At 11.15 hours on 23 Jan 1941 the unescorted Lurigethan (Master M. Kennedy), a straggler from convoy SLS-61 due to bad weather, was bombed and set on fire by a German Fw200 aircraft of I./KG 40 in 53°46’N/16°00’W, about 280 miles west of Galway Bay, Ireland. 15 crew members and one gunner were lost. The survivors abandoned ship in the lifeboats, but a boarding party later returned aboard in an attempt to save her. They managed to extinguish the fire amidships, but the fire in the cargo of cotton in #4 hold was out of control, the engine room was wrecked and the ship was slowly settling by the bow. The wireless operator rigged a temporary aerial and sent emergency messages that were heard by Milos, another straggler from the same convoy, which picked up 14 men from two lifeboats about four hours after the attack and landed them at Oban on 27 January.

HMS Arabis (K 73) (LtCdr J.P. Stewart, RNR) was detached from convoy HG-50 to assist Lurigethan and eventually found the remaining survivors and the drifting and still burning wreck, picking up the men and staying in the vicinity to wait for a tug to arrive. During the night of 25/26 January, U-105 was attracted by the glow of the fire and while investigating the scene spotted the escort nearby, which was unsuccessfully attacked with a spread of two torpedoes at 02.07 hours. The U-boat then left the area after firing one torpedo that hit and sank the Lurigethan at 03.20 hours.