The 2,456-ton ship was built by H. & C. Grayson Ltd. of Garston, Liverpool, and completed in 1920 for Compagnie de Navigation Paquet, Marseilles.

[2] In June 1940 Le Rhin was seized by Lieutenant de Vaisseau Claude Andre Michel Peri at Marseilles and sailed for Gibraltar.

Peri and his crew wished to continue the fight after the Fall of France and Le Rhin was turned over to the Royal Navy at Barry, Wales.

Strelow observed the sinking, and estimated about 300 survivors in the water, but when he made his report later he was asked "whether their destruction in the prevailing weather can be counted on".

[6] This was some months after BdU's infamous Laconia Order, instructing U-boat commanders not to assist survivors in any way, and regarded at the Nuremberg trials as a tacit encouragement to ensure there were none.

[8] A memorial to the men of T Company is located in the Parish Church of St Andrew, Chale, Isle of Wight, near where their training took place.