After discharging a load of oil in Rouen, France the Standard Oil Company tanker John D. Archbold set sail for New York in ballast. After making about 400 miles the ship was southwest of the Ile d' Ouessant on June 16, 1917 when a torpedo fired from SMS UC-48 slammed into her side. As the ship was sinking the French steamer Angers was nearing the scene, her master was alerted by a lookout that a large ship was sinking a few miles from his position. The captain, Walter O'Brien steered his ship toward the stricken vessel rather than taking evasive action to avoid the U-boat, which he must have suspected might be in the area.

He approached the survivors who identified their ship as the Archbold, but they declined rescue choosing to wait for a patrol boat which presumably had been sent to their assistance. After leaving the survivors O'Brien said that the periscope of the U-boat was seen just off his bow and a torpedo track could be seen, he turned his ship to avoid the torpedo and he said it "skimmed along the length of his ship about two feet away".

Having turned stern to the subamrine the gunners opened fire. Four shells were fired at the unseen submarine, three missed, but a direct hit was claimed of the fourth shell. O'Brien said "the last one made a great splash followed by a cloud of vapor and the submarine disappeared". As far as O'Brien and his crew were concerned they had avenged the Archbold. However this was not the case, the UC-48 survived until March of 1918 when, damaged by a depth charge attack, she was interned in Spain.

I have not been able to determine the true number of casualties from the Archbold, sources differ from 3 to 5, the number of survivors as well can't be nailed down, but there were at least 37 crewmen and 12 armed guards who survived. It appears all the men who were killed were Spanish nationals, the names of three were published, but the last man's name was withheld because they were not sure of the spelling and as there were two others with similar names the company declined to release the name so as not to panic the families. It is however also possible that only three men were actually lost and the reports in the papers at the time had been confused.