At 19.48 hours on 25 Aug, 1940, U-57 fired a spread of two torpedoes at Pecten (Master Herbert Edward Dale), straggling less than a mile astern of convoy HX-65B due to engine troubles about 75 miles north of Tory Island. Only a few minutes after the tanker had been urged by HMS Gladiolus (K 34) (LtCdr H.M.C. Sanders, RNR) to get back on her station in the convoy, the ship was hit on the starboard side in the engine room and just abaft the bridge and disappeared in cloud of smoke, sinking by the stern within 90 seconds. The master and 47 crew members (the ship was armed with one 12pdr and one 4in gun) were lost. The first radio officer, an apprentice and six Chinese crew members rescued themselves on rafts that floated free and were picked up after 2 hours by the British steam merchant Torr Head from the same convoy, while HMS Gladiolus and HMS Westcott (D 47) (LtCdr W.F.R. Segrave, RN) unsuccessfully attacked the U-boat. The survivors were later transferred to the British armed trawler HMS Robina and landed at Belfast.