The work of mercy was never completed, for the _Hogue_
itself was hit by two torpedoes in the next few moments, and she
joined her sister ship. The commander of the _Cressy_, failing to
take a lesson from what he had witnessed, now approached, and his
ship was also hit by two torpedoes, making the third victim of the
German policy of attrition within an hour, and Captain Lieutenant
von Weddigen, commander of the _U-9_, which had done this work,
immediately became a German hero.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXXIV
BATTLES ON THREE SEAS
So stood the score in the naval warfare in the North Sea at the
end of the second month of the Great War. But while these events
were taking place in the waters of Europe, others of equal import
had been taking place in the waters of Asia. On August 23, 1914,
Japan declared war on Germany and immediately set about scouring
the East for German craft of all kinds.
Japan brought to the naval strength of the Allied powers no mean unit.
Hers was the only navy in the world which had seen the ultramodern
battleships in action; the Russian navy which had had the same
experience was no more. Eight of her first-class battleships were,
at the time of her entrance into the Great War, veterans of the
war with Russia. The _Fugi, Asahi, Kikasa_, and _Shikishima_ had
gone into the former war as Japanese ships, and the remaining four
had gone into it as Russian ships, but had been captured by the
Japanese.
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