At 12.08 and 12.09 hours on 4 Mar, 1940, U-29 fired one torpedo each at two ships in a group of three dispersed from convoy HX-19 and observed a hit on the Pacific Reliance and a small detonation near the second (the xB-Dienst reported the sinking of the San Florentino, but the vessel was in fact not hit). The torpedoed vessel first stopped and the crew prepared to launch the lifeboats, but then returned to the ship and proceeded. The U-boat hit the her with a stern torpedo at 12.39 hours, which was a dud. However the ship broke in two amidships and sank slowly north of Lands End.

The Pacific Reliance (Master Evan Owen Evan) had been the ship of the convoy commodore R.P. Galer CBE RNR RD. The master, the commodore, four naval staff members and 47 crew members were picked up by the British merchant Macville and landed at Newlyn, Cornwall.