crowded with over 7,000 evacuees, military personnel and wounded soldiers. Four hours after leaving the port of Gotenhafen and while close to the southern tip of the Hel Peninsula, the convoy was attacked by Soviet bombers. During the air raids, a bomb dropped by the bombers hit Goya, but caused minimal damage. After rounding the Hel Peninsula and leaving Gdansk Bay, several miles north of Cape Rixhöft (Cape Rozewie), the convoy was sighted by Soviet minelayer submarine L-3, which also carried torpedoes. While Goya was faster than submarines, the convoy was slowed by engine problems on the Kronenfels, which also necessitated a 20-minute stop for repairs. At exactly four minutes before midnight (local time), L-3 Captain Vladimir Konovalov gave the order to fire a spread of four torpedoes. Two of them hit Goya; one struck amidships, the second exploded in the stern, sending an immense plume of fire and smoke into the sky. The impact of the torpedoes was so great that the ship's masts collapsed on refugees sleeping on the top deck. Within moments, the ship broke in two, fire consuming its upper portions. Shortly after midnight and less than four minutes after torpedo impact, Goya sank, drowning thousands in their beds. Casualties Goya, a freighter not equipped with the safety features of a passenger ship, sank to a depth of approximately . Given the speed of the sinking, most passengers went down with her or died of hypothermia in the cold waters of the Baltic Sea. The exact death toll is difficult to estimate. Authors cite the total number of passengers as "over 6,000", 6,700, or 7,200, although the exact number might never be known; evacuated military personnel and civilians fleeing German enclaves in East Prussia and occupied Poland boarded ships in chaotic circumstances and often occupied all available space aboard. In any event, the death toll exceeded 6,000 and most likely reached 7,000, making the sinking one of the worst maritime disasters in history, exceeded only by the January 1945 sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. The exact number of survivors is also a matter of dispute; most estimates place it at approximately 182 people saved (176 soldiers and 6 civilians), of whom nine died shortly afterwards. However, other figures are also cited, notably 172 and 183. Discovery of wreck The position of the wreck had long been known to Polish fishermen but was not identified and referred