Departing Trinidad on Nov. 6, 1942 the Liberty ship Nathaniel Hawthorne and convoy TAG-19 was found by Kapitänleutnant Georg Staats and his U-508. He fired two torpedoes in quick succession both slamming into the ship, one in the number 1 hold and the second hit the engine room. It took less than two minutes before she was gone taking thirty-eight men with her. The fourteen survivors found rafts which were dislodged and floating free for their use and were picked up on Nov. 9 by USS Biddle DD-151 and taken to Trinidad.

For heroic actions during the sinking Lt. (j.g.) Kenneth H. Muir USN was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross and the Master, Richard C. Brennan was honored on May 21, 1943 when the Liberty ship R. C. Brennan was launched in Oregon.

The U-508 was still under the command of Georg Staats on Nov. 12, 1943 when a U.S. Liberator bomber sent her and the entire crew to the bottom.