At 20.51 hours on 11 Jun, 1941, the unescorted Havtor (Master Kjell Bugge) was torpedoed by U-79. The ship did not sink fast, so the master had time to dump the secret papers overboard and organize assistance for the 9 injured before they abandoned ship in a lifeboat. But they had to leave one seriously wounded man, who had tried to get out through the porthole and was found there unconscious. He had gotten so stuck it was impossible to get him lose. At 00.33 hours on 12 June, the U-boat shelled and sank the vessel after the crew had left the ship. The lifeboat set sail for Iceland, was spotted 5 miles off Reykjanes and picked up by the motor fishing vessel Pilot.

Able seaman Ole Normann Lorentzen was awarded St. Olavsmedaljen and Krigsmedaljen posthumously. He had been on board Hird during the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, had been torpedoed on that ship in September 1940 and survived also the sinking of his next ship, the Beduin in March 1941.