On July 9, 1915 a little over a month after sinking the Lusitania, Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger and SMS
U-20 were again on the prowl in the waters off Ireland. In St. George's Channel Schwieger attacked and sank three ships, fortunately with little loss of life.

The freighter Meadowfield was shelled without warning, splinters from one of the first shots killing the helmsman. The master brought his ship to a stop, but, according to survivors, the U-boat continued to shell the ship. On board were two women and two children and in an attempt to signal the submarine of their presence, the children were held up so they could be seen. This brought an end to the shelling and the remaining twenty-nine people got off into two lifeboats. After she was abandoned Schwieger sent the floating wreck to the bottom.

Ellesmere, a freighter of 1,170 tons was also shelled by U-20, one shell destroying one of the lifeboats and killing one man. She was abandoned and the twenty-one crewmen got into the only remaining lifeboat. The ship was dispatched with a torpedo. The survivors were picked up by the trawler Osprey and landed at Milford Haven the following day. The survivors from Ellesmere also witnessed the sinking of the Russian freighter Leo, shelled and sunk, seven men were killed, thirteen others got off and were later rescued.

Schwieger, vilified throughout the world as a bloodthirsty Hun hell bent on killing women and children after the sinking of the Lusitania may have saved more Allied lives than he took. It was in great part due to the sinking of the aforementioned Lusitania that on May 30, 1915 Kaiser Wilhelm II announced that unrestricted submarine warfare would be suspended, this order remained in place until Jan. 31, 1917. However this did not seem to stop Schwieger and others from continuing the practice, however the number of merchant ships attacked without warning drastically decreased after the announcement. How many of these ships would have been sunk without warning resulting in a greater loss of life remains a mystery, but one can assume that because adequate warning was given it allowed a great number of people to get off the ships before an unannounced torpedo exploded against their hull.