At 03.42 hours on 22 Jan 1942 the William Hansen (Master Johan A. Skille), escorted by a minesweeper, was hit by one torpedo from U-754 off St.Johns, Newfoundland. The ship caught fire immediately and sank fast by the stern. Eight survivors managed to get into a lifeboat, but three of them died shortly afterwards. The survivors, most of them wet from sea water and only wearing pyjamas, covered themselves with a sail for protection against the ice cold wind and snow and waited until dawn to bail the boat, but it proved to be useless. They were picked up later that day by HMCS Algoma (K 127), which unsuccessfully searched for other survivors before taking the men to St.Johns, where they were admitted to a hospital.