At 14.00 hours on 12 October 1941 the unescorted and neutral Corte Real was stopped for inspection by U-83 about 80 miles west of Lisbon. It was established that they were carrying contraband because most of the cargo was bound for Canada and Australia, so Kraus ordered the crew and passengers (among them women and children) to abandon ship in the three lifeboats. The U-boat then opened fire with the deck gun, setting the ship on fire and finally sank her with two torpedoes at 16.54 hours. When it was noticed that one of the lifeboats was taking on water, the Germans transferred the occupants to the other two boats and took them in tow towards the coast for 3 hours. The lifeboats later landed near Lisbon.