Hogue and Cressy approached to pick up survivors, throwing anything that would float into the water for the survivors to cling to. On September 22, 1914, the sister ships HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue, and HMS Cressy were patrolling off the Dutch coast, tasked with supporting the naval blockade against Germany. – the Hogue is seen dropping boats to pick up survivors,  A contemporary illustration of the Aboukir’s end Length: 472 feet Dutch fishing trawlers were in the area, but remained at a distance until 8:30 when the steamship Flora from Rotterdam arrived and rescued 286 men. SINKING OF CRUISERS ABOUKIR, HOGUE, CRESSY OF DUTCH COAST by U.9 . Details of the Cressy class, of which Cruiser Force C was composed, were as follow: Displacement: 12,000 tons In a family letter he recounted in appalling detail what he had heard from members of the local lifeboat about the state of the human remains found when the area was searched. Henry Charles Wickenden, was lost with the HMS Cressy on 22 September 1914. At 7:20, Cressy sighted a torpedo track, and the order was given "full speed ahead both", too late. And because they never sighted periscopes, they no longer zigzagged. Weddigen still had three torpedoes left, two aft, one forward. At the outbreak of war in 1914 all major navies had small numbers of submarines. In 1907 she was transferred to the North America and West Indies Station before being placed in reserve in 1909. A quick appraisal led Weddigen to order diving but he continues to observe through his periscope. Click here to return to Steam, Steel and Strife, Disaster 1914: The loss of HMS Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue. Primary Documents - Sinking of the Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue by the U-9, 22 September 1914 Reproduced below is a memoir of the sinking of three British cruisers - the Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue - by a single German U-boat, U-9, on 22 September 1914. Engines: Triple Expansion, 21,000 hp Through his periscope he could see the surface strewn it wreckage, bodies, swimmers and overcrowded boats. The lessons of the Pathfinder, Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue sinkings still did not appear to have been learned at the Admiralty. Hit on the starboard side, the cruiser heeled over, then began to right herself.  Some ten minutes later Weddigen fired his last torpedo from its bow tube. The impact on neutral opinion was equally powerful. Only one boat got away, the others either wrecked by the explosion or impossible to launch. Self-propelled torpedoes dramatically increased effectiveness of submarine warships. As Hawke got under way again – without zigzagging – Weddigen sank her with a single torpedo. Zigzagging at 13 knots was made mandatory for all large warships in submarine waters. Britain’s armoured cruisers can be fairly described as the most unsuccessful and unfortunate type of warship ever employed by the Royal Navy. All three cruisers sank within ninety minutes, with the total loss of 1,459 lives. Smoke was seen on the horizon and the U-9’s engines were immediately shut down to get rid of their exhaust plume. At 7:30, a third torpedo hit Cressy on the port beam, rupturing tanks in the boiler room and scalding the men. Assuming that he had hit a mine – even after the loss of the Pathfinder the submarine threat was still underestimated – Captain Drummond ordered Cressy and Hogue to come closer so that Aboukir’s wounded could be transferred.  Even had a mine indeed been responsible the order would have been an unwise one, but with the U-9’s presence still unsuspected it was to prove fatal. Each ship also carried nine cadets from the Royal Navy College at Dartmouth, most of whom were under 15. [5], As a result of the losses, the Admiralty ordered all capital ships to remove themselves from danger in the future, and leave rescue attempts to smaller ships. Undetected, U-9 came within 600 yards of Aboukir’s port bow before firing a torpedo. This was perhaps their only positive attribute. Cressy was sunk on 22 September 1914 along with two of her sisterships, by the German U-boat U-9. At 6:20 AM on 22 September, HMS Aboukir was torpedoed by SM U-9 and sank in 35 minutes. Of these, at least 31 men had connections to Ulster, most of them Stokers and three quarters of them part time reservists. Weddigen was appointed to command of the new submarine U-29 but his tenure was to be tragically short – U-29 was rammed by HMS Dreadnought in the Pentland Firth on 18 March 18th 1915.There were no survivors. Pressdram Ltd. 2011. p. 31. ABOUKIR (survivor list included) ABBS, Tom W R, Sick Berth Attendant, M 4398 (Ch) ABRATHAT, William, Private, RMLI (RFR B 1999), 12609 (Ch) HMS Cressy was a Cressy-class armoured cruiser in the Royal Navy. Intended to form part of the battle fleet, they had been rendered obsolete by the advent of the almost equally-disastrous battle-cruiser concept. Cressy was hit forwar… His orders were  to attack British transports landing troops at Ostend, on the Belgian coast. A drawing of the Cressy’s end by the American artist Henry Reuterdahl (1870-1925) She eventually left home waters in early October 1901, arriving at Colombo 7 November,[3] Singapore and Hong Kong in November. Armament: 2 X 9.2”, 12 X 6” and many smaller. Weddingen ordered the empty torpedo tube reloaded and identified Hogue as his next victim. At dawn on September 22nd U-9 surfaced to find the storm over, the sea calm but for a slow swell. Cressy was stationary and her boats had been lowered. The sinking of HMS HAWKE: One of the greatest single losses of Royal Navy sailors from Ulster with 49 Ulstermen lost to just one U-boat. Upon completion she was assigned to the China Station. The force pa… Twenty-five minutes after the torpedo strike Aboukir capsized, remained on the surface, bottom-up, for a few minutes with a few wretches clinging to her, then disappeared. The crew were immediately national heroes and Weddigen was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class, as well as other decorations. On 15 October the protected cruiser HMS Hawke was lost to the same submarine, U-9, off Aberdeen, when she was steaming at 13 knots and not zigzagging. The Dawlish Chronicles Blog. Only then did the Admiralty finally remove the old armoured cruisers from patrol duties. She remained in this position for 20 minutes, then sank at 7:55. Originally capable of 21 knots they now found it hard to make 15. Every member of the crew received the Iron Cross, Second Class. She could make 25 knots top speed but her limited coal capacity was the class’s Achilles heel. In all 1,459 men were lost off the Dutch Coast, on the three ships HMS Aboukir, HMS Cressy and HMS Hogue. The U-9, having spotted British destroyers, but managing to escape detection, signalled news of her success when she reached the Ems Estuary. Kapitaenleutnant Weddigen was by now back at sea and on the morning of October 15th – three weeks after his previous exploit – he found Hawke and her sister Endymion stationary and transferring mail. All hands were on deck, and it was a terrible explosion. They were large – and expensive – ships and they needed large crews. The 34 vessels of this type that were in service at the outbreak of war had entered service between 1902 and 1908 – they were not old ships. She capsized almost immediately and 524 of her crew died. A contemporary German drawing of the U-9 on patrol. The reality cannot have been much different to this, horrible as it was. A total of 837 men were rescued, but 1,397 men were lost. Lord Charles Beresford never again referred to submarines as "playthings" or "toys". 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