[3] The voyage was hampered by technical problems with her propulsion system,[3] but she eventually reached Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles.

On 9 August Antilla left Curaçao for Galveston, Texas, where she loaded 3,000 tons of sulphur for Europe.

[3] On 1 September, the day Germany invaded Poland, Antilla bunkered at Cartagena and sailed for neutral Curaçao.

The Royal Netherlands Navy submarine HNLMS O 14 monitored the German ships in Dutch Antilles waters.

This increased the fear that the Netherlands would also be invaded, so on 12 April Dutch authorities in Aruba confined Antilla's crew to their ship.

[3] At 0310 hrs on 10 May a section of Dutch Marines in two boats approached Antilla to board her but Schmidt refused to lower the gangway.

[3] Two of Aruba's crew boarded Antilla, found the engine room and holds 4 and 5 ablaze, and that it was not possible to reach the seacocks in order to close them.

[3] Aruba left Malmok Bay at 11:30, by which time Antilla's list had increased to 30 degrees and she was sinking.

[3][clarification needed] The Dutch Antilles authorities interned as enemy aliens 220 German nationals, including Antilla's 35 crew.

[3] The Dutch made Antilla's crew build an internment camp on Bonaire to house their fellow detainees.

[3] Corals[6] and tube sponges[7] have colonised the wreck, which attracts lobsters,[7] hawksbill sea turtles and many species of fish, including moray eels[7] and blue tang.

In fact between her arrival off Aruba in September 1939 and Germany's invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940 the Dutch authorities repeatedly searched Antilla for weapons and found none.

This was achieved not by negotiation but by Schmidt refusing to lower the gangway and the marines' captain deciding to wait for daybreak.