to be throwing some telling ones
home. The enemy were hitting the both of us about the same time,
however, and, of course, with many times the weight of metal we were
getting to him. At this juncture the skipper of the _Flip_, evidently
figuring that the Austrians, now that they were fully engaged and had a
good chance of polishing us off, would not break off the fight, turned
southward with the idea of drawing them toward the other forces which we
knew would be rushing up in response to the signal we had sent out the
instant the character of the strange ships was evident.

"The _Flip_, like a big squid, began smoke-screening heavily as she
turned, the _Flop_ following suit. The sooty oil fumes poured out in
clouds thick enough to walk on, but unluckily, neither our course nor
the state of the atmosphere was quite favourable for making it go where
it would have served us best. Possibly it was because the _Flip_ was
making a better screen than the _Flop_, or possibly it was because they
were concentrating on the 'windy corner' just as we were rounding it. At
any rate, trying to observe through our rather patchy smoke the effect
of what appeared to be a couple of extremely well-placed shots of ours
on the leading cruiser, I suddenly became aware that all four of the
destroyers and the second cruiser were directing all of their fire upon
the poor little _Flop_. I don't recall exactly whether I twigged this
before we began to feel the effects of it or not, but I am rather under
the impression that I seemed to sense it from the brighter brightness--a
gun firing directly at you makes a more brilliant flash than the same
gun laid on a target ahead or astern of you--of the flame-spurts even
before I was aware of the sudden increase of the fall of shot.

"They had us ranged to a yard by this time, of course, and the captain
turned away a couple of points in an endeavour to throw them off. I
recall distinctly that it was just as the grind of the ported helm began
to throb up to the bridge that a full salvo--probably from one of the
cruisers--came crashing into us. My first impression was that we were
blown up completely, for of the two shells which had struck for'ard, one
had brought down the mast and the other had scored a clean hit on the
forebridge. There was also a hit or two aft, but the immediate effects
of these were not evident in the chaos caused by the others. This was
absolutely beyond description.

"The actual shock