Video: 'The World At War: "On Our Way: U.S.A. (1939–1942)' (Robin Moor sunk at 13:11)

(Wednesday, May 21, 1941, 6:00 a.m. UTC; during World War II) — The SS Robin Moor, a Hog Islander steamship that sailed under the American flag, was sunk today by German submarine U-69 in the tropical Atlantic 750 miles west of the British-controlled port of Freetown, Sierra Leone, after allowing the passengers and crew to disembark.

The ship’s crew and passengers had been allowed to board her four lifeboats before U-boat fired a torpedo at the rudder and then shelled the vacated ship at the bridge. Once the ship disappeared beneath the waves, the submarine’s crew pulled up to Captain W. E. Myers’ lifeboat, left him with four tins of pressed black bread and two tins of butter. All were eventually rescued.

This sinking of a neutral nation’s ship (this was before the U.S. entered World War II) in an area considered until then to be relatively safe from U-boats, and the plight of her crew and passengers, caused a political incident in the United States when it was revealed on June 11, 1941.