an inquiry into submarine visibility from the air led E18 being painted in her camouflage scheme. Strangely there is no German claim of an attack on a submarine - the Zeppelins in the air that day in this area were, L4, L6 and L7, none of which sighted a submarine let alone attacked one. L6 was the closest to E18s position when a Zeppelin was sighted but she moved away to the west when the explosions occurred. German minesweeping divisions were exploding mines during the time of the alleged attack which could explain what the crew of E18 heard while submerged. E18 was dispatched to the Baltic as part of the British submarine flotilla in the Baltic. She left Harwich on 28 August with her sister-ship HMS E19, first travelling to Newcastle to swing their compasses during which E19 burnt out one of her main armatures. After the delay to repair E19 they left Newcastle for the Baltic on 4 September at 1630 hrs. The two submarines separated and passed through the Øresund between Denmark and Sweden on the night of 8–9 September. During the passage E19 at one stage found herself only metres from E18'''s stern and decided not to enter together. E18 encountered two German destroyers. She dived into water only deep and — for almost three hours — progressed by crashing into the seabed and rising back up to break the surface. After several hours resting in deep water she surfaced in the morning only to be fired on by the German cruiser ; once again she dived to the bottom. The German cruiser and attending destroyers then began to criss-cross over E18 knowing her batteries would be very low. E18 had to remain on the bottom until the German ships, not then equipped with depth charges, left the area. After escaping she was attacked by another two destroyers, one of which came close to ramming her. On 10 September 1915 Halahan sighted what he thought were the German battlecruisers Lutzow and Seydlitz, and tried in vain to get into an attacking position, but in fact the ships were two German destroyers, the battlecruisers not in the area at the time. On 12 September E18 joined E19 and E9 off Dagerort, arriving in Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia) on the 13th. Halahan later wrote that entering the Baltic again should not be attempted unless absolutely necessary.E18 operated out