Four German destroyers were to be the next victims of the war in European waters.  On October 17, 1914, the S-115, S-117, S-118, and S-119 while doing patrol duty off the coast of the Netherlands, came up with a British squadron consisting of the cruiser Undaunted and the destroyers Legion, Lance, and Loyal.  An engagement followed, in which damage was done to the British small boats and the four German destroyers were sunk.  Captain Fox, senior British officer, had been on the Amphion when she sank the Koenigin Luise and had been rescued after being knocked insensible by the explosion of the mine that sent the Amphion to the bottom.

The exploit of Lieutenant Commander Horton in the British submarine E-9 when he sank the Hela has already been narrated.  The same commander, with the same craft, during the first week of October, 1914, proceeded to the harbor of the German port of Emden, whence had sailed many dangerous German submarines and destroyers that preyed on British ships.  He lay submerged there for a long period, keeping his men amused with a phonograph, and then carefully came to the surface.  Through the periscope he saw very near him a German destroyer, but he feared that the explosion of a torpedo sent against her would damage his own craft, so he allowed her to steam off, and when she was 600 yards away he let go with two torpedoes.  The second found its mark, and the S-126 was no more.  He immediately went beneath the surface and escaped the cordon of destroyers which immediately searched for him.  By October 7 the E-9 was back in Harwich, its home port.

On the 31st of October, 1914, the cross-channel steamer Invicta received the S. O. S. signal and went to rescue the crew of the old British cruiser Hermes, which had been struck by two torpedoes from a German submarine near Dunkirk.  All but forty-four of her men were saved.

The next victim of a German submarine was the gunboat Niger, which, in the presence of thousands of persons on the shore at Deal, foundered without loss of life on November 11, 1914.  But one of the German submarines was to go to the bottom in retaliation.  On the 23d of November the U-18 was seen and rammed off the Scotch coast, and some hours later was again seen near by.  This time she was floating on the surface and carrying a white flag.  The British destroyer Garry brought up alongside of lier and took off her crew, just as she foundered.

Three days later the Bulwark, a British battleship of 15,000 tons and carrying a crew of 750 officers and men, was blown up in the Thames while at anchor at Sheerness.  It was never discovered whether she was a victim of a torpedo, a mine, or an internal explosion.  It is possible that a spy had placed a heavy charge of explosives within her hull.  Only fourteen men of her entire complement survived the disaster.