At 10.37 hours on 11 July 1943 the unescorted Mary Livanos (Master Theodore Glyptis) was hit on the port side aft by one G7e torpedo from U-178 while steaming at 8 knots in the Mozambique Channel. The master, 33 crew members and two gunners (the ship was armed with one 12pdr and two 20mm guns) immediately abandoned ship as she settled quickly by the stern. 21 men left in the starboard lifeboat because the explosion had destroyed the port boat. The remaining men launched four of the five rafts while the radio operator unsuccessfully tried to send a distress signal and eventually jumped overboard when the ship sank at 10.53 hours. They were forced to leave a fatally injured greaser behind who had been hit by a falling derrick. The U-boat surfaced shortly afterwards, questioned the survivors and took photographs of them. The lifeboat then picked up the men swimming in the water and clinging to the rafts and the survivors began to row towards the nearby coast, making landfall after rowing 18 miles in Portuguese East Africa the next day. The survivors were led by natives to Montomonho and were then transported from there to Lumbo, where a badly injured man was admitted to a hospital.