Joseph Winn was born in Chester County but later moved to Middletown, Delaware.
Joseph enlisted in the Merchant Marines, and was trained as a “wiper”. A wiper is a junior crew member serving in the engine room, cleaning the engine room and assisting the enginemen.
Joseph was assigned to serve on the 11,000 ton tanker, SS Atlantic Sun, constructed at Sun Shipping in Philadelphia. On March 16, 1942, the ship was struck by a torpedo from the German U-boat 124 off the coast of Texas. After receiving temporary repairs, the ship managed to reach its destination of Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania.
In February, 1943, the ship was in Convoy ON-165 from Liverpool, England to New York consisting of nearly 100 ships. The Atlantic Sun experienced engine trouble, and was straggling behind the convoy, leaving little protection in the U-Boat infested waters. At about 10 a.m. the ship was struck by two torpedoes from U-607 about 150 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. The ship broke in two. The after half of the ship remained afloat, and survivors returned to the ship from their lifeboats, but a third torpedo from U-607 sunk the remaining half of the ship. There was only one survivor. Read the survivor account of the torpeoding of teh Atlantic Sun.