"Incidents occur nearly every day," he wrote to President Wilson in the autumn of 1915, "which reveal the feeling that the Germans have taken us in.

Last week one of our naval men, Lieutenant McBride, who has just been ordered home, asked the Admiralty if he might see the piece of metal found on the deck of the _Hesperian_.

Contrary to their habit, the British officer refused.

'Take my word for it,' he said.

'She was torpedoed.