At 15.08 hours on 17 March 1942 the unescorted Mount Lycabettus (Master Michael Sophos) was hit on port side by two G7e torpedoes from U-373 about 320 miles south of Sydney, Nova Scotia. The U-boat had first spotted the ship two hours earlier in average visibility due to haze and dived to attack but had to surface again when contact was lost, only to dive immediately again when the ship appeared out of the haze at 14.17 hours. Loeser observed the ship through the periscope to ascertain that it wasn’t the announced neutral Swedish motor merchant Gullmaren and decided to attack as he did not see any flags or neutrality markings. In fact, the Mount Lycabettus was a neutral vessel as she was in charter of the Swiss War Transport Administration. The submerged U-boat had to act quickly when the ship changed course towards it, so it crossed ahead of her path, turned around to get into a more favorable position and fired the torpedoes from only 300 meters. The first struck underneath the bridge and the second hit too, but couldn’t be observed by Loeser as the periscope was obscured by water and when the vision became clear again the ship sank with a heavy list to port less than five minutes after being hit. At 15.23 hours, the U-boat surfaced and left without questioning the occupants of three lifeboats seen at the sinking position. The survivors in the boats were never found.