"Imagine their feelings, alone in an open boat without food, twenty-five miles from the nearest land, and that land an enemy's fortress, with nothing but fog and foes around them, and then suddenly a swirl alongside, and up, if you please, hops His Britannic Majesty's submarine E-4, opens its conning tower, takes them all on board, shuts up again, dives and brings them home, 250 miles." THREE BRITISH CRUISERS SUNK On Tuesday morning, September 22, the British cruisers Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue were torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in the North Sea. Each of the vessels carried a crew of about 650 men, and the total of the death roll was about 1,400. The three cruisers had for some time been patrolling the North Sea. Soon after 6 o'clock in the morning the Aboukir suddenly felt a shock on the port side. A dull explosion was heard and a column of water was thrown up mast high. The explosion wrecked the stokehold just forward of amidships: and tore the bottom open. Almost immediately the doomed cruiser began to settle. Except for the watch on deck, most of the crew were asleep, wearied by the constant vigil in bad weather, but in perfect order the officers and men rushed to quarters. The quick-firers were manned in the hope of a dying shot at the submarine, but there was not a glimpse of one. 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.