And so without mishap or misadventure the _Deutschland_ fared to her destination, tarried some while in the American port where officers and men were discreetly entertained, the United States being a neutral country then. Suddenly, mysteriously she put to sea again. Many were the rumors of disaster to her—for the return trip was long and beset with peril from paroling and watchful destroyers eager to catch sight of her; but in due course and in triumphant contradiction of reports of her destruction the first authentic news was of her safe return to the home harbor. WEDDIGEN’S WONDER FEAT The Dramatic Sinking of Three British Cruisers by U-boat in the Early Days of the War Early on the morning of September 22, 1914, three 12,000-ton armored cruisers of the British Navy—the _Aboukir_, the _Cressy_, and the _Hogue_—were torpedoed in the North Sea and sunk by a German submarine, with a loss of 1,433 men. The news startled the whole world. It was as if three Goliaths, imposing, formidable, on parade in panoply, challenging the stoutest, had succumbed impotently to the assault of the diminutive David—for it was a solitary submarine that sank the naval giants in less than an hour. So adroit, rapid and precise had been the maneuvers of the submarine that the officers of the attacked warships were of the belief that there were several of the invisible devil-boats, and that the guns of the _Cressy_ sank one of them. Nor did they become the wiser until Captain Lieutenant Otto Weddigen, commander of _U-9_, made report of his exploit on his return to Wilhelmshaven, whence he had set forth for the enterprise. Conditions, be it said, were entirely favorable to him, for the sea was calm, and the weather clear. The three cruisers, unsuspicious, were steaming along in close formation, patrolling the silent sea, and they gave him a famous victory—the destruction of the first warships by the U-boat. There follow three separate accounts of the event as related by three different sources, the first being that of an officer of the _Cressy_, published in the _Manchester Guardian_. [Illustration: © _Press Photo Syndicate._ Crew Quarters Aboard a German Submarine The vast machinery leaves but little room for the crew. They enjoy none of the conveniences found on vessels that ply above water.] EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT BY AN OFFICER OF THE _Cressy_