, the
fact that the information which the German Government had obtained
about them, and which it made public, must necessarily have been
less comprehensive than that supplied to the world at large by
the British authorities. Guidebooks, as well as tourists who have
visited the place, reported that an old castle stood in Scarborough
which in past centuries had been a fort, but which at the outbreak
of the war was nothing more than a show place. The only gun in
place at the castle was an obsolete piece that had seen service
in the Crimean War. Whitby, in times of peace, at least, had not
even such "armament."

It was on the 16th of December, 1914, that this second raid took
place. Over the North Sea there hung a light mist. The German admiralty
did not afterward make public the names of the cruisers which
participated in this expedition, but they are believed to have been
the _Derfflinger, Bluecher, Von der Tann, Seydlitz_, and _Graudenz_.
It was at eight o'clock in the morning that the residents of the
three English towns first heard the booming of the German guns,
and coast guards near by were able, with the aid of very strong
glasses, to make out the hulls of the attacking cruisers some miles
out to sea. It was not thought possible that the Germans could
again elude the British ships on patrol in these waters, and the
guards therefore thought that the firing came from ships flying the
Union Jack and tried to signal to them. But they came to realize
the truth when they received no answering signals.

As it was not known but that the Germans would make an attempt
to land, the guards in the obsolete fort at Hartlepool took their
positions and two small patrol boats in the harbor made ready to
give what resistance they could. These, the _Doon_ and the _Hardy_,
drew the fire of the German guns, and, seeing it was impossible to
withstand the German fire, they made off and escaped. This time
the Germans were better informed about the conditions they dealt
with, and evidently had no fear of mines, for they came to within
two miles of the shore. The forts on shore were bombarded and private
houses near by were hit by German shells, killing two women who
lived in one of them. The forts tried to reply to the German guns,
but those of the English battery were by no means modern, and firing
them only served to further convince the Germans that the place
was fortified; they inflicted no damage on the German ships.

The lightho