At 13.50 hours on 23 Feb 1943, U-371 fired a spread of four torpedoes at a convoy of three merchant ships with two escorts (codenamed Ropsley) about 30 miles east-northeast of Algiers and heard one hit, followed by sinking noises shortly afterwards. The U-boat had spotted the ships only four minutes earlier and did not observe the result to avoid that its periscope was spotted in smooth seas. The torpedo struck the port quarter of Fintra (Master Richard John Roll) which proceeded at 8 knots as the port wing ship of the three steamers in a line abreast formation. Apparently the hit ignited the magazine of the stern gun and the explosion completely shattered the poop and after end of the ship, killing all five gunners (the ship was armed with one 12pdr and four machine guns) and four crew members. The ship settled so rapidly by the stern that the master, 24 crew members and one passenger (DBS) had no time to launch the lifeboats and jumped overboard after releasing both forward rafts. Just as everyone was clear of the ship, she suddenly reared up until vertical and sank stern first at 13.55 hours. All men swimming around eventually managed to climb on the two rafts with the master and five men on a small one and 20 on a bigger one. One of the escorts approached the survivors and asked if they were all right, steaming off when receiving a positive answer to assist HMS Felixstowe (J 126) (T/Lt C.G. Powney, RNVR) in a counter-attack on U-371, but returned already after 15 minutes because no Asdic contact could be obtained and picked up all survivors. They were landed at Algiers at 21.00 hours on 23 February.