After steaming from Corfu at 13:30 on 22 October 1946, the destroyers "Saumarez" and "Volage" and the cruisers and approached Kepi Denta (Denta Point) at the southern edge of the Bay of Saranda. At 14:47, the lead ship, "Mauritius" signalled a port turn and a new course of 310 degrees. A reconstructed track course in Leggett (1976:36) depicts the turn outside the bay while Meçollari (2009:96–99) reconstructs the turn past the point and inside the bay. At 14:53 hours, while underway on this new course, "Saumarez" struck a mine, later determined to be a German EMC (GY in British nomenclature) contact mine of Second World War manufacture. The EMC was a spherical weapon 44 in (1.12 m) in diameter with seven Hertz horns (a German-invented chemical detonator that closed the circuit for firing) with a charge of 661 lbs (300 kg) (Campbell 1985:270). The blast occurred a few feet forward of the bridge on the starboard side, opening an approximately "thirty-foot section…from the keel to just below the bridge" to the sea (Leggett 1976:35). "Saumarez" stopped and began to drift, with a fire from spilled fuel engulfing the bow area as the bow, flooded from the explosion damage, settled beneath the surface. "Volage" approached to assist and take "Saumarez" in tow. After one failed attempt (the line parted) a new towline was secured and "Volage" proceeded to tow "Saumarez" at 15:30 (Leggett 1976:60–61).