the ships that was completed
after the start of hostilities had been given the same name.

About the sinking of the _Hawke_ there was less conjecture. This vessel
had gained notoriety in times of peace by having collided with the
_Olympic_ as the latter left port on her maiden voyage to New York. On
the 15th of October, 1914, while patrolling the northern British home
waters she was made the target of the torpedo of a German submarine and
went down, but the _Theseus_, which had been attacked at the same time,
escaped.

Four German destroyers were to be the next victims of the war in
European waters. On October 17,1914, the _S-115_, _S-117_, _S-118_, and
_S-119_ while doing patrol duty off the coast of the Netherlands, came
up with a British squadron consisting of the cruiser _Undaunted_ and the
destroyers _Legion_, _Lance_, and _Loyal_. An engagement followed, in
which damage was done to the British small boats and the four German
destroyers were sunk. Captain Fox, senior British officer, had been on
the _Amphion_ when she sank the _Koenigin Luise_ and had been rescued
after being knocked insensible by the explosion of the mine that sent
the _Amphion_ to the bottom.

The exploit of Lieutenant Commander Horton in the British submarine
_E-9_ when he sank the _Hela_ has already been narrated. The same
commander, with the same craft, during the first week of October, 1914,
proceeded to the harbor of the German port of Emden, whence had sailed
many dangerous German submarines and destroyers that preyed on British
ships. He lay submerged there for a long period, keeping his men amused
with a phonograph, and then carefully came to the surface. Through the
periscope he saw very near him a German destroyer, but he feared that
the explosion of a torpedo sent against her would damage his own craft,
so he allowed her to steam off, and when she was 600 yards away he let
go with two torpedoes. The second found its mark, and the _S-126_ was no
more. He immediately went beneath the surface and escaped the cordon of
destroyers which immediately searched for him. By October 7 the _E-9_
was back in Harwich, its home port.

On the 31st of October, 1914, the cross-channel steamer _Invicta_
received the S. O. S. signal and went to rescue the crew of the old
British cruiser _Hermes_, which had been struck by two torpedoes from a
German submarine near Dunkirk. All but forty-four of her men were saved.

The next victim of a German submari