trying to evade the shells, continuously straddled by the Aikoku Maru. A shell was seen hitting her abaft the bridge. Some time later, a second explosion was seen aboard Hōkoku Maru, still burning and sinking. After leaving the scene, Bengal set course for Diego Garcia, where the captain reported the Ondina and one enemy AMC sunk. Survival Bengals captain was right about one thing, the Hokoku Maru had indeed sunk, but after Bengal had disappeared over the horizon, Ondina was still steaming around at full speed. As a tanker, she only had a limited ammunition supply. Aikoku Maru closed the range to , and over the next few minutes scored several hits, one of which was observed by the Bengal. Ondina herself only had twelve shells left, four of which she fired at the Hōkoku Maru, the rest at Aikoku Maru, apparently without scoring a hit. A last attempt to escape by dumping smokebuoys overboard was unsuccessful, and the captain ordered the crew to abandon ship to avoid further bloodshed. The engines were stopped, the lifeboats lowered and a white flag was hoisted, all under continuous fire from the Aikoku Maru. A few moments later, Captain Horsman was killed by a piece of shrapnel from a shell hitting the bridge. Two lifeboats and two rafts were lowered into the water and later, another lifeboat was in the water with the remainder of the crew. Most of the crew (with the exception of officers and guncrew) were Chinese, and they had been troublesome during the whole action, refusing to provide any assistance to save the ship. Aikoku Maru approached Ondina, closing to about and fired two torpedoes to finish the ship off. Both left big holes in the starboard side, but did little to sink the ship itself. Its tanks had been empty and the ship remained afloat on the other, undamaged tanks, despite the 30 or 35 degree list. Aikoku Maru then changed course and the Japanese gunners opened fire on the drifting lifeboats. One sailor was killed, three others were badly wounded. One of them was a young British sailor named Henry, originally assigned to the Bengal. Satisfied with the results, Aikoku Maru steamed away to pick up survivors from Hōkoku Maru. The Aikoku Maru came back once more, firing a torpedo which missed the tanker. She paid scant attention to the survivors, convinced the Ondina was doomed. Meanwhile,