At 01.23 hours on 4 December 1939 the unescorted Gimle (Master Nils Dahl Nielsen) was torpedoed and sunk by U-31 about 130 miles east of Aberdeen. The ship was struck by one torpedo near #3 hatch and soon listed heavily to starboard. All the lights went out and the starboard lifeboat was destroyed, but the survivors managed to launch the port boat. The master and two men were fished up from the water by the boat. The damaged motorboat with one man had floated free, as well as a raft with another man. The lifeboat with 13 survivors took the raft with three survivors in tow. Several of the survivors were not properly dressed, so they had to sit barefoot in the ice cold water which collected on the bottom. By the time they were rescued they had developed large sores, and were very swollen. Due to stormy weather with heavy seas the tow kept breaking so the men on the raft were transferred into the boat in the afternoon of the 5 December and they dropped a sea anchor. The next morning they set sail for the Scottish coast. At least 14 vessels passed them until they were picked up on 7 December by the Rudolf and taken to Arendal.