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Because of the rough weather, the convoy was forced to shelter at Lundy, and then Clovelly. By 11 February (not the Persier's best month) the convoy was at the Eddystone, right in the middle of the U boat's favourite killing ground. A lookout saw the periscope, but he was too late. The torpedoes were already running. The first prematurely exploded in front of her ,and the second narrowly missed her stem. But the Persier's luck had run out. At5.25pm the third torpedo exploded in No.2 hold, and she started to list heavily. The Captain stopped the engines and ordered the boats to be lowered. On his inspection he found that the frontholds were completely flooded, so he ordered the ship to be abandoned. As the bows started to sink the stern rose, and a defective steam valve restarted the engines.
Most of the lifeboats, by now full of people, had clustered about the stem and so were chopped to pieces by the Persier's spinning propeller. The Persier slowly moved away from the ensuing chaos, leaving the remnants of her crew marooned onboard. The escort vessels, seeing their plight soon closed with the Persier, whose engines had by now stopped. This happy state of affairs was short lived however, because of HMS Cornellium dropping depth charges in the near vicinity. The shock waves again starred the Persier's engines, and off she went again, slowly sinking by the bows. The escort vessels managed to get the rest of the crew off, and left the Persier slowly steaming towards her fate. When the morning arrived she was nowhere to be seen, and was listed as "torpedoed and sunk off the Eddystone".
The records stayed like that until 1969,when a fisherman using an echo sounder, and his nets, found a large wreck in Bigbury Bay. After some exploratory dives the ship's bell was brought up, and on it was the name 'War Buffalo'. So, gradually sinking, but with her engines still slowly running, the Persier had staggered towards the coast. Maybe she remembered that other February night, when again full of water she had struggled to reach the Icelandic coast. This time however, she foundered long before she reached the safety of the shore, and since there was to be no reprieve, Bigbury Bay became the Persier's final resting place.
Now a days the wreck of the Persier or War Buffalo, call her what you will, has become one of the West Countries best known dive sites. The Persier lies fairly upright on a sandy bottom in about 96 feet of water. She lies roughly north to south, with a large rocky reef about 25 yards to the west of her. The bows and srem are in fairly good shape, but the mid ship section is a bit of a shambles. This is most probably due to periodic scrapping, and the severe storms of the past couple of winters. The visibility is usually about 15 to 20 feet, and the first thing that you notice are the fish. The wreck is absolutely teeming with them, and they all seem to be a good deal bigger than anywhere else. The bows section appears huge, stretching up and away from you. As you swim over it you see large expanses of steel decking disappearing into the gloom. Finning along this steel plain, pushing through the shoals of fish you arrive at two massive boilers. As you start to examine these you realise that 15 feet below you is another exposed deck level with all sorts of interesting holes to explore. Further aft the steel plate gives way to large areas of twisted and jumbled girders. All in all it's a very good dive, and there's still lots to see. But, with a bottom time only about twenty minutes, you have hardly got time to get your bearings. This most probably accounts for the Persier's popularity. It's a very impressive wreck, but it needs several dives to fully explore the wreck.