The Germans continued firing into the sinking ship as the Merchant Mariners drifted by. "In the evening, we looked around," Drayton said. "There were no other life boats. No other survivors. We were adrift for 30 days."
Canadian historian J. Marc Milner told the crowd of more than 450 that German U-boats harassed or sank hundreds of U.S., British and Canadian trade and troop-transport vessels throughout 1942. "The U-boat scourge, it seemed, was unstoppable," he said. "Historians have tried to portray the battle of the Atlantic in shooting terms. It was much more than that."