this happened to me in GWX too, a convoy had obviously been wolfpacked, escorts and ships on fire and such, I'm making my approach and suddenly there's 3 sunk ship icons, nothing to do with me, I guess they finally gave up and and sank
Bit of a bummer when it's a lone merchant you've made a nice approach on like in the screenie
also, you can use this to your advantage, in really rough weather, convoys usually have a few stragglers, already sort of bow low in the water and struggling to keep up, easy pickings for the enterprising Kaleun