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S.S. POINT PLEASANT PARK
Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship (D.E.M.S.)
Point Pleasant Park was a Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship (DEMS). Though manned by a civilian crew, she had RCN sailors on board to man and operate the gun that was fitted to her for protection and convoy defence.
On 23 February 1945 about 500 miles northwest of Cape Town, South Africa, SS Point Pleasant Park was attacked by the German submarine U-510. A torpedo fired by U-510 struck the ship and killed 8 of the 58 crew immediately (another died later in a lifeboat). As Point Pleasant Park began to sink, her remaining crew abandoned ship in three lifeboats at the order of her Captain, Owen Owens. U-510 then surfaced and finished sinking the ship with gunfire from her 37mm AA gun.
Memorial to the SS Point Pleasant Park at Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, NS
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