"On 6 August 1940 the merchant ship SS Anglo Saxon left Newport, Wales, carrying a cargo of coal to Bahia Blanca, Argentina. Her crew numbered 41 officers and men, and she was armed with one deck gun. On 8 August she joined the outward-bound Liverpool Convoy OB 195. Several days later she left the convoy and proceeded independently to Bahia Blanca. The voyage was uneventful until on the night of 21 August she encountered the German armed merchant raider Widder approximately 800 miles west of the Canary Islands."