On Oct. 17, 1914 the Germans suffered a huge defeat at the hands of the Royal Navy. The German torpedo boats S-115, S-117, S-118 and S-119 were on a minelaying mission in the North Sea southwest of Texel Island. Several ships of the Royal Navy sighted the Germans and attacked. The cruiser HMS Undaunted and the destroyers HMS Lance, HMS Lennox, HMS Legion and HMS Loyal closed in on the Germans and opened fire. The malay lasted about an hour and a half and when the smoke cleared all four German ships were on the bottom of the North Sea while the British lost none. There were only 36 survivors among the Germans which were all picked up by the British ships.

In the Pacific theatre the S-90, another German torpedo boat caught up with the Japanese cruiser Takachiho off Tsingtao, China. After sending the cruiser to the bottom with 271 of her crew the S-90 attempted to make her escape, but in the haste to avoid attack from angry Japanese warships she was run aground and wrecked making her the fifth torpedo boat lost in a single day.

All five of the torpedo boats were of the S-102 class and had been built in the late 1890's and early 1900's by Schichau in Elbing.

© 2006 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com

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