At 12.00 hours on 18 June 1940 the Sarmatia (Master Anton Ratia) was stopped by a shot across her bow by U-28 and the crew immediately abandoned ship. The U-boat had missed with one torpedo at 11.00 hours and then surfaced to stop the ship. She sank vertical by the stern three minutes after being hit in the engine room by a coup de grâce at 12.10 hours.
The Germans questioned the survivors and gave them cigarettes, a bottle of rum and the course for land before leaving the area. The survivors were picked up by the Spanish trawlers Felix and Pastor Montenegro and landed at Vigo on 21 June.