On September 6, 1939, at 2 pm, the tug Europa I left the port of Lisbon for the bay of Cascais where it met the Dutch ship Eidanger carrying shipwrecks from the British freighter Bosnia, sunk the previous day.

By 4 pm, the 32 men had passed from one ship to another and the Dutchman – who had communicated with the British embassy in Lisbon after collecting the castaways saying that he would head to Lisbon, but did not intend to enter the port – immediately resumed his journey. The Bosnian castaways, in turn, arrived at the port to board the freighter Highland Brigade, also from the United Kingdom, which had arrived in the Portuguese capital and which set sail around midnight on the same day.

The Bosnia was the second British ship to be sunk in the war and its crew was the first to reach Lisbon or any Portuguese territory. The attack took place 120 miles west of our coast and was carried out by U-47, commanded by Günther Prien.

The smoke from the freighter, which was heading towards Glasgow, betrayed its presence and the submarine simply waited for its passage to surface and fire two warning shots with the deck piece with the aim of stopping it, but the merchant changed course and issued a distress call. The next shots hit him, starting a fire.

The 33 crew members lowered the lifeboats, but one was submerged during the operation and killed a man. Prien helped those struggling in the water and collaborated with the Eidanger, who had received the distress message, in collecting the shipwrecked. Then, as the ship showed no signs of sinking, he ordered a torpedo to be fired to seal his fate.

Carlos Guerreiro