Four members of the seven member Kucharczuk family, emigrating from Trostianets (тростянець), Ukraine* (part of the Kostopil administrative region in Rivne Oblast), to Canada, were lost aboard the SS Athenia, when it was torpedoed by a German submarine. All of the family made it into lifeboats, and drifted for hours before being sighted by a rescue ship; the lifeboat was caught under the rescue ship's propeller, smashing it. Mother Ewdokia Kucharczuk and her three youngest children, Stefan, Aleksandra, and Jakeb, never emerged from the sea.
"SS Athenia was a steam turbine transatlantic passenger liner built in Glasgow, Scotland in 1923 for the Anchor-Donaldson Line. She worked between the United Kingdom and the east coast of Canada until 3 September 1939, when a torpedo from the German submarine U-30 sank her in the Western Approaches.
Athenia was the first UK ship to be sunk by Germany during World War II, and the incident accounted for the Donaldson Line's greatest single loss of life at sea, with 117 civilian passengers and crew killed. The sinking was condemned as a war crime. Among those dead were 28 US citizens, causing Germany to fear that the US might join the war on the side of the UK and France. Wartime German authorities denied that one of their vessels had sunk the ship. An admission of responsibility did not come from German authorities until 1946." (via Wikipedia)
*It should be noted that there are several villages in Ukraine and Poland named Trostianets. The Kucharczuks were from Trostianets (тростянець) in Kostopil, Rivne, located in northwestern Ukraine (the Horyn River runs through the village). Trostianets, Ukraine, became part of Poland between WWI and WWII, at which point it remained under Soviet control until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
"SS Athenia was a steam turbine transatlantic passenger liner built in Glasgow, Scotland in 1923 for the Anchor-Donaldson Line. She worked between the United Kingdom and the east coast of Canada until 3 September 1939, when a torpedo from the German submarine U-30 sank her in the Western Approaches.
Athenia was the first UK ship to be sunk by Germany during World War II, and the incident accounted for the Donaldson Line's greatest single loss of life at sea, with 117 civilian passengers and crew killed. The sinking was condemned as a war crime. Among those dead were 28 US citizens, causing Germany to fear that the US might join the war on the side of the UK and France. Wartime German authorities denied that one of their vessels had sunk the ship. An admission of responsibility did not come from German authorities until 1946." (via Wikipedia)
*It should be noted that there are several villages in Ukraine and Poland named Trostianets. The Kucharczuks were from Trostianets (тростянець) in Kostopil, Rivne, located in northwestern Ukraine (the Horyn River runs through the village). Trostianets, Ukraine, became part of Poland between WWI and WWII, at which point it remained under Soviet control until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Four members of the seven member Kucharczuk family, emigrating from Trostianets (тростянець), Ukraine* (part of the Kostopil administrative region in Rivne Oblast), to Canada, were lost aboard the SS Athenia, when it was torpedoed by a German submarine. All of the family made it into lifeboats, and drifted for hours before being sighted by a rescue ship; the lifeboat was caught under the rescue ship's propeller, smashing it. Mother Ewdokia Kucharczuk and her three youngest children, Stefan, Aleksandra, and Jakeb, never emerged from the sea.
"SS Athenia was a steam turbine transatlantic passenger liner built in Glasgow, Scotland in 1923 for the Anchor-Donaldson Line. She worked between the United Kingdom and the east coast of Canada until 3 September 1939, when a torpedo from the German submarine U-30 sank her in the Western Approaches.
Athenia was the first UK ship to be sunk by Germany during World War II, and the incident accounted for the Donaldson Line's greatest single loss of life at sea, with 117 civilian passengers and crew killed. The sinking was condemned as a war crime. Among those dead were 28 US citizens, causing Germany to fear that the US might join the war on the side of the UK and France. Wartime German authorities denied that one of their vessels had sunk the ship. An admission of responsibility did not come from German authorities until 1946." (via Wikipedia)
*It should be noted that there are several villages in Ukraine and Poland named Trostianets. The Kucharczuks were from Trostianets (тростянець) in Kostopil, Rivne, located in northwestern Ukraine (the Horyn River runs through the village). Trostianets, Ukraine, became part of Poland between WWI and WWII, at which point it remained under Soviet control until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
"SS Athenia was a steam turbine transatlantic passenger liner built in Glasgow, Scotland in 1923 for the Anchor-Donaldson Line. She worked between the United Kingdom and the east coast of Canada until 3 September 1939, when a torpedo from the German submarine U-30 sank her in the Western Approaches.
Athenia was the first UK ship to be sunk by Germany during World War II, and the incident accounted for the Donaldson Line's greatest single loss of life at sea, with 117 civilian passengers and crew killed. The sinking was condemned as a war crime. Among those dead were 28 US citizens, causing Germany to fear that the US might join the war on the side of the UK and France. Wartime German authorities denied that one of their vessels had sunk the ship. An admission of responsibility did not come from German authorities until 1946." (via Wikipedia)
*It should be noted that there are several villages in Ukraine and Poland named Trostianets. The Kucharczuks were from Trostianets (тростянець) in Kostopil, Rivne, located in northwestern Ukraine (the Horyn River runs through the village). Trostianets, Ukraine, became part of Poland between WWI and WWII, at which point it remained under Soviet control until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
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