[_Seth_]

Captain Marcus Grepne. Akabahra served as military transport for Operation Torch. On Jan. 7-1943 she was in station No. 45 (54?) in Convoy KMS 6, on a voyage from Algiers to Bone, having departed Algiers that same morning with a cargo of railroad tracks and crossties as well as misc. food stuffs. That afternoon the convoy was attacked by around 15 aircraft, and she was hit by a torpedo on the port side, probably in the boiler room and started to sink right away (37 07N 04 38E). The port lifeboat was destroyed in the explosion, but the starboard boat was successfully launched, while 4-5 crew members jumped overboard and were later picked up by this boat. An attempt to get one of the rafts out failed as it got caught, but the aft raft was put on the water with 9 men. The captain placed himself in the motor lifeboat which floated free as the ship sank after about 10-12 minutes. All 25 survived and were picked up by the escort vessel HMS Bicester (S.W.F.B. Bennets) which also picked up some of the survivors from the British Benalbanach, a victim of the same attack with the loss of 417 men (she had 389 troops on board, cargo of explosives, MT and petrol). They were landed in Bone on Jan. 8.

From http://www.warsailors.com/singleships/akabahra.html
And also, as Letum asks....Why...?