harbour quays. Other divisions of troops were taken on board in boats,
and on the evening of the 14th the whole field army, consisting of
60,000 men, was embarked.

Last of all, the general commanding, accompanied by the Imperial
Chancellor, proceeded in a launch on board the large cruiser Konig
Wilhelm, which lay at anchor in the Bay of Holtenall. Immediately
afterwards, three rockets, mounting brightly against the dark sky, went
up from the flagship. At this signal, the whole squadron started slowly
in the direction of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal.

The transport fleet consisted of about sixty large steamers, belonging
to the North-German Lloyd, the Hamburg-America, and the Stettin
companies. They were protected by the battleships Baden, Wurttemberg,
Bayern, and Sachsen, the large cruisers Kaiser and Deutschland, the
small cruisers Gazelle, Prinzess Wilhelm, Irene, Komet, and Meteor, and
the torpedo divisions D 5 and D 6, accompanied by their torpedo-boat
divisions.

The last torpedo-boat had long left the harbour, when, about eleven
o'clock in the forenoon of the 15th of July, the dull thunder of the
English ironclads resounded before the fortifications of the inlet of
Kiel, answered by the guns of the German fortress.

Bright sunshine was breaking through the light clouds when the Konig
Wilhelm entered the Elbe at Brunsbuttel. The boats of the torpedo
division, hastening forward, reported the mouth of the river free from
English warships, and a wireless message was received from Heligoland in
confirmation of this.

The squadron proceeded at full speed to the north-west. The torpedo
division D 5 reconnoitred in advance, the small, swift boats being
followed by the cruisers Prinzess Wilhelm and Irene, which from their
high rigging were especially adapted for scouting operations and carried
the necessary apparatus for wireless telegraphy. The rest of the fleet,
whose speed had to be regulated by that of the Konig Wilhelm, followed
at the prescribed intervals.

When the sharp outlines of the red cliffs of Heligoland appeared, the
German cruiser Seeadler came from the island to meet the squadron and
reported that the coast ironclads Aegir and Odin, the cruisers Hansa,
Vineta, Freya, and Hertha, together with the torpedo-boats, had set out
from Wilhelmshaven during the night and had seen nothing of the enemy.
The sea appeared free. All the available English warships of the North
Sea squadron had advanced to attack Antw