At 19.56 hours on 30 April 1944, U-307 fired a spread of three FAT torpedoes at convoy RA-59 about 50 miles south of Bear Island, heard three detonations and sinking noises and reported two ships sunk and one ship damaged. However, only William S. Thayer (Master Daniel A. Sperbeck) in station #33 was hit by two torpedoes on the starboard side between the #1 and #2 hatches and in the #4 hold. The explosions destroyed the shaft and the engines and broke the ship in three in the #1 and #4 hold. The forward part listed to starboard and sank in about 30 seconds, followed by the midships section after two minutes. The eight officers, 33 crewmen, 28 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) and 165 passengers (Russian naval personnel) did not have time to launch the lifeboats and abandoned ship on six small square floats. The survivors were picked up by the American Liberty ship Robert Eden from station #35 of convoy and landed them in Glasgow. Most of the Russian stayed on the stern section and were taken off by HMS Whitehall (D 94) (LtCdr P.J. Cowell, DSC, RN), which then scuttled the wreck by gunfire. Six officers, 17 crewmen, seven armed guards and 13 passengers were lost.