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Funeral for the chief engineer of the Julia Ward Howe who died aboard the NRP Lima.
(picture: "Vida Mundial" magazine)

The Portuguese destroyer NRP Lima was in Ponta Delgada, on January 26, 1943, when a distress call from the castaways of the American ship City of Flint, sunk by U-575 the day before, was heard.

The Portuguese ship had to travel about 300 miles to reach the place, but before arriving, around four in the morning of the 28th, white lights and very-lights were sighted. It turned out that there were two lifeboats each towing a raft, with a total of 71 people who belonged to the Julia Ward Howe, another American freighter, also sunk by a German submarine, the U-442.

After picking up the castaways, Lima continued the search and at 08.30 hours she spotted the first vessel with 16 castaways from the City of Flint. The searches continued following the instructions of those who had just been rescued and two more lifeguards were spotted, respectively at 10.14 and 11.35 am, each also with 16 men.

They also tried to locate a fourth lifeboat with the support of Naval Aviation, but on the 30th of January they received news of another sinking, 150 miles southwest of Faial and headed towards the area. They saw no one else.

The ten men on the last lifeboat were found by the HMS Quadrant 46 days after the attack when one man had already died on board.

With scarce fuel the Portuguese returned to Ponta Delgada, but they faced growing difficulties. With 119 castaways on board, the Lima faced a strong storm and a breakdown in the boilers almost sunk it. The ship was exposed to the sea, “for 45 minutes, crossed into the waves, it reached 67 degrees of inclination, rocking and falling asleep despite I had, as a precaution, filled the naphtha tanks with water”, clarifies the captains report.