"U-9", commanded by "Kapitänleutnant" Otto Weddigen, had been ordered to attack British transports at Ostend, but had been forced to dive and take shelter from the storm. On surfacing, she spotted the British ships and moved to attack. She fired one torpedo at 06:20 at "Aboukir" that struck her on the starboard side; the ship's captain thought he had struck a mine and ordered the other two ships to close to transfer his wounded men. "Aboukir" quickly began listing and capsized around 06:55. As "Hogue" approached her sinking sister, Captain Wilmot Nicholson realized that it had been a submarine attack and signalled "Cressy" to look for a periscope although his ship continued to close on "Aboukir" as her crew threw overboard anything that would float to aid the survivors in the water. Having stopped and lowered all her boats, "Hogue" was struck by two torpedoes around 06:55. The sudden weight loss of the two torpedoes caused "U-9" to broach the surface and "Hogue"s gunners opened fire without effect before the submarine could submerge again. The cruiser capsized about ten minutes after being torpedoed as all of her watertight doors had been open and sank at 07:15.