At 09.13 hours on 26 Jun, 1942, the unescorted Jagersfontein (Master Van der Esch) was hit by one of two torpedoes fired by U-107 about 500 miles west of Bermuda. The torpedo struck on the port side between #4 and #5 hold and destroyed the bulkhead. The explosion was weakened by the cargo of cotton. Distress signals were immediately sent and the master tried to reach Bermuda. The U-boat chased the ship on the surface but was forced to submerge by the after 105mm gun of the vessel. But later her rudder jammed as the ship sank slowly by the stern and the engines broke down at 12.15 hours. So the ship was abandoned by the 108 crew members, 14 gunners and 98 passengers (86 US Army officers and 12 civilians, among them women and children) in four lifeboats. At 14.59 hours, the U-boat fired a coup de grâce, which hit underneath the bridge and caused the ship to sink by the stern within minutes in 32°02N/54°53W.
In the lifeboats, they later saw an U-boat surfacing and searching for traces between the debris and they could heard them speaking German. Shortly afterward, the U-boat disappeared on a westerly course. One of the boats had a transmitter, which led the Swiss steam merchant St. Cergue to them on 27 June. The same day, an American destroyer took the 86 officers and 14 gunners off the Swiss ship, which continued with the remaining survivors to Gibraltar, arriving on 7 July.

An interesting story exist about this rescue:
It is said that some days after the rescue, a German U-boat surfaced near the Swiss ship and passed before the bow. When passing the Germans shouted from the conning tower: Hallo Jagersfontein, Hallo Jagersfontein! and the U-boat disappeared.