U-boats targeted East Coast shipping in the first half of 1942 In the early hours of Jan. 12, 1942, wireless stations around the North Atlantic picked up a distress call from the British passenger freighter, SS Cyclops. The 9,076-ton vessel with 181 people aboard was 230 kilometres southeast of Cape Sable, N.S., and had just been struck by two torpedoes from U-123. The Royal Canadian Navy dispatched the minesweepers Red Deer and Burlington to the scene, while the Royal Canadian Air Force sent off a Catalina. Red Deer eventually rescued 93 survivors. No trace of U-123 was found. The sinking of Cyclops marked the start of U-boat attacks on Allied shipping in the Western Hemisphere. Attacks in Canadian and Newfoundland waters were deflected by rapid expansion of the system of esc...