Her sister ship the _Breslau_
took no part in the exchange of shots, and also made off. The damage
done to the _Goeben_ was not enough to put her out of commission;
the _Evstafi_ suffered slight damage and had twenty-four of her
crew killed.
While the daring exploits of German submarines were winning the
admiration of the entire world for their operations in the northern
naval theatre of war, the British submarine commander, Holbrook,
with the _B-ll_ upheld the prestige of this sort of craft in the
British navy. He entered the waters of the Dardanelles on the 13th
of December, 1914, and submerging, traveled safely through five
lines of Turkish mines and sent a torpedo against the hull of the
Turkish battleship _Messudiyeh_. The _B-ll_ slowly came to the
surface to see what had been the result of her exploit, and her
commander, through the periscope saw her going down by the stern.
It was claimed later by the British that she had sunk, a claim
which was officially denied by the Turks. Her loss to Turkey, if
it did occur, was not serious, for she was too old to move about,
and her only service was to guard the mine fields. The _B-ll_ after
being pursued by destroyers again submerged for nine hours and
came successfully from the scene of the exploit.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXXVIII
WAR ON GERMAN TRADE AND POSSESSIONS
With the exceptions of the deeds done by the German sea raiders
the remaining naval history of the first six months of the war had
to do for the most part with British victories.
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