The _Vulcana_ was a British trawler, although, from the savageness of the German attack, it might have been thought that she was a warship. The lives of the skipper and trimmer were sacrificed to German blood lust. The trawler could have been sunk without any loss of life. On the morning of the 7th February, 1917, the British steamers _St. Ninian_ and _Corsican Prince_ were within a quarter of a mile of one another. A U-boat torpedoed the _Corsican Prince_, striking No. 3 hold and bursting her engine-room bulkhead. The _St. Ninian_ was then sunk. She went down in five minutes. Both ships were torpedoed without warning, the casualties being 15 in the case of the _St. Ninian_ and one in the _Corsican Prince_. The British steamship _California_ carried 32 passengers and a crew of 171 hands; she was bound from New York to Glasgow. On the morning of the 7th February, 1917, the weather was fine and clear, the wind was N.E., and there was a heavy swell running. At 9.30 a.m., the master and two junior officers being on the bridge, a periscope was sighted about 250 yards away on the port quarter. The master at once ordered the helm hard aport and an S.O.S. signal to be sent out, but before the vessel had paid off 3 points a torpedo struck her on the port quarter, about No. 4 hatch, and the submarine was not seen again. The engine-room was flooded. Boats were lowered on both sides to the level of the bridge deck to embark the passengers; but the ship was settling down quickly by the stern, and before the boats could be lowered they were afloat. A number of passengers were in the boats when they took the water, and one on the starboard side was overturned, the passengers being thrown into the water. Another boat, which had to be cut loose, threw three people into the water. Ten boats got clear of the ship, which sank at 9.30 a.m., the master remaining on the bridge. He was picked up half-an-hour later by one of the boats. A patrol-boat had taken in the S.O.S. signal and arrived on the scene in time to rescue 160 survivors. Forty-three lives were lost by drowning and injuries, and there were thirty cot cases among the survivors. A few facts reveal the tragic side of the occurrence. Seven women and four children were killed; three young children were saved, their mother being lost; one small boy was saved, while the bodies of his mother, brother, and sister were afterwards washed ashore. The facts speak for themselves and make comment almost superfluous. The passengers and crew never got a fair chance of saving themselves, as the vessel was torpedoed without any kind of warning.