There was an enemy battle-cruiser squadron in the
offing; with several enemy light cruisers ahead of
that squadron, and the weather was thickish and deceptive.
She sighted the enemy light cruiser, “class
uncertain,” only a few thousand yards away, and
“decided to attack her in order to frustrate
her firing torpedoes at our Battle Fleet.” (This
in case the authorities should think that light cruiser
wished to buy rubber.) So she fell upon the light
cruiser with every gun she had, at between two and
four thousand yards, and secured a number of hits,
just the same as at target practice. While thus
occupied she sighted out of the mist a squadron of
enemy battle-cruisers that had worried her earlier
in the afternoon. Leaving the light cruiser, she
closed to what she considered a reasonable distance
of the newcomers, and let them have, as she thought,
both her torpedoes. She possessed an active Acting
Sub-Lieutenant, who, though officers of that rank think
otherwise, is not very far removed from an ordinary
midshipman of the type one sees in tow of relatives
at the Army and Navy Stores. He sat astride one
of the tubes to make quite sure things were in order,
and fired when the sights came on.
But, at that very moment, a big shell hit the
destroyer on the side and there was a tremendous escape
of steam. Believing—since she had
seen one torpedo leave the tube before the smash came—believing
that both her tubes had been fired, the destroyer
turned away “at greatly reduced speed”
(the shell reduced it), and passed, quite reasonably
close, the light cruiser whom she had been hammering
so faithfully till the larger game appeared.
Meantime, the Sub-Lieutenant was exploring what damage
had been done by the big shell. He discovered
that only one of the two torpedoes had left
the tubes, and “observing enemy light cruiser
beam on and apparently temporarily stopped,”
he fired the providential remainder at her, and it
hit her below the conning-tower and well and truly
exploded, as was witnessed by the Sub-Lieutenant himself,
the Commander, a leading signalman, and several other
ratings. Luck continued to hold! The Acting
Sub-Lieutenant further reported that “we still
had three torpedoes left and at the same time drew
my attention to enemy’s line of battleships.”
They rather looked as if they were coming down with
intent to assault. So the Sub-Lieutenant fired
the rest of the torpedoes, which at least started
off correctly from the shell-shaken tubes, and must
have crossed the enemy’s line. When torpedoes
turn up among a squadron, they upset the steering
and distract the attention of all concerned.
Then the destroyer judged it time to take stock of
her injuries. Among other minor defects she could
neither steam, steer, nor signal.
TOWING UNDER DIFFICULTIES
Copyrights
Sea Warfare from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
