At 15.30 hours on 29 January 1940 the unescorted and neutral Eika (Master Kristian Sofus Klausen) was hit on the port side by one G7e torpedo from U-51 and sank immediately after breaking in two about 100 miles south of Cape Clear. Knorr reported that the ship carried no neutrality markings and mistook the freighter with the engine aft as tanker. Only two men survived on a raft, the mess boy Harald Støle and the stoker Alfred Johansen. They were taken prisoner by the U-boat and landed at Wilhelmshaven on 8 February. En route Harald Støle had his 17th birthday and on this occasion Knorr gave him a drink and some chocolate. Both survivors were sent home to Norway one week after arriving in Germany.