At 07.00 hours on 16 Sep 1939, U-33 stopped the unescorted Arkleside (Master Robert William Edmondson) with a shot across her bow about 150 miles southwest of Lands End. The crew immediately abandoned ship, but the Germans ordered them to reboard their vessel and to follow the U-boat because bad weather prevented a contraband control. At 19.00 hours, the U-boat stopped two French fishing smacks and transferred the British crew to them, while a German boarding party searched the Arkleside. At 21.30 hours, the vessel was sunk by a coup de grâce. The survivors were taken by the French vessels to Concarneau, 60 miles south of Ushant.