Formidable as the Turkish onset had been, a still more serious peril now threatened the expedition. For some days past, rumours of two hostile submarines had reached the Staff. Since all communication was by sea, since the guns were largely furnished by the fleet, and even General Headquarters were afloat, no news more ominous could have arrived. A foretaste of danger was given on May 13, when, in the darkness, a Turkish destroyer slid silently down the strait and torpedoed the battleship _Goliath_, lying at anchor off Morto Bay to support the French flank. She was a fifteen-year-old ship (12,950 tons), and she sank at once, carrying down her captain, Thomas Shelford, 19 officers, and over 500 men. As they drowned, they were swept by the current past the _Cornwallis_, lying nearly a mile astern, and their cries for help were pitiful. The _Cornwallis_ boats saved 56, but only 183 were saved in all.[119] [Sidenote: ARRIVAL OF HOSTILE SUBMARINES] Nearly a fortnight later (May 25 and 27), a large German submarine, U51, which had come round by Gibraltar (others perhaps hailed from the Austrian naval base at Pola), struck two heavy blows in succession. Off Anzac, the _Triumph_ (11,800 tons, completed 1904) lay at anchor, with nets out. Suddenly she was struck by a torpedo, which cut through her nets like thread. In ten minutes she sank, carrying down three officers and sixty-eight men, within sight of the Anzac forces, which she had so finely served. All of the Anzacs volunteered a month’s pay toward the expense of salving her, but that was impossible. The next morning but one, the _Majestic_ (Captain Talbot), 1895, 14,900 tons, Rear-Admiral Stuart Nicholson’s flagship, lying at anchor close off Helles, her nets out, and surrounded by small craft of all kinds, met the same fate. The submarine picked her out as a good sportsman picks out the king of a herd. Fortunately, she was prepared for the stroke, and only forty-eight men were lost. She sank in six fathoms, listing heavily to starboard, and then turning completely over, so that her keel remained visible, like the back of a huge whale, above the surface till near the end of the campaign, when she was blown up as an obstruction. On the same day as the disaster to the _Triumph_, a submarine also aimed at the _Vengeance_, the _Lord Nelson_ (Admiral de Robeck’s flagship), and three of the French battleships. It was evident that the whole system of naval action, anchorage, and supply must be changed.