d from an airship, the news of which was
brought to England by the crew and captain of the _Blonde_ when they
reached shore on March 18, 1915. This ship had been German originally,
but being in a British port when the war started was taken over and
run by a British crew. Two or three mornings before the men landed
they had noticed a Taube aeroplane circling over their ship at about
500 feet altitude. It then swept downward and took a close look at the
vessel. Two bombs which fell into the water near the ship, were
dropped by the German aviator. The captain of the _Blonde_ ordered
that the rudder of his ship be fastened so that she might drive in a
circle and her engines were set at full speed, with the intention of
making a more difficult target for the airship's bombs. The whistle of
the ship was set going and continued to blow in the hope of attracting
help from other ships. More bombs were near the vessel, but none of
them found its mark. After one more attempt, when only 300 feet above
the ship's deck, the aviator let go with his last supply, but again
being unsuccessful he veered off to the north and allowed the _Blonde_
to escape.

The naval attack on the Dardanelles is told in another chapter, but
the work of the Allies' submarines there included the use of French
submarines, which is not narrated elsewhere. On the 19th of March,
1915, Rear Admiral Guepratte of the French navy reported that one of
his submarines had attempted, without success, to run through the
Dardanelles. The object of the attempt was to sink the Turkish battle
cruiser _Sultan Selim_, formerly the _Goeben_. The submarine submerged
and got as far as Nagara. But she had to travel "blind" and her
captain, being unfamiliar with those waters, struck some rocks near
the shore and immediately brought her to the surface. She became a
target for the land guns of the Turks at once and was sunk, only a few
of her men, who were taken prisoners, escaping death.

On the 19th of March, 1915, the British admiralty reported that the
three British ships, _Hyndford_, _Bluejacket_, and _Glenartney_ had
been torpedoed in the "war zone" without warning, with the loss of
only one man. Beachy Head in the British Channel had been the scene of
most of the operations of German submarines against British ships, and
consequently, when on the 21st of March, 1915, the collier _Cairntorr_
was torpedoed in that region, no unusual comment was made by the
admiralty. Heretofor