Francisco Teodoro died aboard the Swedish neutral freighter Stureborg, traveling under the flag of the International Red Cross, when - on 14 June 1942 off the island of Cyprus - the ship was attacked and sunk by Italian aircraft.

The Portuguese was one of the eleven crew members who died during the sinking. Two other Portuguese - Alfredo da Silva Martins and António Amaral - managed to climb onto a raft with eight other crew members, but only the last one would survive.

The Stureborg was one of several neutral ships in service of the International Red Cross engaged in humanitarian operations transporting supplies, mail and parcels for prisoners. In this case, the ship was coming from the port of Piraeus, in Greece, where it had unloaded foodstuffs to help the population.

Carlos Guerreiro