s not as great as that of a crab, and when the
torpedo-boat had given up the chase, and the dreaded crab was drawing
swiftly near, the captain thought it time for bravery to give place to
prudence. With the large amount of explosive material of the most
tremendous and terrific character which he had on board, it would be
the insanity of courage for him to allow his comparatively small vessel
to be racked, shaken, and partially shivered by the powerful jaws of
the on-coming foe. As he could neither fly nor fight, he hauled down
his flag in token of surrender, the first instance of the kind which
had occurred in this war.

When the director of Crab Q, through his lookout-glass, beheld this
action on the part of the gun-boat, he was a little perplexed as to
what he should next do. To accept the surrender of the British vessel,
and to assume control of her, it was necessary to communicate with her.
The communications of the crabs were made entirely by black-smoke
signals, and these the captain of the gun-boat could not understand.
The heavy hatches in the mailed roof which could be put in use when the
crab was cruising, could not be opened when she was at her fighting
depth, and in a tossing sea.

A means was soon devised of communicating with the gun-boat. A
speaking-tube was run up through one of the air-pipes of the crab,
which pipe was then elevated some distance above the surface. Through
this the director hailed the other vessel, and as the air-pipe was near
the stern of the crab, and therefore at a distance from the only
visible portion of the turtle-back roof, his voice seemed to come out
of the depths of the ocean.

The surrender was accepted, and the captain of the gun-boat was ordered
to stop his engines and prepare to be towed. When this order had been
given, the crab moved round to the bow of the gun-boat, and grasping
the cut-water with its forceps, reversed its engines and began to back
rapidly toward the British fleet, taking with it the captured vessel as
a protection against torpedoes while in transit.

The crab slowed up not far from one of the foremost of the British
ships, and coming round to the quarter of the gun-boat, the astonished
captain of that vessel was informed, through the speaking-tube, that if
he would give his parole to keep out of this fight, he would be allowed
to proceed to his anchorage in Portsmouth harbour. The parole was
given, and the dynamite gun-boat, after reporting t