At 17.09 hours on 7 Dec 1939, U-38 fired a spread of two G7a torpedoes at the unescorted Thomas Walton (Master Percy Dudley Townsend) inside Norwegian territorial waters south of Svolvaer and hit her with one torpedo forward of the bridge, causing the ship to break in two and sink. 13 crew members were lost. At 19.10 hours, the U-boat fired a G7e torpedo on the steamer that stopped to rescue the survivors but it became a circle runner that detonated at the shore after 8 minutes. Shortly after this attack they discovered that this was the German steam merchant Sebu, which picked up the master and 30 crew members and landed them at Bodo, Norway.