k coal and provisions from the two German steamers
_Alda_ and _Sierra Cordoba_.

On March 14, 1915, she was sighted by the British cruisers _Glasgow,
Kent_ and _Orama_ near Juan Fernandez Island. What then ensued is
in doubt, owing to conflicting reports made by the senior British
officer and by the captain of the German cruiser. The latter insisted
that, seeing his ship was at the end of her career, he ordered his
men to leave her and then blew her up. The former declared that
shots were exchanged, that she was set afire and was otherwise
badly damaged by the British fire. At any rate, she was destroyed,
and all of her men were saved. It was estimated that the amount
of damage she inflicted on allied trade amounted to $1,250,000.

Thus at the end of March, 1915, only the _Karlsruhe_ and _Kronprinz
Wilhelm_, of the eleven German warships that were detached from the
main German fleet in the North Sea at the outbreak of the war, and
of the few ships which slipped out of various ports as converted
auxiliary cruisers, were still at large on the high seas.

Naval activity in the northern waters of Europe did not abate.
The British admiralty on March 25, 1915, had announced that the
German submarine _U-29_, one of the most improved craft of the
type in use, had been sunk. This loss was admitted by the German
admiralty on April 7, 1915. It was a serious loss to the German
navy, for its commander was Otto von Weddigen, he who in the _U-9_,
had sent the _Cressy, Aboukir_ and _Hogue_ to the bottom in September,
1914.

The naval warfare at the Dardanelles proceeded in the same desultory
fashion. A Turkish torpedo boat caught up with the British transport
_Manitou_, and opened fire on her, killing some twenty of the soldiers
on board.

In answer to calls for help from the _Manitou_ the British cruiser
_Minerva_ and some torpedo boats went to the scene and attacked the
Turkish craft on April 7, 1915, driving it ashore off Chios and
destroyed it as it lay beached. But during April, 1915, it seemed
as though there would be another pitched fight between British and
German warships in the North Sea. On April 23, 1915, the German
admiralty announced that "the German High Sea Fleet has recently
cruised repeatedly in the North Sea, advancing into English waters
without meeting the sea forces of Great Britain." The British admiralty
had undoubtedly been aware of this activity on the part of their
enemy, but for reasons of their own d