At 00.36 hours on 6 Jul, 1942, the unescorted Avila Star (Master John Fisher) was hit on the starboard side by two G7e torpedoes from U-201 90 miles east of San Miguel, Azores. The ship had been chased since 5 hours and only sank capsizing to starboard one hour after being hit amidships by a coup de grâce at 00.58 hours. A first coup de grâce fired at 00.54 hours had been a dud. The master, 66 crew members and 17 passengers were lost, many of them died when the third torpedo detonated beneath a lifeboat that was being lowered and others were lost in another lifeboat that was never seen again. 93 crew members, six gunners and 13 passengers were rescued: The occupants of three lifeboats were picked up on 7/8 July by the Portuguese destroyer Lima (D 333) (Rodriguez) and taken to Ponta Delgada, Azores. Another lifeboat with 39 occupants was not located until 25 July, when 29 survivors were picked up by the Portuguese sloop Pedro Nunes (A 528) after being spotted by Portuguese aircraft two days earlier and landed at Lisbon the next day, but one of them died aboard and two others after reaching a hospital in Lisbon.