The Araraquara was a Brazilian cargo and passenger ship, sunk on the night of August 15, 1942, by the German U-boat U-507, off the coast of the state of Sergipe.

These sinkings were the immediate cause of Brazil's entry into the war against the Axis, on the following August 22, given the general indignation that took over Brazilian public opinion.

The Araraquara was launched on August 1, 1927, and was completed in October of that same year at the Cantiere Navale Triestino shipyard in Monfalcone, near Trieste, Italy, commissioned by Lloyd Nacional, her first and only owner.

[3][4] In this context, the Kriegsmarine High Command ordered the submarine U-507 to move to the Brazilian coast and there, execute "free maneuvers", that is, to sink any Allied or Latin American vessel, except Argentine and Chilean ones.

[6] By the time of the sinking of the Araraquara, the U-boat had already counted 11 attacks (with ten shipwrecks), including that of the Baependi, which had occurred a few hours earlier.

[3][4] At 2:00 pm on August 11, a Tuesday, the ship left Rio de Janeiro, bound for Cabedelo, in Paraíba, with stops in Salvador, Recife, and Maceió.

It was commanded by Captain Augusto Teixeira de Freitas and carried 177 people (81 crew and 96 passengers) on its initial route, in addition to a general cargo valued at more than nine million cruzeiros (currency of the time).

[1] At 11 a.m. on the 15th, the ship set sail from Salvador and took the northern course, bound for the port of Maceió, now carrying 142 people, including 74 crew and 68 passengers.

Seeing the impossibility of lowering it, I thought about saving part of the garrison, and I went up to the roof of the last awning to look for the rafts, which I couldn't find because they had already fallen into the sea, due to the great inclination of the ship.

I crawled out on the deck, followed by several passengers, and carefully went down the awning rails until I reached the side that was already horizontal, with the ship lying completely flat.

I saw a piece of the awning of the bar and swam to it, where I climbed up and was able to collect 3 more people, being: the 3rd engineer, Eralkildes Bruno de Barros, the deck boy, Esmerino Slina Siqueira, and an army officer, a passenger on the ship.

This is how we spent the rest of the night of the 15th and the whole of the 16th, when, at approximately 2 o'clock on the 17th, the sailor began to show signs of mental disturbance, asking for food, saying he heard the coffee bell ringing, then tried to attack the lieutenant, which we avoided; afterwards, desperate with hunger and thirst, he threw himself into the sea, making any salvation impossible.

At daybreak, when we were already sighting the houses of the aforementioned city, the Continguiba River ebbing and the strong wind blew us out, causing us to fall into the banks.

We struggled with this riptide, swimming always in search of the board, because it still offered us resistance, but as we approached it, we were thrown back into the distance, making it impossible to grab it.

At 21 hours we arrived in the city, and we were received by the people, and then the mayor presented himself, who led us to his residence, forcing us to take a small meal, while we waited for the driver to continue the journey to Aracaju.

As we were finishing our meal, another survivor of the Araraquara appeared; it was the passenger Caetano Moreira Falcão, who had washed ashore on one of the rafts and was picked up by a fisherman.

Several corpses washed up on the beach, being photographed by the police, and, among them, I could identify two: the whaler, Celso Rosas, and the Caldeirinha corporal, Pedro Vieira.

On the 29th, we went by order of the Company to Bahia, where we stayed aboard the ship Itaquera, from where we left on September 4, traveling by land to Rio de Janeiro, where we arrived at 11 pm on the 10th.

It was reported in the city of Salvador that the crew of the yacht and the barge that was boarded, the latter being bombed, identified the U-boat garrison as being of German nationality, thus proving and recognizing the cowards who torpedoed 5 completely defenseless passenger ships within 48 hours.

In many Brazilian cities, there were episodes of depredations of commercial establishments belonging to people from those countries, as well as lynching attempts, even against those not sympathetic to the Nazifascist cause, which were the vast majority.

[8] On August 22, after a ministerial meeting, Brazil ceased to be neutral, declaring a "state of belligerency" to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, formalized through Decree-Law No.