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February 18, 1942
TRUXTON AND POLLUX: BURIAL PLACE OF LOST AMERICANS
The American destroyers Wilkes and Truxton and the supply ship Pollux were on their way to the Argentia Naval Base when they went off course and smashed on the rocks in Lawn Point and Chambers Cove.
The Captain of the Wilkes managed to free his ship but the Truxton and Pollux were a total loss. Two hundred and three officers and crew lost their lives. Their life jackets which were not equipped with crotch straps slid off on impact with the water.
Residents of nearby Saint Lawrence and Lawn managed to rescue 186 survivors.
Archbishop Edward Patrick Roche of St. John’s had made arrangements with the American Consul General in St. John’s to accede to the request of the United States naval authorities at Argentia, that a portion of the Catholic Cemetery at St. Lawrence be temporarily set aside as an American Cemetery and as the burial place of those Americans lost on the USS Truxton and the USS Pollux.
The Archbishop offered the transfer of a portion of the cemetery to be made by a simple deed of gift until such time as the bodies may be removed for burial in the United States.
At this time the US Navy was segregated. Of the 46 survivors from the USS Truxton, one was black. When Lanier Phillips was rescued by residents of St. Lawrence they treated him the same as they treated the white survivors. This experience galvanised the Navy Mess Attendant to fight racial discrimination within the US Navy. He later became the Navy's first black sonar technician.
Recommended Reading: Standing Into Danger by Cassie Brown Flanker Press Ltd, St. John’s, NL
Archival fonds Archbishop Edward Patrick Roche fonds 107/2/6
For more information on this and other related subjects contact the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese. www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca
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Larry Dohey
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