I had sighted several ships during my passage, but they were not what I was seeking.  English torpedo boats came within my reach, but I felt there was bigger game further on, so on I went.  I traveled on the surface except when we sighted vessels, and then I submerged, not even showing my periscope, except when it was necessary to take bearings.  It was ten minutes after 6 on the morning of last Tuesday when I caught sight of one of the big cruisers of the enemy.

I was then eighteen sea miles northwest of the Hook of Holland.  I had then traveled considerably more than 200 miles from my base.  My boat was one of an old type, but she had been built on honor, and she was behaving beautifully.  I had been going ahead partly 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 so as to bring up in the centre 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.

[The officer is not permitted to give this distance, but it is understood to have been considerably less than a mile, although the German torpedoes have an effective range of four miles.]

[Illustration:  CAPT.  KARL VON MULLER Of the German Cruiser Emden (Photo (C) by American Press Assn.)]

[Illustration:  GEN.  JOSEPH JOFFRE The French Commander-in-Chief. (Photo from International News Service.)]

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 she 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 her magazines, which in exploding helped the torpedo’s work of destruction.

There was a fountain of water, a burst of smoke, a flash of fire, and part of the cruiser rose in the air.  Then I heard a roar and felt reverberations sent through the water by the detonation.  She had been broken apart, and sank in a few minutes.  The Aboukir had been stricken in a vital spot and by an unseen force; that made the blow all the greater.

Her crew were brave, and even with death staring them in the face kept to their posts, ready to handle their useless guns, for I submerged at once.  But I had stayed on top long enough to see the other cruisers, which I learned were the Cressy and the Hogue, turn and steam full speed to their dying sister, whose plight they could not understand, unless it had been due to an accident.