picked up, even though the crew were seen to reach the lifeboats. The boat was attacked twice by a Sunderland flying boat on the 22nd – no damage was sustained. U-69s next victim was Empire Blanda, sunk on the 19th. Four days later (on the 23rd), Marslew was similarly destroyed, north northwest of Rockall. 13 men died, there were 23 survivors. The submarine was depth charged for three hours by the escorts of convoy OB 288 on 24 February. She escaped without any damage and docked at Lorient on the French Atlantic coast on 1 March. Second patrol The boat's second foray was to the mid-Atlantic. She sank Coultarn southwest of Iceland on 30 March. She then attacked and damaged Thirlby, which had been en route from St. Johns, Newfoundland to Hull. The ship had also probably been hit by a torpedo fired by . This weapon was a dud. (The ship was further damaged by a bomb from a German aircraft on 10 April). U-69 returned to Lorient on 11 April. Third patrol The boat's next sortie was to the West African coast. She laid mines off Lagos and Takoradi and made full use of the failure of the allies to enforce convoy systems. One of her victims was the neutral American ship operating off the British port of Freetown, Sierra Leone. The sinking of Robin Moor caused President Roosevelt to brand Germany an "international outlaw" and to require Germany and Italy to close all of their consulates in the United States except for their embassies. Before the sinking, Robin Moors passengers and crew were allowed thirty minutes to board lifeboats, then the submarine torpedoed, shelled and sank the ship. The survivors then drifted without rescue or detection for up to eighteen days. When news of the sinking reached the US, few shipping companies felt truly safe anywhere. As Time magazine noted in June 1941, "if such sinkings continue, US ships bound for other places remote from fighting fronts, will be in danger. Henceforth the US would either have to recall its ships from the ocean or enforce its right to the free use of the seas." In October 1941, federal prosecutors in the espionage case against a group of 33 defendants known as the "Duquesne Spy Ring" adduced testimony that Leo Waalen had submitted the sailing date of Robin Moor for radio transmission to Germany, five days before