About the fate of the British s.s. _Rappahannock_ there was some doubt at the time of her disappearance, but it has since been established that she was sunk on the 26th October, 1916. In November the Admiralty received a message from the owners of the vessel to the effect that information had been received by them from Captain Cuvellier, of the Belgian Marine Department, that an inquest had been held at Porranporth on a body washed ashore on the 8th November. This was the body of a donkeyman named Theakins, one of the crew of the _Rappahannock_. Then came news from the s.s. _Corinthian_, who reported that on the 9th November she found a quantity of deals, wood pulp, and barrels of apples afloat 60 miles west from the Scilly Islands. These articles formed part of the _Rappahannock's_ cargo. On the 27th January, 1917, Berlin published the following announcement:-- "The English steamer _Rappahannock_ was forced to stop by a German submarine on 26th October, 1916, following a pursuit of some length, and sunk after the crew had been given ample time to leave the vessel. The distance from the point of sinking to the Scillies was about 70 nautical miles, wind and sea were W.S.W. of the third strength. The safety of the crew, who had entered the boats, appeared to the commander of the submarine to be guaranteed, inasmuch as the life-boats were in good condition and well equipped with sails and provisions, and were able to reach land quickly and safely in view of the favourable sailing wind, which pointed towards land, and the slight sea." If the weather conditions had, indeed, been all that the German commander here claims, it is fairly certain that most of the crew would have reached land. As a matter of fact, not a single member of the steamer's crew was ever seen alive again. The inevitable conclusion is that the weather must have been unfavourable, and that the German commander must have known what the fate of the crew would be. On the 6th November, 1916, the British passenger steamship _Arabia_ was torpedoed in the Mediterranean without warning. She carried 437 passengers, of whom many were women and children, and a crew of 304. The torpedo struck her in the engine-room at 11.22 a.m., the explosion killing 11 men. The engines stopped at once, and the wireless was rendered useless. There was no confusion on board, the last boat leaving the ship at 11.37 a.m., and the only casualties were those caused by the explosion. The following message, addressed to Wolff's Telegraph Bureau, Berlin, from a German in New York, was afterwards intercepted by the Admiralty:--