At 17.40 hours on 2 December 1942 the unescorted Amarylis (Master Stamatios I. Polemis) was hit on port side amidships by a G7a torpedo from U-181 while steaming on a non-evasive course at 7.5 knots in rainy weather about 140 miles south-southeast of Lourenço Marques. The ship broke in two and sank within three minutes, so fast that the crew had no time to launch the lifeboats and only a few men managed to reach the rafts that floated free. The master, 26 crew members and two gunners (the ship was armed with five machine guns) were lost. The U-boat went to a raft with six survivors and the commander questioned the second officer. On this opportunity the Germans took a drowning sheep aboard for fresh meat. The eight surviving crew members were rescued by the Portuguese sloop Gonçalves Zarco on 8 December and taken to Lobito.