The SS Robert E. Lee was a steam passenger ship constructed in 1924 at Newport News, Virginia, for the Eastern Steamship Lines. The vessel measured approximately 375 feet (114 meters) in length, with a beam of 54 feet (16 meters) and a depth of 29 feet (8.8 meters). Designed primarily for passenger service, the ship was intended to facilitate travel between Virginia and New York, and during winter months, it operated routes between New York and Boston. Its construction marked it as a significant passenger-cargo vessel of its era, serving the northeastern U.S. coast for nearly two decades. Following its completion, the Robert E. Lee was engaged in routine passenger and cargo service along the U.S. east coast, continuing these operations into the early years of World War II. In 1942, its role shifted from civilian passenger service to wartime logistics; it was chartered by the Alcoa Steamship Company to carry goods and personnel from New York to Caribbean ports, and later contracted by the War Shipping Administration as a freight carrier. To enhance its wartime defenses, the vessel was armed with a stern gun and degaussed to mitigate magnetic mine threats. On 30 July 1942, while returning from Trinidad with approximately 270 passengers en route to Tampa, Florida, the SS Robert E. Lee was part of convoy TAW-7. It was soon diverted to New Orleans, accompanied by the submarine chaser USS PC-566. That evening, U-166 torpedoed the ship at 22:37. The attack struck just aft of the engine room, damaging the #3 hold, the radio compartment, and the steering gear. The ship began to list and sank stern-first roughly 15 minutes after the hit, resulting in the loss of 25 lives—15 passengers and 10 crew members. The survivors were rescued by USS PC-566, USS SC-19, and the tug Underwriter, and taken to Venice, Louisiana. In 1986, Shell Offshore discovered the wreck of the SS Robert E. Lee in the Mississippi Canyon at a depth of approximately 4,700 feet (1,400 meters). The wreck was re-identified in 2001, located about one mile from the wreck of U-166, which had been sunk by the same patrol boat that rescued the ship’s survivors. The vessel’s sinking exemplifies the peril faced by Allied shipping during wartime and marks it as a notable maritime incident of World War II.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.