US Navy 2nd Class Seaman Alvin Lindsay was born in Pensacola, Florida on September 11, 1918, the son of James L. Lindsay (1873-1935) and Nora Bell Dixon (1883-1974). His parents were married on July 4, 1899, in Brewton, Alabama. His parents were living in Perdido, Baldwin County, Alabama in 1900 where James earned a living as a laborer in a sawmill. Ten years later, he was doing the same thing in Bagdad, Florida. By 1918, his father was a laborer at the Pensacola Shipbuilding Company as his family grew. Two years later he was still working in timber before gaining employment with the City of Pensacola's street department in 1930. At that time, they were able to buy a house at 521 East Chase Street valued at $1,000. Five years later James passed away in 1935 leaving Nora a widow with a large family to support. Her children consisted of Lillie Bell (1902-1971), Pete, Bertha (married Marion Silvey 1930), Marion, Luther (1912-1979), Bessie, Edward, and Alvin.
In 1940, Alvin was still at home with his widowed mother where they rented a home at 427 East Gregory Street for $22.00 per month. To make ends meet, Alvin and his brother Luther were working as cafe cooks while his sister Lillie was a checker at a laundry plant. Then WWII came along, and it was time to join the fight for his country. He enlisted in the US Navy and was assigned to the ammunition ship Mary Luckenbach.
His ship's history began when the U.S. Navy commissioned the USS Sac City on January 6, 1919. The ship was decommissioned six months later and transferred to the US Shipping Board to enter commercial service. On March 11, 1927, the Sac City was steaming in New York Harbor in dense fog when she collided with the cargo ship SS El Sol. The El Sol was sailing into New York with a $1,000,000 cargo of pig iron, copper, and bales of cotton. The El Sol sank quickly in about 60 feet of water just south of the Statue of Liberty. Only one of the El Sol's crew was killed when the ship's carpenter was last seen clutching the ship's rail as it went below the surface. The ship was finally sold and renamed the SS Black Falcon in 1932. She was sold again to the Luckenbach Steamship Co. of New York and renamed SS Mary Luckenbach in 1941.
In September 1942, the Mary Luckenbach was part of a convoy of 40 merchant ships under heavy escort sailing for Murmansk in the Soviet Union. On September 14, 1942, the convoy was west of North Cape, Norway, when she was attacked by several German Junker 88 torpedo bombers and was hit by an aerial torpedo. The impact of the torpedo detonated the ship's cargo of 1,000 tons of TNT that vaporized her along with her entire crew of 41 plus 24 sailors of the Navy's gun crew.
His mother and siblings were notified of his fate and the circumstances of his death. Today, his name is etched upon the Tablets of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery in Cambridge, England.
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