seconds, betokening a determined
miss-fire. But if the bow gun _had_ gone off, and sent one of us to the
bottom, there would still have been three boats left to seal the
vessel's fate.

At the fourth order a globe of flame leaped from the iron side of the
monitor and a heavy shot went harmlessly over our heads. Shouts and
lights in the other vessels showed that the entire flotilla was aroused.

I observed that the launch next to ours drew off and we advanced alone,
while the other two remained well behind, ready to support. A sharp
fusillade had now been opened on us, and we heard the bullets pattering
on our iron screen like unearthly hail, but in spite of this the launch
darted like a wasp under the monitor's bow. The torpedoes were arranged
so as to be detached from their spars at any moment and affixed by long
light chains to any part of an attacked ship. Round a rope hanging from
the bow of the vessel one of these chains was flung, and the torpedo was
dropped from the end of the spar, while the launch shot away, paying out
the electric cable as she went. But this latter was not required. The
torpedo swung round by the current and hit the ship with sufficient
violence. It exploded, and the column of water that instantly burst
from under the monitor half filled and nearly swamped us as we sped
away. The noise was so great that it nearly drowned for an instant the
shouts, cries, and firing of the Turks. The whole flotilla now began in
alarm to fire at random on their unseen foes, and sometimes into each
other.

Meanwhile the launches, like vicious mosquitoes, kept dodging about,
struck often, though harmlessly, by small shot, but missed by the large
guns.

Our commander now perceived that the monitor he had hit was sinking,
though slowly, at the bows. He shouted, therefore, to the second launch
to go at her. She did so at once; slipped in, under the fire and smoke
that belched from her side, and fixed another torpedo to her stern in
the same manner as the former. The officer in charge perceived,
however, that the current would not drive it against the ship. He
therefore shot away for a hundred yards,--the extent of his electric
cable,--and then fired the charge. A terrible explosion took place.
Parts of the ship were blown into the air, and a huge plank came down on
the Russian launch, like an avenging thunderbolt, pierced the iron
screen, which had so effectually resisted the bullets, and passed
b