The vessel was a 4,444 GRT (2,669 NRT, 8,190 DWT, tonnage under deck: 3,992) steel-hulled cargo ship, built in 1929 by the shipyard Akers Mekaniske Verksted in Oslo, Norway, as Fernglen.

The ship was propelled by two 6-cylinder 4S.C.SA diesel engines with a combined total of 624 horsepower (465 kW), which gave her a top speed of 12.5 knots (23.2 km/h).

Olsen & Co. cargo ship Borgå undergoing maintenance in the neighbouring floating dry dock at Akers Mekaniske Verksted.

[Note 3] The Fern Line ships were employed primarily in liner trade, carrying phosphate and cotton to Japan, then sailing from the Philippines to the United States with cargoes of copra.

[9] On 13 August 1933, she ran aground 30 nautical miles (56 km) south of Cape Guardafui, Italian Somaliland whilst on a voyage from Macassar, Netherlands East Indies to Aarhus, Denmark with a load of 7,422 tons of copra.

Öresund Shipyard's work on rebuilding the ship was one of the largest hull repair jobs ever carried out in Sweden at the time.

The Italian garrison unit was the 51st Siena Infantry Division, consisting of 21,700 men, which occupied the easternmost prefecture of Lasithi.

[17] On 8 September 1943 the Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces was signed, and the Italians in Crete and elsewhere were disarmed by the Germans without major resistance.

[18] A minority of the Italian soldiers on Crete chose to continue the fight on the German side and formed the Legione Italiana Volontaria Creta.

[17] On 18 October 1943, 2,389 Italian prisoners were loaded into the cargo hold of Sinfra to be transported to Piraeus on the Greek mainland.

At 22:05, after nightfall, Sinfra was struck by a torpedo near the front hatch, and at 23:00 the ship was hit by a bomb that penetrated the engine room.

603 Squadron RAF Bristol Beaufighter strafed a German Dornier Do 24 flying boat which was participating in the rescue.

[22] As Sinfra burned, the German guards on board locked the prisoners in the holds and threw hand grenades at them.