The Sinking of the SS Cynthia Olson

The day before sending the SOS, the Cynthia Olson, captained by Merchant Marine Master Berthel Carlsen, was 300 miles off San Francisco, under way at 10 knots, when unknown to her crew, the Japanese submarine I-26, submerged at periscope depth and searching for potential targets, spotted and began tracking her. Commander Minoru Yokota, captain of the I-26, had been ordered to accompany I-10 in reconnoitering the Aleutians, then after 5 December, to deploy to a point between San Francisco and Hawaii to report on American fleet units carrying reinforcements to Hawaii. Lastly, I-26 was to destroy enemy merchant shipping after hostilities began.

My mother, who grew up in Hawaii and went through Pearl Harbor as a high school senior, ended up leaving Hawaii on the Lurline to go to college on the Mainland right after high school graduation, where she was for the “duration.” A lot of young people were evacuated from the islands because of the fear of Japanese invasion (if their families could afford it).

My Mom recounts how the Lurline had been repainted in naval camouflage and refitted as a troop ship, and made the trip to San Francisco constantly zig-zagging at irregular intervals in order to try to avoid torpedoes that might be fired at her by Japanese submarines.

She ended up not returning home until 1946.

Hanks for posting this article.

I read FDR’s Declaration of War speech on Dec. 8, 1941 yesterday and noted his line “In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.” When I read that, I was wondering about what shipping was attacked outside Pearl between SF and Honolulu. This timely article answered that question.

We have a minor coincidental connection. This summer, my sisters were visiting and we took them to the Filoli Mansion in Woodside, CA. The mansion was built by Willaim Roth and his wife Lurline Matson Roth.

Her father, William Matson, had first come to appreciate the name “Lurline” in the 1870s while serving as skipper aboard the Claus Spreckels family yacht Lurline out of San Francisco Bay. Matson met his future wife, Lillie Low, on a yacht voyage he captained to Hawaii; the couple named their daughter Lurline Berenice Matson.

Lurline Matson married William P. Roth in 1914; in 1927 Roth became president of Matson Lines, the shipping company started by her father.

In 1932, the last of four smart liners designed by William Francis Gibbs and built for the Matson Lines’ Pacific services was launched: the SS Lurline christened on 12 July 1932 in Quincy, Massachusetts by Lurline Matson Roth.

That was the ship that took the SOS call. The Lurline made it to San Fran on Dec 10 and was quickly converted to a troop ship. It sailed in the very first Pacific convoy from San Fran on Dec 16, 1941. Talk about a fast conversion!

Interesting personal note, thanks. BTW, zig-zagging was intended to throw off pursuing submarines, not torpedoes. A slower ship (say a submerged sub) can intercept a faster ship if their courses can be made to intersect. The pursuer maintains a course in which his line of sight, measured off the bow, to the prey is constant. If line of sight between the pursuer’s course and the prey is opening (getting wider) the pursuer will pass in front of his intended prey, if it is opening, he will pass astern, if it is constant, they are on an intercept course. (In peace time navigators use the same logic to avoid collisions.) Constant line of sight produces the most efficient intercept course when both vessels are moving at constant speed.

Nowadays it is generally agreed that zig-zagging is worse than useless because you are as likely to zig into range of submarine as zag away, and overall it makes a longer course, leaving you exposed to the enemy for a longer time.

BTW, zig-zagging was intended to throw off pursuing submarines, not torpedoes. A slower ship (say a submerged sub) can intercept a faster ship if their courses can be made to intersect. The pursuer maintains a course in which his line of sight, measured off the bow, to the prey is constant. If line of sight between the pursuerâ€™s course and the prey is opening (getting wider) the pursuer will pass in front of his intended prey, if it is opening, he will pass astern, if it is constant, they are on an intercept course. (In peace time navigators use the same logic to avoid collisions.) Constant line of sight produces the most efficient intercept course when both vessels are moving at constant speed.

Ah, but in those days of line-of-sight torpedo runs, VERY, VERY short (<1000 yard US torpedo ranges - if you were going to get a hit at all), aimed by a single 1-2 second long eyeball-in-optical periscope siting tracked by a manual plot using magnetic bearings, a GOOD submarine skipper over the course of an entire WAR “might” get 100,000 tons of enemy shipping.

Now, that 100,000 tons was in the form of 2,000 ton, 4,000 tons, or 6,000 ton ships, so the “good skippers” did hit many ships - and could actually start sinking them after the crappy early-war torpedo detonators (magnetic exploders detonated early when they passed under waves, and contact exploders FAILED when they hit a target perpendicularly!) and bad depth-keeping (the torpedo ran deep, so they ran under a ship, and didn't explode at all.)

So a sub had to get very, very close to the targets, aim 3 or 4 torpedoes to “maybe” get one hit on one ship (they aimed ahead of the target's course, at the target bow, at the target stern, and slightly behind the target), and

But today?

EVERY target is 100,000 ton merchant.
EVERY target has one propeller, one engine room, one bridge, one rudder.
ANY hit anywhere aft will disable (but maybe not sink!) EVERY target.
EVERY torpedo has a sonar guidance package, aimed from 24,000 to 36,000 yards away using digital sonar tracking and aiming that can be plotted for hours to the exact course, range, and speed by EVERY submarine.
Silently, without EVER coming to the surface/near-surface to to have “see” the target visually. Which, by the way, is over the horizon anyway.

So, why ever zig-zag now? You're dead. Or dead-in-the-water - which is the same ting as far as a blockading navy is concerned.

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