At 03.38 hours on 16 April 1942 the unescorted and unarmed Robin Hood (Master John A. O’Pray) was hit on the starboard side by two torpedoes from U-575 while steaming on a zigzag course at 11 knots in rough seas about 300 miles southeast of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. The ship had been missed five hours earlier by a first torpedo. One torpedo struck amidships at the fireroom, killing one officer and two crewmen on watch below and caused a boiler explosion that lifted the deck up and folded it over. The next hit forward of the first and blew the hatch covers off the #1 and #2 holds and carried away the foremast. The vessel flooded rapidly, broke in two at #3 hatch and sank within seven minutes. The most of the nine officers and 29 crewmen aboard abandoned ship in one lifeboat, but other three officers and eight more crewmen were lost. The survivors were picked up on 23 April by USS Greer (DD 145) and landed at Hamilton, Bermuda.