Qualla: Action of 22 September 1914

Action of 22 September 1914: Introduction

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Wenman Wykeham-Musgrave was 15 years old on the morning of 22 September 1914. He was a midshipman aboard HMS Aboukir when the first torpedo struck her at 06:20. He swam to HMS Hogue and was hauled aboard - then Hogue was hit twice at 06:55 and went over. He swam again to HMS Cressy, was pulled out of the water a second time, and was still on her deck when she took a torpedo at 07:25. By the time the third cruiser capsized at 07:55, the boy had survived three sinkings in 95 minutes. Around him, 1,459 other British sailors had not. They were the dead of the Live Bait Squadron, the men whose loss made the Royal Navy realise that a single submarine could end three armoured cruisers between breakfast and the morning watch.

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Action of 22 September 1914: The Squadron Nobody Wanted

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The 7th Cruiser Squadron - Cruiser Force C - existed because the Royal Navy did not quite have ships to spare for the Broad Fourteens, the patch of southern North Sea that protected the eastern end of the English Channel. Its three ships - Aboukir, Hogue, Cressy - were Cressy-cla...

Image: Public domain

Action of 22 September 1914: Weddigen Surfaces

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Arthur Thiele, Public domain. U-9 had been ordered to attack British transports at Ostend, but the same storm that had driven the British destroyer escort to shelter had also forced Otto Weddigen to dive and ride it out. On the morning of the 22nd the wind moderated and Weddigen brought U-9 to the surface. Th...

Image: Arthur Thiele | Public domain

Action of 22 September 1914: Hogue, Then Cressy

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Arthur Thiele, Public domain. While Hogue closed on the survivors, Captain Wilmot Nicholson realised it had been a submarine attack and signalled Cressy to look for periscopes. He stopped his ship anyway. His crew lowered every boat, threw overboard anything that would float, and pulled stokers and reservists...

Image: Arthur Thiele | Public domain

Action of 22 September 1914: The Trawlers and the Reckoning

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Arthur Thiele, Public domain. Two Dutch sailing trawlers were near enough to see the disaster and declined to close, fearing mines of their own. At 08:30 the Dutch steamer Flora pushed through and pulled 286 men out of the water. The Titan took 147 more. Lowestoft fishing smacks Coriander and J.G.C. worked th...

Image: Arthur Thiele | Public domain

Action of 22 September 1914: What Britain Lost That Morning

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Arthur Thiele, Public domain. These were not Jutland numbers, but the moral shock was the war's first great one. The British government had built its self-image around the dominance of the Royal Navy; in one quiet North Sea morning that image was shown to be older than its assumptions. Other cruisers were pul...

Image: Arthur Thiele | Public domain