At 20.54 hours on 20 March 1942 the unescorted and unarmed Oakmar (Master Nolan Eugene Fleming) was stopped by U-71 with machine gun fire into the bridge and superstructure because bad weather prevented the use of the deck gun. The ship was stopped and the eight officers, 27 crewmen and one passenger abandoned ship in two lifeboats. A first torpedo at 21.20 hours missed due to the heavy seas, but the second fired at 21.39 hours hit forward of the bridge and caused the ship to sink by the bow about 300 miles east of Cape Hatteras. The master, one officer and four crewmen were lost. Two men fell overboard and drowned as they could not be rescued due the heavy seas and the port lifeboat containing four survivors was never found. The survivors in the starboard lifeboat were picked up on 22 March by the Stavros and landed at Bermuda two days later.