At 02.30 hours on 16 June 1942 the unarmed and unescorted Arkansan (Master Paul R. Jones) had discontinued her zigzag course about 45 minutes before when the lookouts sighted a surfaced U-boat. The ship increased immediately the speed and turned away, but it was too late and within one minute two torpedoes from U-126 hit amidships. The explosions wrecked the radio antenna and the ship took an extreme port list. Most of the crew of ten officers, 28 men and two workaways abandoned ship in one lifeboat, despite of the fact that she was still moving at seven knots. The Arkansan sank after 20 minutes 70 miles west of Grenada. One officer and three crewmen could not be accounted for after the attack. The survivors were picked up later that day by the American store ship USS Pastores (AF 16) (Capt C.L. Andrews, USN) and were landed at Trinidad.