US Merchant Mariner Able Seaman William Guy Hester was born in Pinckneyville, Illinois on January 7, 1910, the son of William Riley Hester (1876-1923) and Inez O. King (1879-). His parents married in 1895 and his father supported the family as a railroad section laborer in Pinckneyville where Guy was born. The family came to Pensacola sometime before 1910 where his father took a job as a salesman in a drugstore. As the family settled down in their new home, his sister Jennifer "Jennie" Diane would marry Verner Oliver Nelson, a local sheet metal worker.
Prior to 1940, Guy went to work as a merchant marine with the Waterman Steamship Company who had an office in the Merchants National Bank in Mobile, AL. However, after Pearl Harbor those in the merchant marine were considered an auxiliary force to the US Navy. In this capacity, Guy was aboard the SS Alcoa Pilgrim, which was a ship that was owned by the Alcoa Steamship Company out of New York.
On May 28, 1942, the Pilgrim was en route from Trinidad to Mobile with a cargo aboard of 9,500 tons of heavy bauxite ore. Around 0200 hours the ship's Master Leon Roar Petersenthe ordered the unescorted and unarmed Pilgrim to begin zigzagging as a precautionary measure in case there were any German submarines in the area. Little did they know they were already being stalked by one of the deadly underwater monsters. Captain Jürgen von Rosenstiel was in the process of lining up the U-502 for a shot at the lone approaching cargo ship. He and his crew were on their 4th patrol and had been at sea since April 22nd. She had already sent a 5,000-ton British merchant ship to the bottom on May 11th and a 5,000-ton Brazilian cargo vessel as well on May 24th.
Now, four days later he had his third victim in his sights with nobody around to protect her. To conserve his torpedoes, he fired but one into her starboard side and into the engine room. The ship immediately sank by the stern in just "90 seconds" leaving little time for the crew to escape. Miraculously, nine got off and swam to two nearby life rafts but 31 included Guy went to the bottom with their ship. The sub came alongside one of the rafts and inquired as to the name of the ship, her nationality, tonnage, and cargo. He also asked if their rafts had sails and wished the men luck. Six days later, the nine survivors were picked up by the "Thomas Nelson", an American steam merchant.
But in war, the hunter can just as quickly become the hunted with the same results. After the Pilgrim, the U-505 would sink another five ships totaling almost 30,000 tons. Then she headed for her home base through the Bay of Biscay. Just west of La Rochelle on July 6, 1942, the U-502 was sighted by a lone RAF Wellington bomber flown by of all people, an American pilot! Wiley Basil Howell (1921-1990) had volunteered for duty with the British prior to America entering the war. But on that fateful day, he could not believe his luck at actually seeing an enemy submarine on the surface. He attacked immediately before she had time to dive and dropped an array of depth charges that sent the U-502 and all fifty-two of her crew to a watery grave. For his accomplishment, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and would later enlist back home on November 9, 1942 in the US Navy. He would survive the war to become the Captain of the USS Bennington later in his career.
Sister Jennifer "Jennie" Diane Hester and
husband Verner Oliver Nelson
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