went straight
for her, therefore, keeping awash just as we were. They saw the sinking
vessel in front of them and that little dark speck moving over the
surface, and they suddenly understood their danger. I saw a number of
men rush to the bows, and there was a rattle of rifle-fire. Two bullets
were flattened upon our four-inch armour. You might as well try to stop
a charging bull with paper pellets as the _Iota_ with rifle-fire. I had
learned my lesson from the _Adela_, and this time I had the torpedo
discharged at a safer distance--two hundred and fifty yards. We caught
her amidships and the explosion was tremendous, but we were well outside
its area. She sank almost instantaneously. I am sorry for her people,
of whom I hear that more than two hundred, including seventy Lascars and
forty passengers, were drowned. Yes, I am sorry for them. But when I
think of the huge floating granary that went to the bottom, I rejoice as
a man does who has carried out that which he plans.

It was a bad afternoon that for the P. and O. Company. The second ship
which we destroyed was, as we have since learned, the _Moldavia_, of
fifteen thousand tons, one of their finest vessels; but about half-past
three we blew up the _Cusco_, of eight thousand, of the same line, also
from Eastern ports, and laden with corn. Why she came on in face of the
wireless messages which must have warned her of danger, I cannot imagine.
The other two steamers which we blew up that day, the _Maid of Athens_
(Robson Line) and the _Cormorant_, were neither of them provided with
apparatus, and came blindly to their destruction. Both were small boats
of from five thousand to seven thousand tons. In the case of the second,
I had to rise to the surface and fire six twelve-pound shells under her
water-line before she would sink. In each case the crew took to the
boats, and so far as I know no casualties occurred.

After that no more steamers came along, nor did I expect them. Warnings
must by this time have been flying in all directions. But we had no
reason to be dissatisfied with our first day. Between the Maplin Sands
and the Nore we had sunk five ships of a total tonnage of about fifty
thousand tons. Already the London markets would begin to feel the pinch.
And Lloyd's--poor old Lloyd's--what a demented state it would be in! I
could imagine the London evening papers and the howling in Fleet Street.
We saw the result of our actions, for it was qu