en Elizabeth_, which later appeared on the
scene, were all built previous to the introduction of the dreadnought
and were to a considerable extent made obsolete by that vessel. At any
rate they could not engage the more modern ships of the German navy
and could not be attached to the grand fleet of England because of
their lack of high speed and the heaviest of guns. For these reasons,
although their loss in any engagement against the Turkish defenses
would not be relished by the British authorities, still such a
disaster would not be decisive in any war. As Winston Churchill
subsequently pointed out, many of them would have, in the ordinary
course of events, but a few more years of life in the British navy, so
rapidly were modern battleships deteriorating under the rapid advance
of naval science.

At the entrance to the straits the Turks had erected two major
positions and several minor ones. On the Asiatic shore stood the Kum
Kale Fort, known as the "New Castle of Asia." There the main battery
consisted of four 10.2-inch guns. A short distance down the coast
stood Yeni Shehr, where a main battery of two 9.2-inch guns and a
short battery of smaller pieces had been erected. On the European
side, opposite Kum Kale, stood Sedd-el-Bahr, with six 10-inch and two
5.9-inch guns. At Cape Hellas, the extreme point of the Gallipoli
Peninsula, was the Erteghrul Battery, mounting two 9.2-inch guns and
some minor pieces.

Each of the attacking warships fired about a score of shells at these
forts and an attempt was made to determine just how much damage had
been done. None of the forts were silenced, however, and it was
finally decided by the commander of the Anglo-French naval force, Vice
Admiral Carden, that conditions were not propitious for pushing home
the attack and the vessels retired out to sea, where they maintained a
tight blockade of the Dardanelles. Then there followed a long period
of naval inactivity, at least so far as the larger vessels were
concerned.

About a month later, however, on December 13, 1914, the commander of a
British submarine accomplished a feat in the Sea of Marmora that not
only aroused his countrymen to enthusiasm but as well won for him the
coveted Victoria Cross, the first instance of the winning of that
decoration by a naval officer since the beginning of the war.

Lieutenant Holbrook was in command of the _B-11_, a 316-ton submarine
launched as far back as 1906. It was in no sense to be co