Wartime mystery solved as divers find wreck of ship torpedoed by German U-boat

Résumé détaillé

The steamboat was heading from Barbados to New Brunswick in December 1944 when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat. Its wreckage was found this year.

For more than 80 years, the final resting place of S.S. Cornwallis and her crew was unknown.

The steamboat was heading from Barbados to New Brunswick in December 1944 when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat, which had just dropped off two Nazi spies in Maine.

Only five of the ship’s 48 crew members survived. They were among the more than 1,600 merchant mariners who were responsible for moving much-needed supplies, killed during the Second World War.

Now, an American team of volunteer divers has revealed its discovery — offering family members of the men some closure.

“It was almost as if our grandfather had spoken, ‘Hey, don’t forget about me,'” said Donald Stewart, the grandson of David. H. Stewart, who was lost with the steamship.

Robert Stewart was just 15 years old when he learned in a telegram that his father, David H. Stewart, was among the dead.

“My mother had a tremendously good singing voice, but I don’t think I ever heard her sing that much after that.”

“My dad used to speak of him a lot. My dad wasn’t very emotional about it, but he spoke of him. He’d say, ‘Oh, I wish you had met Jimmy, my brother,'” said his nephew, Glenn Roy.

Roy said his father never forgot his older brother. Over the years, Roy became interested in studying genealogy and learning about his family’s history.

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