Her last voyage, under the command of her master, William A. Rogerson, was to take her from Bombay, which she departed on 1 October 1942 for the United Kingdom, via Durban, Cape Town, and Pernambuco, Brazil.

The ship departed Cape Town at 0600 hours on the morning of 1 November, carrying 101 passengers, including 29 women and 18 children.

Among the total complement were two spare Lascar crews recruited in India for service on British ships.

She was carrying 7,422 tons of general cargo, including pig iron, timber, wool, cotton, manganese ore and 2,000 boxes of silver coins.

Merten fired a second torpedo 20 minutes after the first, which smashed one of the lifeboats, overturned another, and caused the ship to sink by the stern about 480 miles (770 km) south of St Helena.

After assessing the situation, it was decided to attempt to reach the nearest land, St Helena, despite the danger of overshooting the small island and becoming lost.

The survivors hoped to reach St Helena within two or three weeks, and water was rationed at 110 ml a day per person, despite the tropical heat.

After fruitless searching, the Clan Alpine landed the survivors at St Helena, though more would die after being transferred to the hospital.

On the evening of 19 November, Boat 8, with 48 survivors out of 55 occupants (1 European and 7 Lascars died at sea) was rescued by the SS Bendoran, and taken to Cape Town.

Another three survivors — Angus MacDonald, John Edmead, and Diana Jarman — were picked up by the German merchant ship and blockade runner Rhakotis, which was travelling from Japan to Bordeaux, on 12 December 1942.

The Rhakotis was intercepted by the cruiser HMS Scylla, torpedoed and sunk off Cape Finisterre on 1 January 1943.

On 27 December, after a voyage of 51 days, only the third officer and a female passenger were still alive when their boat was spotted by the Brazilian Navy minelayer Caravelas.

The female survivor, Margaret Gordon (Ingham), was awarded the BEM, but refused to cross the Atlantic until the war was over.

In April 2015, it was announced that the wreck had been rediscovered in 2011 at a depth of approximately 17,000 feet (5,150 metres), and that £34 million of silver, a "large percentage" of the total, had been salvaged by September 2013.