Delivered to the Calmar Steamship Company on May 29, 1942, the Liberty ship Thomas McKean was on her
maiden voyage one month later on June29 when the U-505 slammed a torpedo into her side. A second followed
and the ship was doomed. Those who had not been killed in the explosions took to four lifeboats. The U-505
surfaced and shelled the ship until she slipped beneath the waves.

Several men in the boats were injured, three would die from these injuries before rescue, but the crew of the
U-505 at least treated some of them before leaving the area and the boats to the whim of the sea. All four
lifeboats made land, the last landing in the Dominican Republic on July 14. In all six men died during the ordeal.
Mellin E. Respess, the ship's master, survived the sinking and made land, however on his return to the U.S.A.
the ship he was on, SS Onondaga was sunk by the U-129, he was not one of the fourteen survivors.

The U-505 was captured on June 4, 1944 by U.S. forces and is now on display at the Museum of Science and
Industry in Chicago, Illinois.