Weddigen ordered his submarine to submerge and closed the range with the unsuspecting British ships. At close range, he fired a torpedo at "Aboukir". The torpedo broke the back of "Aboukir" and she sank within 20 minutes with the loss of 527 men. The captains of "Cressy" and "Hogue" thought "Aboukir" had struck a floating mine and came forward to assist her. "Hogue" hove to and began to pick up survivors. Weddigen fired two torpedoes into "Hogue", mortally wounding her but the submarine surfaced and was fired upon. As "Hogue" sank, the captain of "Cressy" knew that the squadron was being attacked by a submarine and should have tried to flee; this was not yet considered the proper action to take. "Cressy" came to a stop amongst the survivors; Weddigen fired two more torpedoes into "Cressy" and sank her as well.