stanchions being damaged; the crew had to slow the ship and found it difficult to steer, the ship following an erratic ourse. Antonio rescued 67 shipwrecked mariners and eventually anchored at Weymouth at The Dutch steamer Deucalion was bombed and sunk south south-west of Portland, 27 survivors being amongst those picked up by Antonio. Britsum, also Dutch, was sunk by bombers off Selsey at and the Estonian Kolga was bombed and sunk at with the loss of one crewman. The British Fairwater was hit and damaged by bombs at ; Argos Hill, Briarwood and TS Lifland were damaged by bombs off Portland. Eastmoor was bombed off Portland Bill and King Frederick suffered bomb damage at , Irene Maria was damaged by bombs at . Flimstone reached Portland Harbour and the rest of the convoy was reduced to a disorganised condition. The convoy commodore, R. P. Galer, ordered the remnants of the convoy to run for the shelter of the Portland Harbour defences but these had been attacked in the morning. When OA 178 came into sight of Portland, three merchant ships in the harbour had already been damaged and the confined space of the harbour would have been a death-trap for the forty ships left in the convoy and it was turned away. No RAF Fighter Command aircraft had appeared to protect the convoy and during the evening, S 19, S 20, S 24 and S 26 (E-Boats to the British) of 1. (commanded by Birnbacher in S 24) sailed. Night 4/5 July Near midnight, the E-Boat S 19 torpedoed Elmcrest south of Portland which took on a list as the crew abandoned ship. The fired its other torpedo at the starboard side as the lifeboat was being rowed clear; the torpedo passed underneath the lifeboat before hitting the ship and the lifeboat capsized, sixteen men being drowned; survivors were rescued by destroyer . Soon afterwards, S 20 (Götz von Mirbach) and S 26 hit the tanker British Corporal with two torpedoes at . Two crewmen were killed and the ship was abandoned but did not sink and was later towed into port. Hartlepool was torpedoed by S 26 and abandoned, south, south-west of Portland, apparently in a sinking condition, the survivors being rescued by destroyer ; the ship was later beached at Weymouth. 5–6 July On 5 July, OA 178 was reinforced by the destroyer until 6 July when