Produced shortly after the war and clearly intended as an illustration this picture shows a British freighter dead in the water after a torpedo attack. At the rear a black gash pierces the dazzle camouflage of the hull and a cloud of black smoke billows out of it. The crew are escaping by lifeboats, possibly to another ship in the convoy that has briefly lit the scene with its searchlights.
For the span of WWI, from 1914-1918, 274 German U-boats sank 6,596 ships. The five most successful U-boats were U-35 (sank 224 ships), U-39 (154 ships), U-38 (137 ships), U-34 (121 ships), and U-33 (84 ships). Most of these were sunk near the coast, particularly in the English Channel.