They were Roman Catholic priest, John P. Washington of New Jersey, rabbi Alexander D. Goode of Washington DC, Methodist George L. Fox of Pennsylvania, and Clark V. Poling, of Ohio, minister of the Reformed Church.
Writer Jack Kerouac of Massachusetts would have been on the SS Dorchester were it not for a telegram he received from football coach Lou Little, asking him to return to Columbia University to play.
In 'The Sea Is My Brother', he wrote about the Dorchester and those aboard (up until his departure). He wrote of an African-American cook named "Old Glory," whom he befriended but died when the ship sank after the torpedo attack.
Coast Guardsman Charles Walter David Jr. , who was assigned the responsibility of maintaining officers' quarters aboard the Comanche in the segregated American military, volunteered to rescue sailors from the doomed USAT Dorchester and also saved the lives of two of his own shipmates.
Even so, hundreds of men from the Dorchester died within minutes from exposure in the cold water. The men aboard lifeboats faced a similar fate if they could not be quickly hauled aboard the Comanche.
Comments
"The captain of the Comanche chose to ignore the obvious danger of another torpedo attack and maneuvered his ship to pick up survivors.