here
were other fires in the same town and at Harrington, none of which did
much damage.

Once more the undersea boat of the enemy had scored. Not since 1778
had the towns smelled hostile powder. In that year John Paul Jones
surprised the guards at Whitehaven during the night, spiked the guns
of its defenses, and prepared to burn a number of ships at anchor
there. The arrival of reenforcements frustrated this plan and the
American seamen were recalled to their vessels. Whitehaven never
forgot, and now it has a new chapter in its martial record.

The Turks were soon to have their revenge for the loss of the
_Barbarossa_ through the medium of a German submarine which, after
more than a year of war, accomplished one of the cherished plans of
the Germans--the sinking of a British troop ship. On August 17, 1915,
the _Royal Edward_, registering 11,117 tons, was hit and sunk in the
Aegean Sea. There were thirty-two officers and 1,350 troops aboard, in
addition to 220 officers and men of the ship's company. One thousand
were lost.

The blow was a hard one, coming after the efforts of the British navy
to protect the country's fighting men. It emphasized the new activity
by German submarines in the Mediterranean. No one believed for a
moment that Austria had ventured upon such an extensive campaign as
recent events pointed to. In addition to the one German submarine
known to have reached the Dardanelles via Gibraltar, it had been
reported that others were being brought overland to Pola and the parts
assembled there.

A good deal of mystery surrounds an engagement off the west coast of
Jutland on this same August 17th. Berlin announced that a fight began
at 2 o'clock in the afternoon between five German torpedo boats and a
light British cruiser and eight destroyers. It was alleged that the
cruiser and one destroyer foundered, without any loss to the German
force.

The British Admiralty was vague in its report of the encounter, saying
that the British ships were mine-sweepers, of which one failed to
return. Like many other incidents of the war at sea, the real facts
cannot now be established. But there is no doubt that a clash did take
place, and the German report was the more circumstantial.

CHAPTER XVI

THE SINKING OF THE ARABIC--BRITISH SUBMARINE SUCCESSES

While the diplomats were laboring with questions arising from the loss
of the _Lusitania_, at a moment when tension between the United States
and Germany