SS John Barry

The John Barry was an American Liberty freighter during the Second World War.

The SS John Barry was in 1942 at the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation in Portland, Oregon from the stack. Owner was the United States Maritime Commission. It was therefore in the SS John Barry one of the first Liberty freighter. Named after she was one of the fathers of the U.S. Navy, Captain John Barry ( 1745-1803 ). The SS John Barry was 126.8 meters long, had a displacement of 14,100 tons at 7,176 gross tons and could reach a top speed of 12 knots.

The John Barry was torpedoed on August 28, 1944 by the German submarine U 859 off the coast of Oman and sunk. She was first broken on July 24, 1944 by Norfolk out in a convoy towards the Mediterranean. On 19 and 20 August she passed the Suez Canal and arrived on 26 August 1944 in Aden (Yemen ), a. From there she went without protection with the aim of Ras Tanurah on the Persian Gulf until it was sunk off Oman. The cargo consisted, among others, from three million Saudi Riyal A coins made ​​of silver, which had been prepared coined in the U.S. by the United States Mint.

The embossed in the U.S. coins were intended for one to pay by oil workers in Saudi Arabia. These for the most part composed of Sunni Muslims workers were not to be willing to pay in U.S. dollars. Secondly, King Ibn Saud hereby should be paid for the U.S. access to the oil wells. Furthermore, on board 1,500 tons of silver bullion to have found. These were supposed to be transported over Saudi Arabia in the Soviet Union.

In a search operation in the research submarine Cyana the wreck could be clearly identified in 2,600 meters depth in 1992. The silver coins were recovered in November 1994, which was founded for the recovery of the silver treasure of John Barry by Brian Shoemaker and Jay Fiondella " John Barry Group". The silver bullion could not be found, but the ship was not completely searched.