y hand were promptly closed. Immediately after
Captain Turner saw the wake of the torpedo there was an explosion and
then Turner went to the navigation bridge and took the obvious course,
i. e., had the ship's head turned to the land. He signaled the engine
room for full speed astern, hoping thereby to take the way off the ship,
and then ordered the boats lowered down to the rail and directed that
women and children should be first provided for in the boats. As the
engine room failed to respond to the order to go full speed astern, and
as the ship was continuing under way, Turner ordered that the boats
should not be lowered until the vessel should lose her headway, and he
told Anderson, the Staff Captain, who was in charge of the port boats,
to lower the boats when he thought the way was sufficiently off to allow
that operation. Anderson's fidelity to duty is sufficiently exemplified
by the fact that he went down with the ship.

[Sidenote: The officers display courage and skill.]

Jones, First Officer, and Lewis, Acting Third Officer, were in charge of
the boats on the starboard side and personally superintended their
handling and launching. Too much cannot be said both for their courage
and skill, but, difficult as was their task, they were not confronted
with some of the problems which the port side presented. There, in
addition to Anderson, were Bestic, Junior Third Officer, and another
officer, presumably the Second Officer. These men were apparently doing
the best they could and standing valiantly to their duty. Anderson's
fate has already been mentioned, and Bestic, although surviving, stuck
to his post until the ship went down under him. The situation can
readily be pictured even by a novice.

With the ship listed to starboard, the port boats, of course, swung
inboard. If enough man power were applied, the boats could be put over
the rail, but then a real danger would follow. Robertson, the ship's
carpenter, aptly described that danger in answer to a question as to
whether it was possible to lower the open boats on the port side. He
said:

[Sidenote: Port boats could not be lowered.]

"No. To lower the port boats would just be like drawing a crate of
unpacked china along a dock road. What I mean is that if you started to
lower the boats you would be dragging them down the rough side of the
ship on rivets which are what we call "snap-headed rivets"--they stand
up about an inch from the side of the ship, so yo