The Richard Henderson (Master Lawrence Joseph Silk) had been in station #43, but changed to station #22 in the afternoon as the convoy was reformed into four columns to pass through minefields. The ship was struck by one torpedo on the starboard side, aft of the #5 hatch. The explosion destroyed the quarters of the gun crew, blew away the rudder and screw and flooded the engine room. As the vessel began to settle slowly by the stern, the engines were secured and the eight officers, 34 crewmen and 28 armed guards (the ship was armed with two 3in and eight 20mm guns) abandoned ship in six lifeboats. The ship sank by the stern after five hours.
The next morning, three lifeboats made landfall at La Calle, Algeria. The remaining survivors in the other three boats were rescued by escort ships, among them the South African armed trawler HMSAS Southern Maid (T 27) and landed on 27 August at Bizerte, Tunisia.