Meanwhile the master's boat, which had been badly smashed by a shell, was about 350 yards away. The submarine now opened fire with common shrapnel, taking the stern of the master's boat right off and killing eight men. Having sunk the boat in this way, the submarine shelled her crew as they were swimming about in the water, still with shrapnel. Apparently under the impression that he had wiped out the unfortunate men, the submarine commander next opened fire on the chief officer's boat. He fired eight shrapnel shells, and succeeded in holing the boat, breaking the oars, and slightly wounding several men. Fortunately, no one was killed this time. The submarine then proceeded in a northwesterly direction on the surface. The master and the survivors from his boat were taken on board the chief officer's boat, which was eventually picked up by a French patrol steamer on the 16th June. On the morning of the 15th July, 1917, at about 3 o'clock the steamer _Mariston_ was struck by a torpedo. Just afterwards there was a second explosion, which destroyed all the midship cabins, and the vessel began to sink rapidly. When she had gone down, a large black submarine came to the surface; an officer opened a trap-door in her conning-tower and watched the survivors struggling in the water. The unfortunate men called to him for help, but he ignored their appeals, although there were no other ships in sight at the time and he could have rescued them without any danger to himself. There were about 18 men struggling in the water, and while the U-boat commander watched, he saw them dragged down one after another. A shoal of sharks had attacked them, and every man except the cook suffered this terrible death. Meanwhile the German had submerged, leaving them to their fate. The cook, who escaped, remained in the water for 15 hours, being picked up by a British merchantman at about 6.30 p.m. that day. The master of the Swedish steamer _Vanland_ reports that he was attacked by a German submarine at 6.45 p.m. on the 23rd July, 1917. He was 4 miles from the shore at that time, and at once made for land on a zig-zag course. The U-boat chased him, firing continually. Seven shells hit the hull of his vessel, and 20 hit the deck cargo aft, while the port life-boat was carried away and the davits of the starboard life-boat were broken. Directly the steamer took the ground her master and crew embarked in the starboard life-boat; but when 100 yards from their ship, the Germans opened fire on them with a machine-gun and wounded the second mate. The submarine then torpedoed the _Vanland_ and submerged. Altogether 46 shells were fired by the Germans, in addition to the machine-gun fire directed against the life-boat.