The American gunboat was escorting Convoy TAG-20 in the Caribbean between Trinidad and Guantanamo Bay when attacked 10 miles south of Curaçao by a German U-boat in November 1942. —under Kurt-Eduard Engelmann—surfaced and fired three torpedoes at "Erie". The Americans spotted the submarine and the torpedoes, then took evasive maneuvers. "Erie" escaped two of them but was hit by the third and badly damaged. Her crew grounded her on the nearby shore and she burned for several hours before the flames were brought under control. American forces suffered seven killed and eleven wounded in the attack. Later, "Erie" was towed to Curaçao's Willemstad Harbor but capsized and sank on 5 December.