English submarine had
fired on the _Palembang_ in the hope of embroiling Holland with
Germany. This suggestion was instantly rejected by the Dutch press and
people. Negotiations failed to produce any definite result, save to
prolong the matter until tension had been somewhat relieved. The
French destroyer _Renaudin_ fell prey to a submarine in the Adriatic
on the same day. Three officers, including the commander, and
forty-four of her crew, were drowned. Vienna also announced the loss
in the Adriatic of the hospital ship _Elektra_ on March 18, 1916. She
was said to have been torpedoed, although properly marked. One sailor
was killed and two nuns serving as nurses received wounds.

German submarine activity in the vicinity of the Thames was emphasized
March 22, 1916, when the Galloper Lightship, well known to all
seafaring men, went to the bottom after being torpedoed. The vessel
was stationed off dangerous shoals near the mouth of the river. The
Germans suffered the loss of a 7,000-ton steamship on this day, when
the _Esparanza_ was sunk by a Russian warship in the Black Sea. She
had taken refuge in the Bulgarian port of Varna at the outbreak of the
conflict and attempted to reach Constantinople with a cargo of
foodstuffs, but a Russian patrol vessel ended her career.

Another tragedy of the sea came at a moment when strained relations
between Germany and the United States made almost anything probable.
The _Sussex_, a Channel steamer plying between Folkestone and Dieppe,
was hit by a torpedo March 24, 1916, when about three hours' sail from
the former port, and some fifty persons lost their lives. A moment
after the missile struck there was an explosion in the engine room
that spread panic among her 386 passengers, many of whom were Belgian
women and children refugees bound for England. One or two boats
overturned, and a number of frightened women jumped into the water
without obtaining life preservers. Others strapped on the cork jackets
and were rescued hours later. Some of the victims were killed outright
by the impact of the torpedo and the second explosion. Fortunately the
vessel remained afloat and her wireless brought rescue craft from both
sides of the Channel.

The rescuers picked up practically all of those in the water who had
donned life belts and took aboard those in the boats. Many of the
passengers, including several Americans, saw the torpedo's wake. It
was stated that the undersea craft approached t