A famous submarine was lost on this day in 1918. HMS E-14 had only two commanding officers and both
received the Victoria Cross, the only vessel in the Royal Navy to ever have that distinction. Her first CO,
Lieutenant Commander Courtney Boyle was awarded the Victoria Cross for a prolonged and dangerous
patrol into the Sea of Marmara.

The second was awarded to Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Saxton White, he received his posthumously. The
E-14 departed Mudros on Jan. 27 with the objective being to sink the Turkish battleship Yavuz Sultan Selim
(the former SMS Goeben). She had hit a mine and was reported to be aground at Nagara Point, however
before White and the E-14 arrived she had been towed off. The boat was delayed on more than one occasion
by anti-submarine nets, had this not happened they might have caught the battleship, which was removed
only six hours before they arrived.

They turned around and headed toward the southern entrance of the Dardanelles, at about 9am White sighed
a ship, loaded his starboard tube and fired. The torpedo either exploded prematurely or was somehow caught in
the tube, maybe by a door which could have been damaged by the nets. This caused the boat to break the
surface and she was immediately fired on by the guns at the forts at Kum-Kale.

She was not hit and White took her down to 190' where she soon became unsteady. They came up to periscope
depth and dived again. Brought up to periscope depth again, but this time the boat was beginning to become
difficult to control. She began to list to starboard and sink by the bow, she went down to 165' before the
tanks were blown and the boat surfaced.

E-14 came under fire from the forts and was hit several times, one shell killed Lt. Cdr. White and several other
men. After several more hits the boat rolled over to starboard and sank taking twenty-three men with her. The
survivors, several of whom were badly wounded, were picked up by the Turks and taken prisoner.