On 23 Feb 1945 the unescorted Point Pleasant Park (Master Owen Owens) was hit by one torpedo from U-510 about 500 miles northwest of Capetown. The torpedo struck in the stern underneath the quarters of the engine room crew. The explosion blew of the screw, killed nine men and trapped 38 others, who were rescued by two officers that broke open a sky light from above. The engine room was slowly flooded through the shaft tunnel and a ruptured bulkhead. 43 crew members abandoned ship in three lifeboats about 20 minutes after the hit by orders of the master. Ten minutes later the U-boat surfaced, fired two bursts from her 37mm AA gun into the waterline of the bow to flood the forward holds and then left the area.

One boat containing the master and 19 crew members made landfall at Mercury Island on 2 March and were brought by the fishing vessel Boy Russell to Luderitz, South West Africa. 29 crew members, many injured, were picked up on 4 March by the South African trawler HMSAS Africana (T 01) north of Spencer Bay and landed at Walvis Bay, South West Africa.