On the 2nd April, 1916, the British s.s. _Simla_, while making 11 knots, was torpedoed without warning in the Mediterranean. The explosion made a hole in her port side 30 feet by 8 feet in size, and the engines stopped of themselves. This took place at 1 p.m. Boats were lowered, and 150 of the crew embarked, the remaining 10, who were Asiatic firemen, having been killed by the explosion. After the ship had been abandoned a submarine appeared and fired seven shells into her, sinking her at 2.30 p.m. The survivors were picked up by a French patrol-boat at 5 p.m. on the same day. The steamer _Zent_ was in ballast off the Fastnet when at 10.20 p.m. on the 6th April, 1916, she was attacked by a submarine. She was struck by a torpedo in the engine-room and immediately afterwards by another in No. 3 hatch on the starboard side. She had been proceeding at 13½ knots, and sank in two minutes. Three boats were lowered but, owing to the way on the ship, they capsized, and those who could clung to the bottom of an upturned boat. Forty-nine men were drowned; eleven men and two corpses were picked up 2½ hours later, two of the rescued being slightly injured and taken to hospital. The loss of life was due to the vessel being torpedoed without any warning. If the Germans had allowed even a short period of grace, it is probable that there would have been no casualties. To sink a ship while proceeding at full speed is equivalent to murder, and, as in other similar cases, this was unnecessary murder. The British steamer _Whitgift_ was torpedoed and sunk on the 20th April, 1916, but there are no details about the occurrence, as the whole of her crew, except one Japanese, were drowned. This survivor was taken prisoner by the Germans. The only particulars about the sinking of the ship are contained in a letter which he wrote:-- "I am now in Lager Holzminden Barrack 4. On the 20 April our schip has been torpedoed by a German U-boot and only I have been saved by the German U-boot and now I am prisoner." The Great Eastern Railway Company's steamer _Brussels_, while on voyage from the Hook of Holland to Tilbury, was captured by the Germans in the early morning of the 23rd of June and taken into Zeebrugge. The master of the vessel was Captain Charles Fryatt. On the 29th of July the text of a German official announcement appeared in the _Times_:-- "On Thursday, at Bruges, before the Court-Martial of the Marine Corps, the trial took place of Captain Charles Fryatt, of the British steamer _Brussels_, which was brought in as a prize.