east of Point o' Woods. The sun
was shining brilliantly, but the coast-line was veiled in a heavy haze.
There was a fair ground-swell running, but no sea. The _San Diego_ was
ploughing along at a fifteen-knot clip, not pursuing the zigzag course
which it is customary for vessels to follow in enemy-infested waters.

No submarine warning had been issued, and, as the vessel was only seven
miles offshore, there may be no doubt that the officers of the war-ship
did not consider the trip as any more hazardous than the hundreds of
journeys she had made along our coast from port to port. The crew were
engaged in the usual routine, with the added labor of getting the vessel
ship-shape after the grimy operation of coaling at Portsmouth. The
explosion came without warning at 11.15 o'clock. It was extremely heavy,
accompanied by a rending and grinding of metal and by the explosion of
the after-powder magazine, which destroyed the quarter-deck and sent the
mainmast, with wireless attached, crashing overboard. The torpedo, or
whatever it was, wrecked the engine-room, demolished the boilers, and
put the electric dynamos out of order.

The thunderous explosion was followed immediately by the insistent whine
of bugles and the clanging of alarm-bells, calling the crew to
battle-stations. And the crew went quietly, without the slightest
disorder. Down in the bunkers, four decks below, was an officer, with a
party of seamen, setting things to rights after the coaling. As the
explosion occurred and the vessel heeled, these men, as though
instinctively, formed into a line, and then without excitement or hurry
climbed the four upright steel ladders to the deck, the officer, of
course, following last of all.

On deck the 6-inch starboard and port batteries were blazing away, not
only at objects that might turn out to be periscopes or submarines, but
in order to call assistance; for the wireless was out of commission, and
there was not a sail or a hull in sight.

After a few minutes, the bugles sounded the order "Prepare to abandon
ship." This applied to every one but the gun crews, who had to remain at
their stations for at least five minutes after the process of
abandonment was put into operation. The post of one of the gun-crew
officers was in the fighting-top of the basket-mast forward, his duty
being that of spotter of his crew. As he hurried along the deck to his
station the crew lined up along the port rail with life-preservers and
w