At 22.20 hours on 4 May 1942 the unescorted and unarmed Tuscaloosa City (Master Harold W. Hendrickson) was hit on the starboard side at #2 and #4 hatches by two torpedoes from U-125 about 200 miles west of Negrit, Jamaica. The U-boat had followed another ship since the morning, encountered this ship at 15.15 hours and shortly thereafter dived to attack her. The ten officers and 24 crewmen abandoned ship in two lifeboats, but when the first touched the water the ship still had nine knots headway and it swamped, throwing the five occupants into the sea. At 22.52 hours, a coup de grâce hit the ship in the starboard bow and caused her to sink fast. The men in the second lifeboat were questioned by the Germans, who also let them to the men swimming in the water and gave the course and distance to the nearest land. The survivors were picked up after about 7 hours by the American steam merchant Falcon and landed at Cartagena, Colombia on 8 May.