At 00.30 hours on 21 April 1942 the unescorted and unarmed Chenango (Master Alfred Rasmussen) was struck on the port side between #4 and #5 hatches by one torpedo from U-84, blasting a huge hole in the hull. The cargo caused the ship to sink within one minute 60 miles southeast of Cape Henry. One boat was launched but it capsized, the other boat went down with the ship, like all the regulation rafts on the ship, because they were improperly stowed on deck instead of in quick release racks. Two men managed to reach a raft which had floated free when the ship sank. This raft had been condemned in New York and the only supplies on the raft was water and a fishing line. Twelve days later the raft was sighted by an US Army aircraft in position 34°30N/74°25W. Six hours later they were picked up by a PBY Catalina flying boat of the US Coast Guard and were taken to the Marine Hospital in Norfolk, but one of the rescued men died two days later.

The crew of Chenango was made up of men from 14 different nationalities, they were from the U.S.A., Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Belgium, France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Chile, Columbia and Philippines. Only one Irish fireman survived.