At 20.30 hours on 18 November 1942 the unescorted Tortugas (Master Rolf Endresen) was hit on the port side by one G7e torpedo from U-67 east of Barbados. The torpedo struck between #4 and #5 hatch and caused the ship to sink by the stern after 12 minutes. The master, 34 crew members and three gunners abandoned ship in four lifeboats and were questioned by the Germans. The master and the first Engineer Trygve Jensen were taken prisoner, landed at Lorient on 21 December and taken to the PoW camp Marlag and Milag Nord. According to the Norwegians, the wife of the master had requested to be taken with him but this had been refused by the commander. Together with 25 other Norwegian sailors the two men were released in November 1943 and sent to Norway.

Initially the motorboat took the other three boats in tow and headed west, but they were soon separated after all boats set sails. In the afternoon of 26 November, ten survivors in the motorboat made landfall at Guayaguare Bay, Trinidad and were later sent to Port of Spain. The same day, 18 survivors in two lifeboats were picked up by the American steam merchant Herman F. Whiton and landed at Georgetown on 28 November. The remaining eight survivors were landed at Port of Spain on 29 November, after being picked up by a Yugoslavian merchant about 50 miles off Trinidad.