she celebrated her 19th birthday aboard. In mid-Atlantic Avila Star found and rescued the First and Third officers and a DEMS gunner from J&J Denholm's cargo steamship , which the had sunk in on 11 June. Avila Star reached Freetown on 28 June. Again she seems not to have found a suitable home-bound convoy, as she left unescorted. On this leg of her voyage the liner was carrying 30 passengers, including 10 women and the three survivors from Lylepark that she had rescued. Her Master was Captain John Fisher. The crew and passengers had a lifeboat drill every day, and throughout the voyage each person either wore or carried a lifejacket plus a red marker light to attach to it. On the evening of 5 July the (Oblt. Adalbert Schnee) started following Avila. At 00:36 on 6 July by Berlin Time, east of São Miguel in the Azores, the submarine hit Avilas starboard side with two G7e torpedoes, one of which detonated in her boiler room. The order was given to abandon ship. The ship's engines and main generator were disabled, but her emergency dynamo was started which restored electric light. Avila Star carried eight lifeboats: the odd-numbered ones on her starboard side and the even-numbered ones on her port side. Crew and passengers proceeded calmly but there was an accident with No. 5 boat, the after fall of which descended far too quickly. The boat was left suspended by the bow, tipping some of its occupants and most of its equipment into the sea below. At 0054 U-201 attempted a coup de grâce with a third torpedo but it failed to detonate. At 0058 the submarine fired a fourth torpedo, which struck the liner amidships. The torpedo exploded beneath No. 7 boat, which had just been lowered with a full complement of passengers and crew. The Second Officer, John Anson, blames this incident for most of Avila Stars casualties. The bottom was blown out of the boat, but its buoyancy tanks kept it afloat. One of No. 7 boat's occupants was the ship's doctor, Maynard Crawford. He was thrown in the air and fell in the sea in a layer of oil far from both the ship and the boat. Dr Crawford was wearing a rucksack packed with medicines, dressings and a syringe to treat survivors, but alone in the water he had to abandon it to swim for