After loading over 130,000 barrels of gasoline and diesel oil at Aruba the tanker Patrick J. Hurley set out across the dangerous Atlantic for Avonmouth, England on September 10, 1942, two days later she was at the bottom of the ocean.

The U-512 was on her first war patrol at the same time the Hurley was on her first trans-Atlantic crossing, their paths crossed on Sept. 11 when, unknown to the crew of the Hurley, the U-512 fired a torpedo at the ship, the fish missed, but Kapitänleutnant Wolfgang Schultze did not give up, he followed the ship until the following day.

It took until late in the evening on Sept. 12, 1942 before the U-boat caught up with the tanker, then, on the surface, Schultze opened up with his deck gun setting the ship ablaze. Men were scrambling to get to their guns, but to no avail, some died at their posts, others trying to get there, but nothing could stop the inevitable. The master, Carl Stromgren, tried to outrun the attacker, but the damage inflicted on his ship was too severe, he fell at his post trying to save his ship and crew.

Lt. (j.g.) Patrick J. Walsh, commander of the Naval Armed Guard on the ship was mortally wounded, but stayed at his post until a German shell destroyed the bridge, he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star and had a ship named in his honor, USS Walsh APD-111.

Those who were still alive got off in any way they could, two lifeboats made it into the water, but some men held on to floating debris until morning, others could be heard by those who survived, but could not be found and sadly were taken during the night by the sea.

Seventeen men were lost in the sinking, including the older brother of Herbert "Herb" Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines in Dallas. However for those still alive it would not be an easy ride. There were injured men in both boats, and the next day the two small craft became separated. The boats drifted and used sail, but it took a week to find the first one.

On Sept. 19 the SS Etna found a lifeboat with twenty-two men and took them aboard, they were treated and taken to New York arriving on Oct. 2. (Etna would herself become the victim of a U-boat only three months later.) The second boat was not found until Oct. 2 when the British steamer Loch Dee found the pitiful and starving men at the last moment. A doctor on board treated their wounds and they were taken to Charleston, South Carolina.

Schultze and the U-512 would sink two more ships, but would never se Germany again, the boat was found and sunk by a USAAF bomber of 99th Squadron and sunk on Oct. 2, 1942, only one of her crew survived.