peed (Plate X),
not necessarily with intent to refuse battle permanently, but with
intent to refuse it until conditions could be made more favorable than
they were at this time. There would have been no difficulty about
reproducing on a larger scale the parallel fight which had marked the
earlier phases of the battle; and with night coming on and the weather
thickening, this would have reduced the British advantage to a
minimum. This plan would, moreover, have led the British straight
toward the mine and submarine area of the Helgoland Bight; or, if they
refused to be so led, would have made it necessary for them to abandon
the fight.

It is true, of course, that they did abandon the fight in spite of
the great advantage which the German tactics gave them, but it is
equally true that the German admiral had no reason to hope for
anything so amazingly fortunate for his reputation as a tactician.

CHAPTER XIV

DEATH OF LORD KITCHENER--OTHER EVENTS OF THE SECOND YEAR

The night of June 7, 1916, a storm raged along the Scottish shore.
There was wind, rain, and high seas. Toward dusk a British cruiser
approached a point on the extreme northerly end of the coast and took
aboard Earl Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, and his staff.
Among those with him were Lieutenant Colonel Oswald Arthur Fitzgerald,
his military secretary; Brigadier General Arthur Ellershaw, one of the
war secretary's advisers; Sir Hay Frederick Donaldson, munitions
expert, and Hugh James O'Beirne, former counselor at the British
embassy in Petrograd and for some time secretary of the embassy in
Washington.

The cruiser, which was the _Hampshire_, of an old class, put to sea
and headed for Archangel, whence Lord Kitchener was to travel to
Petrograd for a war council with the czar and his generals. About
eight o'clock, only an hour after the party embarked, a mine or
torpedo struck the _Hampshire_ when she was two miles from land
between Merwick Head and Borough Brisay, west of the Orkney Islands.
It is supposed that the cruiser's magazine blew up. Persons on shore
saw a fire break out amidships, and many craft went to her assistance,
although a northwest gale was blowing and the sea was rough.

Four boats got away from the _Hampshire_, all of which were swamped.
According to one report Lord Kitchener and his staff were lost after
leaving the cruiser, but a survivor said that he was last seen on the
bridge with Captain Herbert J. Savill, h