hree
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 droppd 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. Heretofore the scene of the
latest attack had been thought worthy of mention on account of the
unusual and unexpected places that submarines chose for action.

A new phase of the submarines' activities was opened on March 21,
1915, when two Dutch ships _Batavier V_ and _Zaanstroom_ were