His quarry, Stephen Hopkins, had been launched from Kaiser’s yard in Richmond, Calif., on April 14, 1942, delivered to the Maritime Administration on May 11 and subsequently managed by the Luckenbach Steamship Company. Among the first 20 of an eventual 2,750 Liberty ships to be mass-produced in the United States, Stephen Hopkins was on the final leg of her maiden voyage, which had taken her to New Zealand, Australia and Africa. She was carrying ballast from Cape Town to Paramaribo, where she was to pick up a load of Bauxite, when she crossed Stier’s path.

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Capable of no more than 11 knots, the Liberty ship was rapidly overtaken. Captain Buck’s intention to fight seemed equally hopeless. To oppose Stier’s formidable firepower, Stephen Hopkins carried one World War I-vintage cannon aft, which fired a 4-inch, 33-pound projectile, along with two forward-mounted 37mm guns and six machine guns. Nevertheless, as the confident Germans closed to 1,000 yards range, Buck ordered his ship cleared for action, while his radio officer, Hudson Hewey, tried to get off a raider alert, but his transmission was jammed by Stier.

When the first shells hit, Chief Mate Richard Moczkowski fell with shrapnel wounds and Ordinary Seaman Roger H. Piercy ran to the 4-inch gun and found it being commanded by the ship’s youngest crewman, Cadet Midshipman Edwin J. O’Hara, who normally worked in the engine room. A student at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at King’s Point, N.Y., O’Hara had become friends with the commander of Stephen Hopkins’ 14-man naval armed guard, Ensign Kenneth M. Willett, USNR, and had practiced at the gun during his off-duty hours. That training now paid off, for Willett had been hit by a shell fragment while on his way to the gun. As Piercy helped man the weapon, however, he saw Willett, his entrails hanging from a stomach wound, approach to take charge.

As luck would have it, Hopkins’ first shot jammed Stier’s helm and her second cut a feed pipe in the raider’s engine room, leaving her unable to move or bring her torpedo tubes to bear. Gerlach, however, still managed to bring the American ship to a halt with his 5.9-inch guns, augmented by his 37mm weapons, and wrought devastation upon her. Tannenfels joined in the melee, raking Hopkins’ deck with machine-gun fire. Willett’s gun crew defended their ship as best they could, assisted by the 37mm guns under the direction of Second Mate Joseph Layman. Gun crewmen were cut down under a hail of German fire, but their places were filled by Stephen Hopkins’ crewmen, who kept up a steady fire that repeatedly scored hits on Stier, including several below the waterline. One American shell set the fuel bunker on fire, while others hit the officers’ quarters, both hospitals and the bridge. The seventh of 15 4-inch hits penetrated the crew’s quarters and landed on the diesel generator, setting fire to mattresses and wooden lockers in an adjoining compartment. Another shell knocked out Stier’s electrical power, paralyzing the ammunition hoists. When a hit on the fire mains rendered the fire hoses useless, Stier’s crew had to resort to fighting the blaze by forming a bucket brigade. As the raider’s main engine stopped, Petersen found his best friend, the ships’ doctor, dying. Two other crewmen were dead, five severely wounded and 28 suffered from minor wounds.

Despite the damage Stephen Hopkins’ gunners were inflicting, the Germans’ overwhelming fire was also taking its toll, blowing away one of the 37mm mounts, killing Layman and the other 37mm gun crew, and killing or wounding the entire 4-inch gun crew, save Ensign Willett. As he tried to man the gun alone, the magazine blew up, and he, too, fell. With Stephen Hopkins’ main defense silenced and her engine room ablaze, Captain Buck reluctantly ordered abandon ship.

While the crew was carrying out that order, they again heard the harsh bark of their 4-inch gun. It was being manned by O’Hara, who had seen Willett being carried away as he emerged from the burning engine room and immediately rushed to the gun tub. Finding five unexpended shells, he loaded and fired them at Stier and Tannenfels and managed to score hits with all five. Only after the last of the ammunition had been fired off did O’Hara join his comrades as they went overboard.

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