At 17.47 hours on 13 March 1942 the unescorted Trepca was hit on the port side by one G7e torpedo from U-332 while steaming on a zigzag course about 150 miles northeast of Cape Hatteras. The U-boat had spotted the ship four hours earlier and carried out a submerged attack from a distance of only 600 meters. The crew abandoned ship in the lifeboats and was questioned by the Germans after the U-boat surfaced nearby, waiting for the ship to sink by the bow with a list to port at 18.38 hours. 33 survivors, four of them injured, were later picked up by Sicilia which transferred them to the US Coast Guard picket boats CG-2398, CG-4345 and lifeboat 5166 from Lewes Station two miles southeast of the Overfalls Lightship off Cape Henlopen.