The Swedish freighter Garm entered Lisbon in the early hours of Christmas Eve 1940, carrying on board 12 survivors from the Mangen, a ship of the same nationality that had been sunk by the Italian submarine Mocenigo on the 21st, while sailing in convoy from Cardiff, in the United Kingdom, to Lisbon, with a cargo of coal.

Upon arrival, some of the men were taken to a doctor, and assistance to the crew was provided by an employee of the Portuguese Companhia Colonial de Navegação, the Lisbon representative of the company that owned the Mangen.

Among the shipwreck survivors were two Portuguese men from São Vicente, in Cape Verde. Their names were Manuel Joaquim Bento and Manuel Medina; they were 31 and 20 years old, and they asked the Portuguese press for help in locating family members living in Lisbon. Both had already endured attacks and were shipwrecked by submarines or aircraft before the disaster involving the Mangen.

Together with other crew members, they were sent to the Pensão França, on Rua de São Paulo.

The Swedish coal carrier was part of convoy OG.47 when it was torpedoed by the Mocenigo. The force of the explosion and the storm caused the ship to list immediately, dragging into the water the 20 crew members who had no time to launch any lifeboats. The twelve sailors who remained afloat were pulled from the water by the Garm, which was sailing in the same convoy.

Two officers and six sailors were never found.

Carlos Guerreiro