Technical
general cargo vessel
steam - single screw
3,110 GRT - 4,700 DWT
347�6� x 46�1� x 20�1�
Service speed 10 knots

At 10:40 CET Isabela was torpedoed by U-751, which observed a hit after 30 seconds with a high detonation column, followed by an enormous shooting flame. The torpedo struck on starboard at a coal bunker at the waterline slightly abaft the bridge. The explosion caused extensive damage, immediately stopped the vessel and killed two firemen and a coal passer on watch below.

All partial bulkheads on the main deck and above broke and jarred the galley range off its foundation, causing it to fall through the tremendous hole in the various decks at least to the bottom of the ship and perhaps right through the bottom. The U-boat then surfaced and began shelling the ship off the port side from about 350 yards. Four shots were fired before the surviving eight officers and 26 crewmen abandoned ship in two lifeboats; and three rafts and three shots afterwards.

The ship finally sank over the bow with a port side list at 10:58 hours. The men on the rafts later transferred to the boats the next morning and they rowed to Cape Briton, Haiti. One lifeboat made landfall in 18 hours and the other in 30 hours.

Thanks to Walter Janssens for extra information on this page.

Unless otherwise stated, all dates and times are from the German perspective and are given in CET.
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