On the 25th November, 1914, the British Admiralty announced that on 26th October, 1914, the French passenger steamer _Amiral Ganteaume_, while on passage from Calais to Havre with upwards of 2,000 unarmed refugees, including a very large proportion of women and children on board, was torpedoed. By pure chance and the greatest good fortune, the British steamship _Queen_ was within a short distance of the _Amiral Ganteaume_, and succeeded in rescuing most of the passengers, only about 40 being killed. Subsequent examination of one of the vessel's damaged life-boats led to the discovery of a fragment of a German torpedo. The Admiralty announcement concluded:-- "This action of destroying with aim and deliberation in broad daylight a defenceless passenger ship, full of refugees, is on the whole the best specimen of German methods yet recorded." On the 10th April, 1915, at 9.55 a.m., the Belgian relief-ship _Harpalyce_ was torpedoed without warning 26 miles from land. At the time of the attack the vessel was flying the Belgian Relief Commission's flag and displaying screens on both sides, marked: "Commission Belgian Relief, Rotterdam," in letters 2½ feet high. The ship had also been granted a safe conduct by the German consul at the Hague. After being struck she went down by the stern and sank in five minutes. Seventeen of the crew, including the master, were lost. As the ship sank, the third officer saw the periscope of a submarine going away to the northward. The liner _Lusitania_ was 30,395 tons gross register; she carried 1,257 passengers, and a crew of 702, making a total of 1,959 persons on board. Of the passengers 688 were men, 440 women, and 129 children. When 11 miles from land on the 17th May, 1915, at 2.15 p.m., the ship was struck on the starboard side, almost simultaneously, by two torpedoes, while a third, which missed the ship, was fired at her port side shortly afterwards. On being struck, the vessel took a heavy list to starboard. This made it impossible to launch the port side boats properly, and rendered it very difficult for the passengers to get into the starboard boats, which were thrown too far outboard. The port boats, of course, came inboard, and some of them, catching on the rail, were capsized. Those which did reach the water were seriously damaged and leaking. The ship sank in less than twenty minutes after being struck, and 1,198 men, women, and children were consequently drowned. Perhaps the most effective comment upon the destruction of the _Lusitania_ may be found in the German Naval Prize Regulations. This is Article 116:-- "Before the destruction of a vessel, all persons on board are to be placed in safety, with their goods and chattels, if possible, and all ship's papers and other relevant documents which, in the opinion of the parties interested, are of value for the decision of the Prize Court are to be taken over by the commander."