WILLIAM    BAILEY served as a Gunner Royal Marine Artillery  on H.M.S. Aboukir  a Cressy Class cruiser of the Royal Navy. Displacement of 12,000 tons. Armament: two 9.2 ins guns (bow & stern), twelve 6 ins quick-firers in a central battery and many more small quick-firers and machine guns. Speed: 21 knots. Launched 16th May 1900. HMS Aboukir, along with HMS Cressy and HMS Hogue, were all torpedoed by the German U-boat U9 on 22nd September 1914 whilst on patrol in the broad Fourteens an area of the North Sea between Yarmouth and Ymuiden.. 

In the early hours of September 20th 1914 the cruisers HMS Euryalus, HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue and HMS Cressy were preparing to go on patrol under Rear Admiral Christian in Euryalus. Normally the patrol was under command of Rear Admiral Campbell in HMS Bacchantes but he was absent so Christian helped fill the gap although he had other duties. The weather was too bad for destroyers to be at sea and unfortunately Euryalus had to drop out due to lack of coal and weather damage to her wireless, Rear Admiral Christian had to remain with his ship rather than transfer to another ship as the weather was too bad to transfer. He delegated command to Captain Drummond in Aboukir although he did not make it clear that Drummond had the authority to order the destroyers to sea if the weather improved, which it did towards the end of September 21st.

Early on September 22nd 1914 the German submarine U9 under the command of Commander Otto Weddigen sighted the Cressy, Aboukir and Hogue steaming NNE at 10 knots without zigzagging. Although the patrols were supposed to maintain 12-13 knots and zigzag the old cruisers were unable to maintain that speed and the zigzagging order was widely ignored as there had been no submarines sighted in the area during the war.

U9 manoeuvred to attack and at about 6.25 AM fired a single torpedo at Aboukir, which stuck her on her port side. Aboukir rapidly suffered heavy flooding and despite counter flooding developed a 20 degree list and lost engine power. It was soon clear that she was a lost cause and Captain Drummond ordered her to be abandoned, although only one boat had survived the attack so most crew had to jump into the sea. At first Drummond thought that Aboukir had been mined and signalled the other two cruisers to close and assist but he soon realised that it was a torpedo attack and ordered the other cruisers away, but too late.

The patrol by these elderly ships was much criticised, they were too old and slow with inexperienced crews to put up a decent fight against modern German surface ships. Although the submarine threat at the time was not considered, even by critics of the patrol, the fact that the three ships didn't zigzag was criticised by the board of inquiry, a practice that was widely ignored at the time and even by some ships after the loss of the three cruisers.

 

William Biley's service is commemorated on the PORTSMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL (RMRIB/576). Son of Charles Bailey, of Highcliffe, Bournemouth; husband of Eva Jessie Wilkins (formerly Bailey), of Christmas Cottage, Nutbourne, Emsworth, Hants.