The _Veria_, Captain D. P. Thomson, was sunk on December 7th, 1915, in the Mediterranean, having left Patras in ballast for Alexandria on the 3rd. At noon on the same day, when about 50 miles from Alexandria, she had sighted two lifeboats containing the crew of a Greek steamer, the _Goulandris_ which had been sunk by a submarine, and at half-past four in the afternoon, it was probably the same submarine that was sighted approaching the _Veria_ at high speed from a distance of about eight miles. Almost at once the ‘U’ boat opened fire, dropping a shell about 20 feet ahead of the _Veria_, when Captain Thomson, having no alternative, stopped his ship and ordered the crew to muster at the boats. On a second shell dropping closer to the vessel, Captain Thomson ordered the crew to take to the boats; the submarine continued to fire as she approached, one of her shells destroying the chart house and the bridge, just as the boats were leaving the vessel’s side. Captain Thomson had already destroyed the confidential papers, and all that the German commander obtained, was the ship’s register. It was at 9.15 p.m. that the _Veria_ sank, her boats being not interfered with and arriving at Alexandria next morning, in safety. [Illustration: ONE OF THE AMERICAN HOWITZERS ASSEMBLED AT THE CUNARD WORKS] [Illustration: THE “AQUITANIA’S” CHAPEL] The next vessel to claim our attention is the _Vinovia_, and high as was the standard set by, and expected of the Cunard Company’s commanders, there were few instances of greater coolness and bravery than that of her skipper, Captain Stephen Gronow, when she was torpedoed in the English Channel on the 19th of December, 1917. She was then on her way from New York with a Chinese crew, and it was at half-past three in the afternoon that the torpedo struck her on the starboard side. As the _Vinovia_ did not at first appear to be sinking Captain Gronow ordered his engines full speed ahead, and made a gallant endeavour to reach the land. At 4 p.m. a small tug came on the scene and made fast to the _Vinovia_, after some of her crew had left the ship on one of the lifeboats. A patrol boat then came alongside, and the remainder of the crew jumped aboard her. For the next three hours Captain Gronow, the only man left on his sinking vessel, steered her by means of the hand gear. At seven o’clock in the evening a drifter approached and the Chief Engineer returned on board to assist his Captain in making a rope fast, and then returned to the patrol boat. It was now quite dark, but Captain Gronow, sticking to his forlorn hope, remained alone on board the _Vinovia_, and continued to steer her and attend to the ropes. By half-past seven, he noticed that she appeared to be making no headway, and groping forward by means of the rails, he found the forecastle deck already submerged four feet. He also discovered that the tug had slipped the wire. In making his way back again, he was so severely struck by a piece of wreckage that for a time