The German U-boats were to get even luckier on 22 September. Early in the morning of that day, a lookout on the bridge of "U-9", commanded by Lieutenant Otto Weddigen, spotted a vessel on the horizon. Weddigen ordered the U-boat to submerge immediately, and the submarine went forward to investigate. At closer range, Weddigen discovered three old Royal Navy armoured cruisers, , , and . These three vessels were not merely antiquated, but were staffed mostly by reservists, and were so clearly vulnerable that a decision to withdraw them was already filtering up through the bureaucracy of the Admiralty. The order did not come soon enough for the ships. Weddigen sent one torpedo into "Aboukir". The captains of "Hogue" and "Cressy" assumed "Aboukir" had struck a mine and came up to assist. "U-9" put two torpedoes into "Hogue", and then hit "Cressy" with two more torpedoes as the cruiser tried to flee. The three cruisers sank in less than an hour, killing 1,460 British sailors.