Tin Can Sailors

P.O. Box 100

Somerset, MA  02726

Dear Editor:

Dear Destroyer Veterans:  Do you remember, know of someone, or were present during the tragic and calamitous groundings of the USS POLLUX, TRUXTON AND WILKES throughout the early morning hours of 18 February 1942?  Would you like to participate or support the endeavor to create a world class website designed to honor not only the brave sailors living and dead, but also the kindhearted citizens of St. Lawrence and Lawn in Newfoundland, Canada?

The citizens of Lawn and St. Lawrence affected a dramatic rescue of shipwrecked American sailors from disastrous accidental groundings. Memories of this event are fading and being lost in the annals of history.

The St. Lawrence Heritage Society has partnered with the Maritime History Archives of the Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador to develop a website on the three destroyers.  The Archivist for this project is Heather Wareham and she is asking for our help in providing letters of support, photographs, and stories of one of worst maritime disasters in U.S. Navy history.  Please support this project and perhaps we can all do our part in preserving memories of this historical event and those who paid the ultimate price on that fateful cold and winter morning over a half century ago. 

Additionally she is asking for any photocopied documents, experiences and stories of heroic acts, large and small.  They hope to have this website funded by Provincial and Federal Offices of the Canadian Government. 

Heather’s email address is:  mha@mun.ca   Wade Rowsell’s email is:  wgrowsell@hotmail.com 

His mailing address is:  Wayde Rowsell, P.O. Box 174, St. Lawrence, NL, Canada

Sincerely,

Thomas R. Palchak

Lemont, Pennsylvania

Son of Edward B. Palchak, MM1, USS WILKES DD441