May 1, 1915 en route from Port Arthur, Texas to Rouen, France the American tanker Gulflight was off Bishop Rock when SMS U-30 hit her with a torpedo in the bows. The ship was abandoned in haste and two crewmen jumped overboard and were lost, but the remaining 35 men made it safely into lifeboats. As they were in company with two British patrol boats the survivors were quickly picked up. About 2 hours after the event the master, Alfred Gunter, suffered a heart attack. All efforts to save him failed and he passed away on the deck of the patrol boat. The ship did not sink and was towed to the Scilly Islands and repaired.

The attack on the Gulflight caused a great deal of stress in relations between Germany and the United States. Still neutral, the U.S. filed a protest with the Germans for the attack against Gulflight and several other ships. The Germans agreed to pay reparations for the Gulflight, but claimed that the attack was accidental and partially the fault of the Americans. They claimed that the Gulflight did not carry the proper markings on the side of the ship indicating that she was a U.S. ship, and that the American flag that was flying, was not seen until the torpedo had been fired. The situation between Germany and the U.S.A. would get far worse in just a few days when the Lusitania was sunk.

The Gulflight returned to service and survived the war, but she did not survive the next war. By 1942 she had been named Refast and on Jan. 26, of that year she was torpedoed and sunk by U-582, ten crewmen were lost in the sinking.