At 20.00 hours on 16 June 1944 the unescorted Columbine (Master Arne Reidar Simensen) was hit on the port side just abaft the engine room by one torpedo from U-198 while steaming at 9 knots about 25 miles west-northwest of Cape Columbine, South Africa. The crew began to abandon ship in all four lifeboats with some troubles in a heavy swell and moderate seas with a fresh wind blowing from the shore out to sea, but already after eight minutes the ship was hit by a coup de grâce and sank within two minutes after the cargo of timber caught fire. The Portuguese steam merchant Angola was seen two miles on port bow when the attack occurred, altered course and passed Columbine on her starboard side making no attempt to render assistance. The master, 17 crew members, two passengers and three gunners were lost. 28 crew members and one gunner survived: the 16 occupants in the boat in charge of the chief officer were picked up by a patrol craft and taken to Capetown and the others made landfall near the Cape Columbine Lighthouse.