The Royal Navy is this week marking the World War I sinking of the three cruisers - HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue and HMS Cressy – sunk by a German U-boat on September 22 1914 off the Dutch coast in the North Sea with a total loss of life of 1,459 men, including sailors from Falmouth and a St Mawes.

Falmouth man, Charles Pidwell, a chief shipwright on HMS Aboukir and Leading Seaman Nicholas Odgers (HMS Cressy) from St Mawes were amongst those who lost their lives.

The three cruisers were torpedoed within the space of an hour by German U-boat ace Otto Weddigen, commander of the U-9.

A few weeks later, Weddigen sank HMS Hawke with a heavy loss of life. Nearly 2,000 men went down with their ships.

In Germany Weddigen and his crew were given a heroes’ welcome, with the U-boat commander being decorated with the Pour Le Merite, The highly decorated commander transferred to the U-29 in February 1915 with his first patrol in his new command taking him to a hunting ground off south Cornwall.

Falmouth Packet:

Just after breakfast on March 12 1915, some ten miles south of the Isles of Scilly, Weddigen spotted the British general cargo vessel Indian City inward bound from Galveston to Havre with a cargo of cotton and zinc. U-29 immediately submerged before surfacing some time later on the quarter of the British ship.

In his written statement to the Navy, Indian City’s master, Captain John Williams, said: “The submarine fired a rocket for me to stop. The captain of the submarine sung out that he was going to sink my ship and as he did not want any loss of life he would give me 20 minutes to get my crew off in the ship’s boats.”

Safely in the lifeboats the crew of the Indian City were told not to move until the U-boat had sunk their ship after which the submarine would tow them towards the islands.

Williams wrote: “The torpedo was fired with the submarine on the surface and it went into Number 2 hold. It blew the hatches off, several bales of cotton were blown out of her hold and she caught fire.”

Weddigen invited Captain Williams to come onboard U-29 and join him in having a glass of wine.

Williams wrote: “I accepted his offer. The submarine captain said he hoped the war would soon be over and he also said that Germany and England should not have been fighting against each other but that if they had been fighting together then they would beat the rest of the world in two months.”

The U-29 continued to tow the two boats towards the islands. Weddigen then gave Captain Williams a spare chart of the Isles of Scilly that he had onboard.

When two patrol boats came out from the islands, the U-29 cast off the boats and quickly submerged. Within a few hours the British ships Headlands and Andalusian also fell victim to the submarine.

Six days later, in the Pentland Firth, a lookout on Britain’s top warship HMS Dreadnought spotted a periscope. The warship increased to full speed which was about 17.5 knots. The battleship’s commanding officer, Captain Alderson, rammed the U-boat. As an act of defiance the bows of the submarine came out of the water at an angle of 30 degrees where her number U-29 was observed in relief.

Weddigen and his entire crew perished as the submarine rolled over and sank.