It took only one day after Britain declared war on Germany for the British to sink a German warship. Aug. 5,
1914 the Königin Luise, a passenger ship converted into a minelayer, on it's first mission of the war, became the first German warship lost to enemy fire.

The Königin Luise was laying mines in the Thames Estuary when the cruiser HMS Amphion and her escorting destroyers came into contact with her. The one sided gun battle between the British ships and the unarmed German left only one outcome, Königin Luise was sunk. Even if her guns had been installed (which they were not because the German High Command pressed her urgently into service), the outcome would have been the same.

Amphion rescued an unknown number of survivors and turned for home with her sixteen destroyers. However Amphion, most of her crew and most of those from the Königin Luise would never make it. Amphion and her escorts ran a foul of the very minefield that had been laid by the Königin Louise. The destroyers all passed harmlessly over the mines but the deeper draft of the Amphion detonated one or more of them. The Germans apparently gave no warning to the British about the mines which they had laid and for this most of them paid with their lives. HMS Amphion became the first British warship lost in World War I.

© 2006 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com

HMS Amphion