SS City of Cairo The SS " City of Cairo " was a British passenger steamer . She was sunk in the Second World War with heavy loss of life . She was built by Earle ’ s Shipbuilding & Engineering Co . Ltd , Hull in 1915 for Ellerman Lines Ltd of London . She was long , had two decks , two masts and measured 8 , 034 tons . She was homeported in Liverpool . Last voyage . She was requisitioned during the Second World War to bring supplies to the United Kingdom . Her last voyage , under the command of her Master , William A . Rogerson , was to take her from Bombay , which she departed on 1 October 1942 to the UK , via Durban , Cape Town and Pernambuco , Brazil . " City of Cairo " departed Cape Town at 06 : 00 on the morning of 1 November , carrying 101 passengers , of which 28 women and 19 children . Also onboard were 10 D . E . M . S . ( Defence Equipped Merchant Ships ) Gunners from the Army and Royal Navy . Among the total complement were two spare Lascar crews recruited in India for service on British ships . She was carrying 7 , 422 tons of general cargo , including pig iron , timber , wool , cotton , manganese ore and 2 , 000 boxes of silver coins . She travelled north for , zig - zagging during the day and keeping about off the African coast , before turning westwards across the South Atlantic towards Brazil and her next port of call . She was unescorted and only capable of . Her problems were exacerbated by the excessive smokiness of her engines which increased her visibility . Torpedoed . On 6 November , the smoke trail was sighted by the U - boat " U - 68 " under the command of Karl - Friedrich Merten . At 21 . 36 hours " U - 68 " fired a torpedo at the lone merchant . The torpedo struck the " City of Cairo " abreast of the after - mast . The master gave order to abandon ship and all the women and children left the ship safely , only six people , two crew and four passengers , being lost in the evacuation . The ship , still underway , had stabilised but she was slowly settling by the stern . A distress call was made , which was acknowledged by the " U - 68 " , who provided the callsign of the Walvis Bay station in South Africa . Merten fired a second torpedo 20 minutes after the first , which caused the ship to sink by the stern about south of St Helena . One of the two crew lost in the sinking , Chief Radio Officer Harry Peever , was killed in this strike . He had remained in the wireless room to send distress signals . Once the " City of Cairo " had sunk , " U - 68 " surfaced alongside the six lifeboats that had been launched . Merten spoke to the occupants of No . 6 boat , asked the ship ' s name , cargo and whether it was carrying prisoners of war . He then gave a course for the nearest land , which by now was either the Brazilian coast , approximately away , Africa was and St Helena was . Merten then left them , with the words " Goodnight , and sorry for sinking you " . He privately thought that they had little chance of survival . Journey . Six lifeboats had been successfully launched after the sinking . The larger ones , Lifeboats 1 , 5 , 6 , 7 and 8 held 54 , 54 , 55 , 57 and 55 people respectively , whilst the smaller Lifeboat 2 held 17 people . After assessing the situation , it was decided to attempt to reach the nearest land , St Helena , despite the danger of overshooting the small island and becoming lost . There were 189 people in six boats , each of which had a compass , but there was only one sextant among them . These , along with Master William Rogerson ' s Rolex watch , would be needed for navigation , and this would require the boats to remain together . The survivors hoped to reach St Helena within two or three weeks and water was rationed at 110 ml a day per person , despite the tropical heat . Over the next three weeks , most of the boats lost contact with each other , and numerous occupants died . Rogerson had hoped to prevent a fragmentation of the boats for as long as possible , but as the situation worsened he was compelled to allow one of the faster boats which was short of supplies and taking on water , to press on ahead . The boats also suffered damage , with rudders or masts being broken , causing some to lag behind . Eventually most of the boats had lost sight of each other and were proceeding alone . Rescue . Three of the boats , consisting of the Master and 154 survivors were eventually rescued on the morning of 19 November , by the SS " Clan Alpine " , en route to St Helena . The survivors reported that there were three other boats at sea , but by now were unsure where they were . After fruitless searches the " Clan Alpine " landed the survivors at St Helena , though more would die after being transferred to the hospital . Later in the evening of 19 November another boat with 47 survivors was rescued by the SS " Bendoran " , and taken to Cape Town . These four boats had been at sea for 13 days before being rescued . Of those picked up , one man later died aboard the " Bendoran " , two aboard the " Clan Alpine " , and another four died in hospital in St Helena . One boat with 17 people on board , having not sighted St Helena by 23 November , decided that they must have overshot it . Several of the occupants were already dead and rather than trying to search the area for the island , decided to head west to the coast of South America to the west . On 27 December , after a voyage of 51 days , only two survivors , the " City of Cairo " ’ s third officer and a female passenger , remained alive when their boat was spotted and picked up by Brazilian Navy minelayer " Caravelas " . They had got within of the Brazilian coast and were landed at Recife . The third officer was awarded the MBE and was repatriated on the SS " City of Pretoria " . He was killed when the " City of Pretoria " was torpedoed and sunk by " U - 172 " on 4 March 1943 . The female survivor , Margaret Gordon , was awarded the BEM and refused to cross the Atlantic until the war was over . Another three survivors were picked up by the German merchant and blockade runner " Rhakotis " , which was travelling from Japan to Bordeaux , on 12 December 1942 . They had spent 36 days at sea . One of the survivors then died aboard the " Rhakotis " . The " Rhakotis " was intercepted by the cruiser HMS " Scylla " on 1 January 1943 , who torpedoed and sank the merchant off Cape Finisterre . The two remaining survivors from the " City of Cairo " managed to make it into different lifeboats and survive their second sinking . One was picked up the next day by " U - 410 " and landed at Saint - Nazaire three days later . The submarine was almost destroyed en route , when she was detected and attacked by British bombers . The other " City of Cairo " survivor ' s lifeboat eventually landed in Spain . Out of a total of 311 people aboard the " City of Cairo " 104 had died , including 79 crew members , three gunners and 22 passengers , with 207 surviving . Six are known to have died in the sinking , 90 in the boats , and seven after being rescued . Some of the names of those lost are inscribed on the Tower Hill Memorial .