Italian submarine fates

Ships hit by Italian submarines

Type	Cargo ship
Country	British
Built	1916	GRT	7,224

Date of attack	20 Feb 1942	Time	0304 2105 ATS/19 (e)
Fate	Sunk by submarine Luigi Torelli (C.C. Antonio De Giacomo)
Position of attack	13° 24'N, 49° 36'W
Complement	73 (4 dead and 69 survivors)
Convoy
Notes	At 1115 hours on 19th February, a vessel was sighted in 16°06' N, 50°35' W, steering 170°. She was travelling fast and the submarine took the whole day to catch up. At 0304 hours on the 20th, two torpedoes (533mm, S.I. type) were fired at a distance of 900 metres. Both hit the target. At 0327 hours, Torelli fired 6 100mm rounds, but fire was checked as the ship was being abandoned (the survivors believed that fire had been directed at the W/T aerial) and she sank at 0405 hours. This was the British *Scottish Star* (7,224 GRT, built 1916, ex *Millais) on a voyage from London to Montevideo with 2,000 tons of general cargo. Her identity was revealed when she made an SOS. Four were killed or missing. Sixty-nine (or 68?) were rescued (fifty-two by the light cruiser HMS Diomede*). The remaining sixteen reached Barbados in lifeboat no. 2 at 1530 hours, local time, on 27th February.