SMS Gneisenau (1879)
The crew attempted to drop the starboard anchor, but it did not catch in the stony ground. "Gneisenau" was driven into the mole repeatedly, striking it with her stern twice before being turned and pushed bow-first on the starboard side, forcing her aground. A merchant ship attempted to come to the crew's aid, but they were unable to connect a line between the two ships before "Gneisenau" began to list 35 degrees. A boat from shore also attempted to rescue the crew, but it too was forced ashore in the heavy seas. Wave action quickly smashed "Gneisenau"s hull against the mole, and part of her crew attempted to find safety by climbing the rigging. The ship rolled over onto her side, and the surviving crewmen reached shore with a line. Forty-one men were killed in the accident, including Kretschmann and the ship's first officer. "Charlotte" and the British ironclad were sent to aid the wounded. Those killed in the sinking were buried in Málaga's cemetery, and the survivors returned to Germany aboard the HAPAG steamship on 2 January 1901.
List of hospital ships sunk in World War I
The high command of Imperial German viewed Allied hospital ships as violating the Hague Convention and ordered its submarine forces to target them as part of their Unrestricted submarine warfare on Allied shipping. Even with the inspections from neutral countries the German High command alleged that hospital ships were violating Article Four by transporting able-bodied soldiers to the battleground. The biggest hospital ship sunk by either mine or torpedo in the First World War was "Britannic", the sister of "Olympic" and the ill-fated "Titanic". "Britannic" hit a mine on November 21, 1916; 30 people were killed, but the rest of the crew and passengers were able to escape. The largest loss of life caused by the sinking of a hospital ship would be "Llandovery Castle". The ship was hit by a torpedo from the German U-boat on June 27, 1918. Shortly thereafter, the submarine surfaced and gunned down most of the survivors; only 24 were rescued. After the war, the captain of "U-86", Lieutenant Helmut Patzig, and two of his lieutenants were charged with war crimes and arraigned for trial, but Patzig disappeared, and the two lieutenants both escaped after being convicted and sentenced to prison. The Allies weren't the only ones who had their ships attacked at the beginning of the war, the German hospital ship "Ophelia" was seized by British naval forces as a spy ship and near the close of the war the Austrian hospital ship "Baron Call" was unsuccessfully attacked by torpedo on October 29, 1918.