Torpedoed and sunk 22 September 1914
HMS Cressy, built by Fairfield, launched 4/12/1899. Sunk by U.9 in the North Sea on 22/9/1914.
HMS Cressy was one of the three ships of the 7th Cruiser Squadron which met with disaster at the hands of the German submarine U-9 on September 22nd, 1914. The squadron, consisting of the acting flagship Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue, Cressy and HMS Hogue, was cruising off Ymuiden after a heavy gale. The ships were without a destroyer screen and they were too far north for safety. Attack by submarine was not anticipated owing to the seas, and the ships were proceeding at an easy ten knots without zig-zagging.
At 6.30 a.m. Aboukir was torpedoed and began to sink. Her consorts at once stopped and lowered their boats and it was while engaged in the work of rescue that they were torpedoed, Hogue being hit soon after Aboukir. Cressy was the last to be attacked, and, as she had every boat away and mostly filled with survivors, she possessed little means for saving her own crew. The loss of life on this ship was therefore very heavy.
Within three-quarters of an hour three big cruisers and over 1,400 officers and men were lost. The survivors numbered 60 officers and 777 men. See Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue.
