e-handed--the rest of the flotilla having finished
and gone on--carried out two attacks on the five remaining
battleships. She got one of them amidships, causing a terrific
explosion and flame above the masthead, which signifies that the
magazine has been touched off. She counted the battleships when the
smoke had cleared, and there were but four of them. She herself was
not hit, though shots fell close. She went her way, and, seeing
nothing of her sisters, picked up another flotilla and stayed with it
till the end. Do I make clear the maze of blind hazard and wary
judgment in which our men of the sea must move?

SAVED BY A SMOKE SCREEN

Some of the original flotilla were chased and headed about by cruisers
after their attack on the six battleships, and a single shell from
battleship or cruiser reduced one of them to such a condition that she
was brought home by her sub-lieutenant and a midshipman. Her captain,
first lieutenant, gunner, torpedo coxswain, and both signalmen were
either killed or wounded; the bridge, with charts, instruments, and
signalling gear went; all torpedoes were expended; a gun was out of
action, and the usual cordite fires developed. Luckily, the engines
were workable. She escaped under cover of a smoke-screen, which is an
unbearably filthy outpouring of the densest smoke, made by increasing
the proportion of oil to air in the furnace-feed. It rolls forth from
the funnels looking solid enough to sit upon, spreads in a
searchlight-proof pat of impenetrable beastliness, and in still
weather hangs for hours. But it saved that ship.

It is curious to note the subdued tone of a boy's report when by some
accident of slaughter he is raised to command. There are certain
formalities which every ship must comply with on entering certain
ports. No fully-striped commander would trouble to detail them any
more than he would the aspect of his Club porter. The young 'un puts
it all down, as who should say: "I rang the bell, wiped my feet on the
mat, and asked if they were at home." He is most careful of the port
proprieties, and since he will be sub. again to-morrow, and all his
equals will tell him exactly how he ought to have handled her, he
almost apologises for the steps he took--deeds which ashore might be
called cool or daring.

The Senior Service does not gush. There are certain formulae
appropriate to every occasion. One of our destroyers, who was knocked
out early in the day and lay helpless, wa