[3] On 14 December 1917, by 38°15′N 20°22′E / 38.250°N 20.367°E / 38.250; 20.367, under Hans Hermann Wendlandt,[7] UC-38 met a French convoy comprising the fast cruiser Chateaurenault, serving as a troopship, and her escorts Mameluk, Rouen and Lansquenet.

UC-38 dived at 38 metres, while the Mameluk and Rouen rushed to the launching position of the torpedo, and Lansquenet started picking up people thrown overboard by the explosion.

One caused a light leak in the submarine; Captain Wendlandt ordered a dive to bring his ship below the area targeted by the grenades, but a false manœuvre made UC-38 climb instead, and a second explosion caused a large leak, forcing Wendlandt to crash surface and abandon ship.

[7][8] UC-38 surfaced briefly and was immediately targeted by the guns of Mameluk, which continued her attack by launching several depth charges.

[7] Sir Ronald Ross, first British Nobel laureate for his discovery of the malaria vector, embarked aboard the cruiser Châteaurenault at Taranto, Italy, on 13 December 1917 on his way to Salonika.

Ross recounts the moment the SM UC-38 was destroyed in his 1923 memoirs:"Suddenly all the soldiers began pointing in one direction and one behind me said ‘Voyez monsieur’.

We were going to fire off our own big gun...Our shell took effect; up rose the stern of the submarine and then slowly down she slid, as her victim had done, leaving a number of pink heads dotting the water – Boches clamouring to be saved.