The crew of the Royal Navy submarine B11 with Lieutenant Norman Holbrook in the middle of the back row. For the sinking of the Messudiye,and the hazardous passage of the Dardanelles as far as Çanakkale, Holbrook was awarded the Victoria Cross, the first ever to a British submariner. His First Lieutenant, Sydney Winn, gained the DSO (Distinguished Service Order) and the remainder of the crew were decorated with either the DSC (Distinguished Service Cross) or the DSM (Distinguished Service Medal). Holbrook’s Victoria Cross citation read:
For most conspicuous bravery on the 13th December [1914], when in command of the Submarine B11, he entered the Dardanelles, and, notwithstanding the very difficult current, dived his vessel under five rows of mines, and torpedoed the Turkish battleship Messudiye, which was guarding the minefield. Lieutenant Holbrook succeeded in bringing the B11 safely back, although assailed by gun-fire and torpedo boats, having been submerged on one occasion for nine hours. [The London Gazette, 22 December 1915, p.10920]
[Photograph from Kenneth Edwards, We Dive at Dawn, London, 1939]