members there: the 3rd engineer, three firemen, and two coal miners. With the ship stopped, the crew began to descend to the three remaining jolly-boats – a fourth one was lost in the explosion. In the meantime, while a distress call was being issued by Captain Diégoli who was still on board, a second torpedo hit the ship, and soon afterward the Germans fired several cannon shots at Parnahyba. According to the ship's captain, if the torpedoes had hit the boiler room (located at a distance of from the engine room – the place hit), the ship would suddenly explode, without giving any chance of rescue to the 72 crew members. Despite the torpedoing and cannon fire, the ship only fully submerged after three hours, at dusk, not before being hit by two more torpedoes fired by the U-boat. The survivors witnessed another shocking scene: a radio telegrapher, who had lingered on the ship, jumped into the water to reach the boats. In addition to swimming well, he was wearing a life jacket, which enabled him to quickly reach the lifeboats. However, when he brought his arm to the edge, a shark pulled him to the bottom of the sea. He was never seen again, leaving his companions in a state of shock. The rescue In the jolly-boats, the survivors saw the weather change dramatically. The wind intensified and large waves nearly sank the small boats. The captain set a course for the three boats, expecting to reach land in a week at the most. At dawn, under heavy rain and extreme cold, the castaways were sighted by an American warplane, which landed to offer water and supplies. An hour later, the same seaplane flew over the jolly-boats and dropped luminous parachutes over them so that they could be located. Half an hour later, guided by those reference points, the Spanish ship Cabo Hornos appeared on the scene and rescued the personnel from two boats. In turn, the Canadian freighter Turret Cap rescued the crew of the third boat. All 65 survivors were taken to Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. References Cargo ships of Brazil 1913 ships Maritime incidents in May 1942