arrow'''s was changed from MDHC to KDVT.

World War II

After both the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, ''Dixie Arrow'' remained on her regular East Coast route. The tanker was not outfitted with weapons or placed in a convoy, however she was painted grey for camouflage purposes.Duffus, Kevin (2012). "Chapter 10: Growl you Go, but Go you Must". ''War Zone: World War II Off the North Carolina Coast'' (1st ed.). Raleigh, North Carolina: Looking Glass Productions, Inc. . The "S" on her funnel was also painted over, to hide the identity of the tanker's owner; something similar had been done to her sister '' Sylvan Arrow'' during World War I.

''Dixie Arrow'' was formally assigned to carry petroleum from Texas to New York in order to help the American war effort. With U-boats sinking American vessels off their own eastern coast, oil refineries began to lose their supply of petroleum, threatening the production of war matériel. The Gulf Coast had a large supply of crude oil, however there were not enough tankers to transport it. As such, ''Dixie Arrow'' joined some 200 tankers in the task of fueling American factories in the north. Though she did not explicitly service foreign Allied war production, it is certainly possible that the tanker's regular petroleum cargo was offloaded and later transferred to other tankers bound for Europe. It was common practice for American tankers to transport petroleum products to ports in New York and New England, where it would be loaded onto British-flagged vessels and transported across the Atlantic Ocean.

Final voyage

On March 19, 1942, ''Dixie Arrow'' left Texas City, Texas, bound for the city of Paulsboro, New Jersey. The tanker was carrying of crude oil to be used for the Allied war effort, and had a crew numbering 33—eight officers and 25 men. She was described as a good ship to work aboard, with fair pay, a reasonable work schedule, and "the best cook available". Despite many ships being in the vicinity wherever she traveled, ''Dixie Arrow'' was not officially travelling in a convoy. The Coastal Convoy System used by the USN was established in the summer of 1942, nearly three months after ''Dixie Arrow'' had sunk.

''Dixie Arrow''s master, Captain Anders Johanson, was under orders to follow a curve away from the shore to keep the tanker safe while steaming past the shoals of Cape Hatteras. While passing St. John's River, Florida, Captain Johanson stopped a USN patrol boat to request further details. He was told that there were "a couple of other navy boats ahead", and that he should contact them for the information instead. Upon attempting to do, ''Dixie Arrow'' received no response. As the tanker sailed further up the East Coast, she constantly received messages of SOS and SSSS from ships that had been torpedoed by U-boats. As a further precautionary measure, Captain Johanson ordered all of ''Dixie Arrow'''s lights to be turned off during the night.

While steaming past the Outer Banks of North Carolina, ''Dixie Arrow''s crew could see columns of smoke coming from oil fires located south of Morehead City, the result of other ships that had fallen victim to U-boats. Ships traditionally sailed along warm water currents for speed, namely the Gulf Stream. Both the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current meet off the coast of North Carolina. All shipping in the area was either coming from the north or the south, making the region a prime hunting ground for U-boats. In addition, the continental shelf is narrowest along Hatteras Island, making it convenient for U-boats to hide themselves in deep water while waiting for ships. Just under 400 Allied ships would be sunk by German U-boats off of the coastline of North Carolina by the end of their campaign, officially named ''Operation Paukenschlag'' ( English: ''Operation Drumbeat''). The operation itself was part of the much larger Battle of the Atlantic. Operation Drumbeat would become nicknamed the "Second Happy Time" by Germans sailors due to the high amount of shipping losses suffered by the Allied powers, and the Americans gave the waters off North Carolina the rather fitting nickname " Torpedo Alley".

Sinking

Roughly 10 minutes before 09:00 AM EWT ( Eastern War Time), in the morning hours of March 26, 1942, ''Dixie Arrow'' made her way past both Cape Fear and Cape Lookout, and into Cape Hatteras' infamous Diamond Shoals. The tanker was reported to be zig-zagging with 45° tacks, altering her course every 6–9 minutes, and was steaming at a speed of 10.5 knots. Shortly before 9:00 am, a United States Coast Guard (USCG) airplane reported that it was circling ''Dixie Arrow'' near the Diamond Shoals outer buoy. The tanker was steaming through clear and calm seas with a gentle breeze, though the water was thick with oil.

Twelve miles (19 km) southwest of Cape Hatteras, the type VIIC submarine '' U-71'' was on its fifth patrol, now under the command of ''Kapitänleutnant'' Walter Flachsenberg. The U-boat had had a successful patrol thus far, having sunk both the Norwegian tanker MT ''Ranja'' and the American cargo ship SS ''Oakmar'' mere days earlier. Having spotted nothing but small fishing boats the night of March 25–26, the submarine had been preparing "to dive and sleep for the day when helookout spotted some masts on the southern horizon." The masts that had been spotted belonged to ''Dixie Arrow''. Preparing to sink the newly-spotted vessel, ''U-71'' disappeared beneath the water and began to maneuver itself in-between the shoreline and the tanker. At 8:58 AM, ''Kapitanleutnant'' Flachsenberg gave the order to fire three torpedoes, all of which hit the tanker on the starboard side, amidships.

The torpedoes were spotted by the able seaman on the bridge, Oscar Chappell, and he rung the warning bell before attempting to turn ''Dixie Arrow'' out of the way of tor torpedoes. However, it was too late. The first torpedo blew up the deckhouse and lit its ruins on fire, killing the radio operator, all the tanker's officers, and a number of crewmen on the bridge—save for Chappell. The other two torpedoes hit the tanker roughly sixty seconds later, the second hitting between the midships mast and funnel, and the third hitting just aft of the deckhouse.

The blasts wounded eight men in the dining hall and knocked out the lights in the engine room. Captain Johanson had stepped out of his cabin after the first two blasts and ordered the surviving crew to evacuate the stricken tanker, but he was killed when the third torpedo struck. The engines were stopped by the first assistant engineer just before the third blast. Oil leaked from the sinking tanker, which would become subsequently ignited by the torpedoes' explosions. Around this time, the pilot of the USCG airplane took multiple photographs of ''Dixie Arrow'' after reporting at 9:04 AM that the tanker was on fire.

Despite the fact that her engines had been stopped, ''Dixie Arrow'' continued moving forward in the water due to her momentum. Chappell turned the tanker to starboard, bringing her into the wind to keep seven men trapped on the bow from being burnt to death and allowing them time to jump into the water to reach relative safety. However, in doing this, the wind blew the flames onto the bridge and he was killed. A surviving crewman recalled that "fire was shooting up all about happell as he turned the wheel. The able seaman was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Merchant Marine Medal for his actions. The liberty ship hull number 1262 was named SS ''Oscar Chappell'' after him and was christened by his wife during the ship's launching in 1934. In 2000, the Able Seaman Oscar Chappell Award For Outstanding Maritime Stewardship was created in his honor, awarded to a civil service crewmember of Military Sealift Command who display "selfless dedication to shipmates."

A massive explosion tore through ''Dixie Arrow'''s midships section, creating a mushroom cloud of smoke and fire that was reportedly visible for several miles all around. The tanker's starboard side became completely engulfed by fire despite there being almost no wind minutes before, and ''U-71''s crew soon became unable to see ''Dixie Arrow''. The flaming oil spread all around the tanker, making it dangerous for her crew to jump overboard as they could be burnt to death or get stuck underneath the oil. Two of ''Dixie Arrow'''s lifeboats were destroyed in the flames, and a third swung uncontrollably on its davits and ended up swinging off of them, launching one crewman into the flames and to his death. The tanker's fourth lifeboat managed to launch due to the efforts of six crewmen, with eight others aboard it.

The six crewmen that helped launch the lifeboat then jumped into the flaming water and managed to find a wooden life raft. It was quickly abandoned by five of the men upon realizing the raft had no oars, but the sixth stayed aboard. Those in the lifeboat attempted to encourage the man to jump into the water, though he replied that he didn't know how to swim. He was killed when the raft drifted into a patch of flaming oil. Two crewmen on the bow jumped into the water despite not knowing how to swim, and both were eventually rescued after swimming through oil-covered water. ''Dixie Arrow'' began to buckle amidships, listing to starboard, as the lifeboat pulled away and the crew in the water swam for their lives.

As the tanker's sole radio operator was killed in the initial explosion, no distress call had ever been sent out to alert nearby ships of ''Dixie Arrow''s condition. Despite this, Naval Operating Base Norfolk reported that the tanker was burning two miles south of the Diamond Shoals Light Buoy at 9:26 AM. The lack of a rescue signal may not have had much effect in any case, as ships steaming up and down the East Coast seldom stopped to assist the survivors of torpedoed vessels, for fear of also being targeted.

The tanker drifted north, and she was last spotted around 11:40 AM by USN personnel. By nighttime, ''Dixie Arrow'' had drifted inshore to the Cape Hatteras minefields, where she would finally sink. There, her frame gave in and broke in two. The tanker's bow disappeared underwater, the superstructure catching on the stern and dragging it down as well. The fires that had once engulfed the tanker were subsequently extinguished by the seawater. As she settled, ''Dixie Arrow'' detonated a mine that had been laid by the USN in an attempt to deter U-boats.Gentile, Gary. 1992. ''Shipwrecks of North Carolina from Hatteras Inlet South''. Gary Gentile Productions, Philadelphia, PA. USCGC ''Orchid''—a buoy tender—was sent to the wrecksite, where she placed a red nun buoy to warn passing vessels of the underwater tanker. Only the masts of ''Dixie Arrow'' stuck out of the water.

Rescue operations

The USN destroyer spotted the mushroom cloud set off by ''Dixie Arrow'', and the tanker's came at full speed in order to investigate. Guided by a seaplane, the destroyer arrived at 9:30 AM, roughly half an hour after ''Dixie Arrow'' had first been torpedoed. After the seaplane dropped two bombs on the U-boat, the destroyer several depth charges—which killed several of the tanker's crewmen who were floating in the water and did nothing to harm the submarine, though it reportedly "shook from end to end, bracketed by ''Tarbell''s depth charges." A crewman of ''Dixie Arrow'' reported that he "felt like somebody had kicked him in the stomach" after the first depth charges exploded, and several survivors were either knocked unconscious or killed by the blasts. Upon noticing the people in the water, ''Tarbell'''s crew ceased the deployment of depth charges, but instead of stopping, the destroyer hung cargo nets off her gunwales for the surviving crewmen to climb aboard. She picked up eight men in the lifeboat and 14 others in the water, and she ended up rescuing a total of 22 survivors out of the tanker's 33 crew.

USCGC ''Dione'', an anti-submarine ship, also spotted the mushroom cloud coming from the sinking ''Dixie Arrow'' and came quickly to investigate, despite being several miles away. The cutter was the sole ship assigned to conduct anti-submarine warfare in the waters off North Carolina. Nobody informed her master of USS ''Tarbell''s arrival, and he became frustrated and angry upon arriving late, finding nothing but bodies and debris. ''Dione'' proceeded to head south in order to patrol the waters off the village of Hatteras.

Aftermath

While USS ''Tarbell'' had initially taken the 22 survivors of ''Dixie Arrow'' to Morehead City, North Carolina, they were later transferred to Norfolk, Virginia. The less injured among the survivors were taken to the city's Monticello Hotel for quarantine. While there, they were met by several men in dark suits whom the seamen suspected to be from the FBI. The men kept the survivors confined for two days and interviewed them before they were allowed to take a train to New York. Rushton said that the men "wanted to know the particulars, how we happened to take this particular ship and so on." ''Dixie Arrow'''s survivors speculated that the FBI thought that there was a traitor among the crew who had shared secret information, such as ''Dixie Arrow'''s location, so that ''U-71'' could sink her.

''U-71'' moved to full power and escaped after ''Tarbell'' departed, returning to La Pallice, France, on April 20. The type VII-C submarine sank only two other Allied ships over the course of the war. ''U-71'' was decommissioned and then scuttled on May 2, 1945, in Wilhelmshaven, Germany; six days before the German Instrument of Surrender was issued.

Wreck

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 ensure that ''Dixie Arrow'' would not be a hazard for navigation.

Present day

''Dixie Arrow'' currently lays on a flat sand plain, roughly south of Hatteras Inlet, at the coordinates 34°54'1"N, 75°45'2"W, at a depth of . The bow and the stern sit upright, close together and aligned. Both the bow and stern portions of the wreck are both in good condition, with much of the machinery in those parts still in its original positions. The stem rises 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 a center for the nautical ecosystem. Marine organisms that have made their home in ''Dixie Arrow'''s wreck include barracudas, sand tiger sharks, southern stingrays, loggerhead seaturtles, and various other species of fish. Coral has also grown on the tanker's metal surfaces. Because of this, the wreck has become a popular diving site for marine biologists and civilian wreck divers, but the region has also become visited by charter fishers. Despite some concerns about environmental sustainability due to ''Dixie Arrow''s cargo, her oil tanks are empty, and there is "no presence of oil on or within the shipwreck."

A category 5 Atlantic hurricane came through the Outer Banks in 2003, named Hurricane Isabel. Despite damaging thousands of houses and washing out a portion of Hatteras Island, Hurricane Isabel caused no damage to ''Dixie Arow''. The storm simply swept up several feet of sand at the wrecksite, allowing divers to see portions of the tanker that had not been visible before the hurricane. In May 2019, it was reported that a fishing net had gotten stuck on the wreck. It was soon removed by locals with no damage to ''Dixie Arrow'' or wildlife.

On September 25, 2013, both ''Dixie Arrow'''s shipwreck and the 61.7 acres that surround her were labeled as a National Historic Place by the United States government. The wrecksite was also labeled as part of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary in 2016, placing it under maritime protection per federal law. It was reported the change would not affect civilian wreck diving expeditions or charter fishing that commonly occurred at the site.

See also

* Battle of the Atlantic – the larger conflict that the Second Happy Time was a part of
* SS ''India Arrow'' – one of ''Dixie Arrow'''s sister ships, sunk during the Second Happy Time
* '' U-123 –'' the most successful U-boat of the Second Happy Time
* United States Merchant Marine – the American merchant shipping fleet in World War II

Notes

References

External links

* Archive.org – ''Dixie Arrow''s booklet of general plans

Lloyd's of London
– Collection of documents relating to ''Dixie Arrow''

National Park Service
– NPS listing for ''Dixie Arrow''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dixie Arrow
1921 ships
Battle of the Atlantic
Maritime incidents in March 1942
Oil tankers
Petroleum in the United States
Ships built in Camden, New Jersey
Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II
Shipwrecks of North America
World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean
National Register of Historic Places
New York Shipbuilding Corporation
Standard Oil