Meanwhile the Aboukir’s sister cruisers, more than a mile away, saw and heard the explosion and thought the Aboukir had struck a mine.  They closed in and lowered boats.  This sealed their own fate, for, while they were standing by to rescue survivors, first the Hogue and then the Cressy was torpedoed.

Only the Cressy appears to have seen the submarine in time to attempt to retaliate, and she fired a few shots before she keeled over, broken in two, and sank.

British naval officers by this time were beginning to wonder how long the German high seas fleet intended to remain under cover in the Kiel canal.

“Our only grievance,” one said, “is that we have not had a shot at the Germans.  Our only share of the war has been a few uncomfortable weeks of bad weather, mines and submarines.”

A number of the survivors were taken to the Dutch port of Ymuiden, where they were interned as technical prisoners of war.

THE GERMAN COMMANDER’S STORY

The German submarine which accomplished the hitherto unparalleled feat was the U-9, in command of Capt.-Lieut.  Otto Weddigen, whose interesting story was given to the public through the German Admiralty on October 6, as follows: 

“I set out from a North Sea port on one of the arms of the Kiel canal and set my course in a southwesterly direction.  The name of the port I cannot state officially, but it was not many days before the morning of September 22 when I fell in with my quarry.

“British torpedo-boats came within my reach, but I felt there was bigger game further on, so on I went.  It was ten minutes after six in the morning of the 22nd when I caught sight of one of the big cruisers of the enemy.

“I was then eighteen sea miles northwesterly of the Hook of Holland.  I had traveled considerably more than 200 miles from my base.  I had been going ahead partially submerged, with about five feet of my periscope showing.

“Almost immediately I caught sight of the first cruiser and two others.  I submerged completely and laid my course in order to bring up in center of the trio, which held a sort of triangular formation.  I could see their gray-black sides riding high over the water.

“When I first sighted them they were near enough for torpedo work, but I wanted to make my aim sure, so I went down and in on them.  I had taken the position of the three ships before submerging, and I succeeded in getting another flash through my periscope before I began action.  I soon reached what I regarded as a good shooting point.

“Then I loosed one of my torpedoes at the middle ship.  I was then about twelve feet under water and got the shot off in good shape, my men handling the boat as if it had been a skiff.  I climbed to the surface to get a sight through my tube of the effect and discovered that the shot had gone straight and true, striking the ship, which I later learned was the Aboukir, under one of its magazines, which in exploding helped the torpedo’s work of destruction.