ing which
had been done by the smaller craft of the German fleets showed their
commanders that there were other British ships in the neighborhood
besides the two they had first engaged, and it was thought wiser
to withdraw in face of possible reenforcement of the British,
consequently the _Strassburg_ and _Ariadne_ turned eastward to seek
the protection of the fortress. The _Arethusa_, a boat that had
been in commission but a week when the battle was fought, was in a
bad way; all but one of her guns were out of action, her water tank
had been punctured and fire was raging on her main deck amidships.
The _Fearless_ passed her a cable at nine o'clock and towed her
westward, away from the scene of action, while her crew made what
repairs they could.

The flotillas of both sides had meanwhile been busy. At the head
of the squadron of German destroyers that came out of the waters
behind Helgoland was the _V-187_. Without slacking speed she steamed
straight for the British destroyers, her small guns spitting rapidly,
but she was outnumbered by British destroyers, which poured such an
amount of steel into her thin sides that she went under, her guns
firing till their muzzles touched the water and her crew cheering as
they went to their deaths. A few managed to keep afloat on wreckage,
and during a lull in the fighting, which lasted from nine o'clock
till ten, boats were lowered from the British destroyers _Goshawk_
and _Defender_ to pick up these stranded German sailors.

The commanders of the German fleet, perceiving these small boats from
afar, thought that the British were resorting to the old principle
of boarding, and the German light cruiser _Mainz_ came out to fire
upon them. Two of the British small boats had to be abandoned as
their mother ships made off before the oncoming German. They were
in a perilous position, right beneath the guns of the fortress.
But now a daring and unique rescue took place. The commander of
the British submarine _E-4_ had been watching the fighting through
the periscope of his craft, and seeing the helpless position of
the two small boats, he submerged, made toward them, and then,
to the great surprise of the men in them, came up right between
them and took their occupants aboard his boat.

Repairs had been made on the _Arethusa_ which enabled her to go into
action again by ten o'clock. Accompanied again by two light cruisers
of ten four-inch guns and the _Fearless_, she turned westward