4 November 1914

German light cruiser SMS Karlsruhe, 1914. Image courtesy German Federal Archive.

• The German cruiser SMS Karlsruhe sinks in the Atlantic Ocean. Commissioned just ten months earlier, the cruiser is en route to Barbados when a spontaneous internal explosion splits the hull in two. Most of the crew perish; 140 men are rescued.
• The German cruiser SMS Yorck accidently collides with two German mines in heavy fog near the German port of Wilhelmshaven. The Yorck capsizes and sinks with heavy loss of life.

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