At 09.09 hours on 19 January 1942 the unescorted and unarmed City of Atlanta (Master Leman Chapman Urquhart) was hit by one torpedo from U-123 about 12 miles south of the Wimble Shoals Buoy and about eight or ten miles off the coast of North Carolina, after Hardegen had spotted her navigational lights three hours earlier. The torpedo became a surface runner and struck at the waterline on the port side forward of the #3 hold. After a heavy detonation debris fell around the surfaced U-boat in a distance of 250 metres. The ship quickly settled by the stern and took a sharp list to port, making it difficult for the crew of eight officers and 38 crewmen to abandon ship. The vessel rolled over in about ten minutes before any of the four lifeboats could be lowered. The U-boat circled the ship, apparently flashing a searchlight in an attempt to read the name of the ship and then left. Only one officer and two men survived by clinging to wreckage and were picked up by the American railway car carrier Seatrain Texas after six hours.