The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-07-24


teen thousand tons-five hundred tons
: larger than the Arizona, and the second
| largest ship-had opened the ball.
A man at one of the six-inch guns
almost Immediately below the bridge
| suddenly dropped on all fours; he
sprang up and down in the air, his
head thrown back, his mouth working,
making inarticulate sounds. He Ieaped
to one side and the other, like frog,
clacking and croaking-a horrid sight
Lay hold of that man there" called
a stern voice from below; lay hold of
him, two Of you men-catch him, can't
you?"
The man rose on his launches with
his fingers. drawn back like claws. He
snapped with his teeth at the men who
reached for him.
Take care, he'll bite your some one
cried. Have a care!"
Struggling and gurgling, stark, star
ing mad, he was carried down below.
The little incident had not caused the
Admiral or Captain Howarth more than
to glance aside. Their eyes We're on the
open sweep of rolling water. where an
instant before, standing up like the
poles of distant shad-nets on the shall
lows, had been the standpipes of the
American submarines.
There was nothing to be seen-they,
too, had plunged nothing to be seen
now but a solitary white-winged gull
following the undulations of the smooth
pillows that came sweeping on from the
eastward, their tops broken here and
there by distant1y scattered whitecaps.
What was that?''
The surface of the sea a mile away
was rent and torn into heap of white
and gray. There was an instant flare
of flame, visible even in The bright light
of the sun, that shot up from the water.
Not single explosion, but a roar like
the thrilling fam of giant drum-si
sudden throbbing, like the burst of a
titanic machine-gun. For half-mile in
length the water rose in wall of great
smothering spouts, hundred feet in
height. The crash of their falling was
like thunder, and where the smooth
running seas had been was now a tum-
bling vortex from which combing waves
ran out in following circles. 1t had
seemed as if the waters had been snit-
ten by the same rod that had opened
them for the Israelites and closed upon
the hosts of Pharaoh.
No one could speak. The Admiral |
raised his forearm across his eyes as |
if to hide the impression of the sight. |
Captain Howarth bent forward with q |
groan. A voice from below spoke |
again, ir. awe-stricken accents this |
time:
MY Lord in heaven, what was that ?' |
Aye, what was it?
Those who had seen it guessed and /
knew. The submarines, huddled almost |
in close contact, had come together. |
The explosion of one had ripped out all |
the rest. Who could have foretold this I
happening? Had those brave, silent |
men, whose work no one had envied, |
known this? Had the inventor, over
his drawing-board, been warned of such
possibility? There was no time to |
think The fact was proved. One ex-
pertinent in modern warfare needed no
further trial.
The ships We're rocking now in the rip
of the waves caused by the awful do
ing out there in the water. They sway
ed and rose and fell as the close-fol-
lowing waves struck them.
The Admiral turned.
Signal the fleet to keep their dis
tance-half-speed ahead" he said,
but his face had gone white as
the glove on the hand that trembled
as he pulled at his gray mustache.
The Washington swung in a little
closer to the black line of the English
fleet, but not one gun was fired at her.
Both sides seemed paralyzed, shocked,
half dismayed into forgetfulness of ac-
ton. Then, with a crash, the English
man broad off the beam of the Wash
ington opened. Black specks whirled
in the air from the grand old battle
ships decks. She almost staggered un-
der the blows that reached her. for the
lines were now but little more than six
miles apart.
Naval experts had said that they
could not have approached that near
without losing ships on both sides. At
the center and northward sweep of the
trailing vessels they were hid by
haze that low upon the
water drifted down toward the British
feet-the fumes from the tons of pow
erfuI explosives of the submarines. It
was repu1sive-looking cloud that hung /
together, rolling, weaving,
and eddying over the surface.
Suddenly a shrieking, whirring shell
came out of somewhere, and with the
noise of freight-train rafting across
a trestle, passed overhead just clear Of
the Arizona's flying bridge, and tore
westward.
..Howarth." said Admiral Benton,
ito the coming tower with US! 1 don't
know about asking any men to stay in
those fighting tops, but suppose they
must take their chances a while longer.
Commence firing with the port battery
at those two ships just ahead of that
line of smoke; they'll soon be well out
Of it,
A bugle rang. The bridge beneath
heir feet. as they started for the ladder,
eapt and trembled. Emery saw the
projeetile plainly as it scared out in its
flight. He paused a second TO watch,
then
Good shot," he cried. straight into
1er.''
The young lad in the top screamed
-,r,aa ting q words If