[1] On 9 December, 1941 she was damaged by a Royal Navy submarine in the Mediterranean Sea, killing at least 300 UK and Dominion prisoners of war, and possibly many more.

A South African lance corporal, Bernard Friedlander of the 3rd Battalion, Transvaal Scottish Regiment, swam ashore with a rope, which took him 90 minutes.

[5] Sebastiano Veniero remained stranded at Methoni, and on 15 December the British T-class submarine HMS Torbay hit her with another torpedo.

[7] In 1947 King George VI toured South Africa, and at a ceremony in Johannesburg on 31 March personally decorated Friedlander with the medal.

Loreto, Nino Bixio and Scillin, Italian merchant ships sunk in similar circumstances, also killing many British and Empire PoWs.

Read, Auckland Museum, NZ Army Museum No Honour No Glory, The tragic Deaths of 162 Kiwi prisoners of War by Spence Edge & Jim Henderson ISBN 0 00 217208 9 Collins Publication Fighting with the Enemy New Zealand POWs and the Italian Resistance by Susan Jacobs .