At 20.55 hours on 4 Aug 1941 the schooner Robert Max (Master Harry Thomasen) was stopped by two shots across her bow by U-126 near the Azores and was sunk two hours later by 17 rounds from the deck gun and gunfire after the crew was allowed to leave their ship in a lifeboat. They were questioned by the Germans, who offered cigarettes, gave them the course to San Miguel and wished good luck before leaving the area. The survivors reached the Azores after three days and were repatriated from Oporto to Grand Bank by the British schooners James and Stanley and Helen Forsey.