At 08.27 hours on 18 March 1942 the unescorted and unarmed E.M. Clark (Master Hubert L. Hassell) was hit by one torpedo from U-124 about 22 miles southwest of the Diamond Shoals Lighted Buoy, as she was proceeding completely blacked out at 10.5 knots in a moderately rough sea. Thunderstorms in the area had generated enough light to silhouette her. The torpedo struck the port side amidships, eight to ten feet below the waterline. The explosion damaged the area around the bridge, destroyed one lifeboat and the radio antenna. An attempt to repair the antenna was unsuccessful, because a second torpedo struck the port side at the forward hold and caused the ship to sink ten minutes after the first hit. All but a mess in the crew of eight officers and 33 men abandoned ship in two lifeboat, while the whistle of the ship jammed and roared continuously. 26 men in the first lifeboat were picked up by the Venezuelan steam tanker Catatumbo and landed at Cape Henry. The remaining survivors in the other boat were picked up by USS Dickerson (DD 157) and transferred them to the motor surfboat USCGC CG-5426 from the Ocracoke US Coast Guard station, which took these men ashore.