Allied fleets
mustered between them forty-six battleships, seventy-five armoured
and sixty-three unarmoured cruisers, forty gunboats, and two hundred
and fifty torpedo-boats.

The battle began soon after sundown on the 24th of August, and raged
continuously for over sixty hours. The whole issue of the fight was
the question of the command of the Mediterranean, and the British
line of communication with India and the East _via_ the Suez Canal.

The prize was well worthy of the tremendous struggle that the two
contending forces waged for it; and from the two Admirals in command
to the boys employed on the most insignificant duties about the
ships, every one of the combatants seemed equally impressed with the
magnitude of the momentous issues at stake.

To the League, victory meant a deadly blow inflicted upon the only
enemy now seriously to be reckoned with. It meant the severing of the
British Empire into two portions, and the cutting of the one
remaining channel of supply upon which the heart of the Empire now
depended for its nutrition. To destroy Admiral Beresford's fleet
would be to achieve as great a triumph on the sea as the armies of
the League had achieved on land by the taking of Berlin, Vienna, and
Constantinople. On the other hand, the defeat of the Franco-Italian
fleets meant complete command of the Mediterranean, and the ability
to destroy in detail all the important sea-board fortresses and
arsenals of the League that were situated on its shores.

It meant the keeping open of the Suez Canal, the maintenance of
communication with India and Australia by the shortest route, and,
what was by no means the least important consideration, the
vindication of British prestige in Egypt, the Soudan, and India. It
was with these enormous gains and losses before their eyes that the
two forces engaged and fought as perhaps men had never fought with
each other in the world before. Everything that science and
experience could suggest was done by the leaders of both sides. Human
life was counted as nothing in the balance, and deeds of the most
reckless heroism were performed in countless instances as the mighty
struggle progressed.

With such inflexible determination was the battle waged on either
side, and so appalling was the destruction accomplished by the
weapons brought into play, that by sunrise on the morning of the
27th, more than half the opposing fleets had been destroyed, and of
the remainder the majority