Ion Agiu was then transferred to another ship: the Alba Iulia. During April 1944, Alba Iulia took part in the evacuation of German and Romanian military in Crimea. On 18 April 1944, 1220 hours, four Soviet bombers attacked the ship, followed at 1237 hours by other five bombers. One of the bombs fell in the side of the ship, causing a hole below the waterline, while another bomb hit the magazine in front of the command deck. In the same time, the aircraft machinegunned the decks full of soldiers. The sailors started to fight with the water, plucking the hole with bags of wool. The ship leaned on one side and, in the panic that occurred, the captain ordered the men to abandon the ship. At the rescue of the sailors and soldiers in water came Ghiculescu gunboad and two German R-Boot. In the area the destroyer Marasti was maneuvering, but it could not approach due to danger of air and submarine attacks. The water was very cold and the rescue boat was a long distance away. Ion Agiu jumped into the water with his sailor woolen coat on him. It was quickly filled with water and started to pull him down. He had to make his way through the bodies which had risen to the surface of the water face down and in the same time to defend himself from the living who were desperately grabbing on him and cried out for their mothers, wives or children. He was in a very good physical shape and being a sea dog from the Delfinul, he was among the few that made it to safety. He climbed up the rope, but when he got up he did not have enough strength to rise over the board. He thought that it was the end. He looked down and beneath him on the rope there was a German sailor that told him to put his foot on his shoulder. With this help he was able to get on board. But when he turned to help his comrade, he wasn't anymore on the rope. He had fallen in the water and did not surface again. When he was swimming in the ice-cold water he prayed to God and promised that if he got away he would serve Him. Thus, after the war ended he became a preacher. The Alba Iulia did not sink. Abandoned to the waves for one day, it was towed by the destroyer Regele Ferdinand to Constanta. He returned to Bessarabia after it had been annexed by the Soviet Union. Ion Agiu remained until the end of his life an enemy of the Communists, whom he never feared. He preserved his language and could not be Russified, like many Romanians there, except in his Soviet IDs, remaining faithful to the flag and King he had served.