About
World War II (1939-1945)
Patrick Henry Finegan, was born in Beekmantown, New York, on November 7, 1891. For the 1900 census, he was living with his family in the city of Schenectady; it is unclear when he departed from the city.
Patrick enlisted in the Merchant Marines and spent most of his adult life at sea. He was noted on one of the crew lists as having an artificial right leg and being without his right thumb. He served as the first engineer on the ship Excello on November 13, 1942, when it was sunk by the German U-181 (commanded by Wolfgang Luth) near Cape Town, South Africa. Patrick was one of two men lost at sea in the incident. His name does not appear on any memorials.
*Merchant Seaman
*Patrick had a sister who was a nun residing in Troy, New York, as well as two other sisters who lived in Schenectady County at the time of his death.
Sources: The Schenectady Gazette, Ancestry