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 480 miles (770 km) 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 2,000 miles (3,200 km) away, Africa was 1,000 miles (1,600 km) and St Helena was 500 miles (800 km). Merten then left them, with the words "Goodnight, and sorry for sinking you". He privately thought that they had little chance of survival.
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