Ninth patrol and SS Caribou Easily the most controversial action by U-69 was the destruction of the civilian ferry in the Cabot Strait at 3:21 a.m. Atlantic Summer Time, on 14 October 1942. The submarine had been in the area for a few days, and sank the SS Carolus the day before, with the loss of eleven lives. Early that morning, Caribou was spotted, primarily because her coal-fired steam boilers emitted a long solid black smoke trail, and was silhouetted against the phosphorescent sky. While sitting in wait on the surface, Gräf launched one torpedo, which hit. The stricken vessel's boilers exploded soon after being hit, and the ship sank in approximately five minutes, trapping most of the crew and passengers in the ship. Caribou departed North Sydney, Nova Scotia, on 13 October 1942, heading for its home port Port aux Basques in Newfoundland. She made this trip three times a week as part of the SPAB convoy series (SPAB for Sydney-Port aux Basques) organized by . The one-ship coastal convoy was escorted by , a . Controversy surrounded HMCS Grandmères actions immediately after the sinking in the local Cape Breton Island media. Instead of searching for the survivors right away, she engaged the U-boat in combat, almost ramming her, and firing six depth charges. Grandmère pursued U-69 for close to two hours, then turned back to look for survivors. During this time, some survivors of the sinking died from exposure in the cold Atlantic. As noted in a dispatch a few weeks later by the Flag Officer of the Newfoundland Force, Commodore H. E. Reid, Grandmère was following normal operational doctrine by going after the submarine, and not stopping to pick up survivors. If she had stopped, she would likely have been sunk as well by U-69. In all 57 military personnel, 31 merchant seamen and 49 civilians — including many women and children — were killed in the sinking, totalling 137 persons lost (most were trapped in the ship, and drowned). The sinking was also one of the few times that military censorship was immediately lifted, in an attempt to prevent rumours and speculation. The sinking made news across North America that week and was used effectively as a rallying cry for Victory Bond campaigns. The sinking was possibly the most significant in Canadian and Newfoundland waters, not because of Caribous tactical importance; but rather, the U-boat war