On the afternoon of January 22, 1940, the Spanish trawler Anton Fontana anchored off Peniche, carrying 10 crew members from the Greek ship Ekatontarchos Dracoulis, sunk two days earlier by the German submarine U-44. They landend, however, only the following morning, after the sea conditions improved.

The ten men were exhausted after fighting a violent sea for two days. Sunk more than 120 miles off the Portuguese coast, the castaways were picked up 30 miles from Cape Mondego.

In Peniche, they were welcomed by fishermen and the local population. Also present were the Greek Consul General, Emmanuel Papamichaeli; the naval attaché of the Legation in Lisbon, Captain Teodoro Lonicios, and Basilio Daskalakis, a police commander stationed in Portugal. They were clothed and fed before traveling by bus to Lisbon, where they were admitted to São José Hospital for treatment of injuries and exhaustion.

Another lifeboat with 12 survivors, including the captain and a Portuguese crew member named Bernardino Costa, had been picked up a day earlier by the Italian steamer Nino Padri. Its occupants were left in Gibraltar. The Greek consul in Lisbon learned of the sinking through a radio transmission made from this Italian vessel.

At this time, the Ekatontarchos Dracoulis belonged to a country that was still neutral. The torpedoing by U-44, west of Portugal, occurred at 4:15 AM on January 20, 1940. Six of the 28 crew members died. The survivors split into two lifeboats that traveled together until the sea conditions separated them.

The first lifeboat to be picked up was the captain's, and when Lisbon received the transmission from the Nino Padri, orders were given to the destroyer Vouga to prepare for a search and rescue operation. Before it set off, the survivors landed in Peniche.

Carlos Guerreiro