Stephen Hopkins and Stier

27 September 1942, South Atlantic, midway between Brazil and Africa

Both ships sunk

On a misty morning in the South Atlantic the raider Stier and her supply ship Tannenfels came on the Liberty ship Stephen Hopkins, on her maiden voyage in ballast from Cape Town. Ordered to stop, Captain Paul Buck turned to fight with her single old 4-inch gun and a few machine guns. Her naval armed guard under Ensign Kenneth Willett, and then, when they were all down, a cadet, Edwin O'Hara, who fired the last five shells on his own, hit Stier about fifteen times, wrecking her steering and engine room. Stier's guns and Tannenfels's set the Liberty ship ablaze, and she sank; then Stier, on fire and out of control, had to be scuttled, and Tannenfels took off her crew. Of the 57 aboard Stephen Hopkins, 42 were killed; the rest reached Brazil a month later in an open lifeboat. She was the only American merchant ship to sink a German surface warship.

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