But even the plans of the Admiralty were apt occasionally to go wrong for, after weeks of preparation and the difficult task of convoying and towing Severn in company with her sister ships Humber and Mersey from Plymouth to Malta had been successfully accomplished, it was found that the length of time needed for these craft to reach Mudros and there be equipped for service conditions would not fit in with the scheme for the now famous Gallipoli landing of April 2 and so Severn remained at Malta until the closing days of April when the raiding escapades of the German cruiser Kónigsberg off the East African coast and the losses suffered by British shipping at her hands demanded that something be done, for it was realized that if the enemy vessel was allowed to remain afloat she could and would inflict untold damage to allied interests in this part of the world.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.