Bergamot launched a "panic party" in lifeboat no.1, containing 31 men, but the ship lurched to port, both the bow and stern rising out of the water, and she sank too quickly for the ruse to be successful.

and was told to go back to his lifeboat, after having been given a glass of port wine and a cigarette, and after also transferring a wounded man that the submarine had picked up to the boat.

At the moment of the explosion, Bergamot's first officer, Lieutenant Frederick W. Siddall, and her probationer surgeon, Robert S. Smith were both in her wardroom.

Smith piled the wrecked wardroom furniture up in order to reach the skylight in the roof, and then dragged the unconscious Siddall up and out of the compartment.

Smith towed both his casualties to lifeboat no.2, which had left the sinking ship, containing 47 survivors, and then worked on Siddall for 25 minutes, administering artificial respiration, until he again recovered consciousness.

For these life saving actions, Surgeon Robert Sydney Steele Cathcart Smith was awarded the Albert Medal.

Lifeboat no.2 set course for Loch Swilly, about 100 miles away, They sailed and rowed for three days before being picked up by the Admiralty trawler Lord Lister.