At 07.58 hours on 14 March 1942 the unescorted and unarmed Lemuel Burrows (Master Grover Dale Clark) was torpedoed by U-404 about five miles south-southwest of the Brigantine Gas Buoy off Atlantic City after spotting the silhouette of the collier against the bright lights of the city. The U-boat had earlier missed with two torpedoes before hitting with the third on the starboard side between the #2 and #3 holds, followed by a another torpedo at 08.15 hours on the port side amidships. The most of the eight officers and 26 crewmen abandoned ship in two lifeboats, just before the ship was hit at 08.28 hours by a coup de grâce on the starboard quarter, causing the ship to lift and then sink, swamping the nearby lifeboats. All survivors were thrown into the icy water. Only eight men managed to cling to the overturned boat, but two eventually slipped into the water and drowned, while other survivors swam to two rafts, which had floated free. The U-boat surfaced and questioned the survivors before leaving the area.
After drifting for six hours, eight survivors were picked up by the American steam merchant Sewalls Point and seven others by a boat from the American steam merchant James Elwood Jones. Four officers and 16 crewmen were lost. All survivors were landed at New York, where one survivor died in the Marine Hospital at Staten Island.