occurred. There was some suction as the _San
Diego_ disappeared, but not enough, according to the calculation of the
survivors with whom I talked, to draw men to their death.

In the course of another hour, Captain Christie had collected as many of
his officers as he could, and the work of apportioning the survivors to
the twelve boats and to pieces of flotsam was carried on with naval
precision. One man, clinging to a grating, called out that he had
cramps. A comrade in one of the boats thereupon said the sailor could
have his place. He leaped into the sea and the man with cramps was
assisted into the boat.

While this was going on a seaplane from the Bay Shore station passed
over the heads of the men in the water. The seamen did not think they
had been seen, but they had been, and the aviator, flying to Point o'
Woods, landed and used the coast-guard telephone to apprise the Fire
Island coast-guards of the disaster. From this station word was sent
broadcast by wireless. In the meantime, Captain Christie had picked two
crews of the strongest seamen and had them placed in No. 1 and No. 2
life-boats. These men were ordered to row south-west to Fire Island and
summon assistance.

In one boat thirteen men were placed; in the other fourteen. As the
captain got the boat-crews arranged, his barrel began to get waterlogged
and became rather precarious as a support; whereupon a floating seaman
pushed his way through the water with a ladder.

"Here, sir," he said, "try this."

Thus it was that Captain Christie transferred to a new flag-ship.

The boat-crews left the scene of the disaster at 12.35, and they rowed
in fifteen-minute relays from that hour until quarter past three. Before
they had gone four miles merchant ships were rushing to the spot, as set
forth in the wireless warning. These merchantmen got all of the men
afloat in the water--or a vast majority of them--and took them to the
naval station at Hoboken.

At the time of the disaster and for twenty-four hours thereafter there
was some doubt whether or not the _San Diego_ had been lost through
contact with a mine, or was struck by a torpedo launched from a
submarine. Submarine activities off Cape Cod the following Sunday,
however, gave proof that the undersea boats had made their second
hostile visit to our shores.

But later belief was that the cruiser was sunk by a mine planted by the
submarine. One of our most illustrious exploits, indeed, occurred hardly