Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-08-18

tain to meet with the one or gain the
other.
War has broken out-a great naval
war-and at last he has the on
portunity of putting into practice the
lessons OF courage, endurance, and re.
source, to the learning of which his
whole service in destroyers and his
entire life in the British navy has
} been devoted. He has been detailed to
locate the position of a battIeshiu
which is known to be in the neighbor.
hood, and has been allowed great
discretion.
He knows that he is at liberty, if he
feels so disposed, to risk his ship and
crew in an attempt 10 destroy the
enemy, and, being young, fearless, and
ambitious, he resolves to take his
chance. 1t is considered that a de-
stroyer and her crew are not a heavy
price to pay for battleship and her
company.
In the dead of the night he has
found his quarry-a huge. noble. new
Dattleship, which is lying fearfully at
anchor in roadstead, dreading an
attack from some sea hornet ana
making her best defensive prepara
tons. Her torpedo-nets are hung
around her, and her crew are on the
alert. At almost numberless guns men
are stationed, and the muzzles CON-
mand an area of sea in which a de-
stroyer cannot live for more than a
very few seconds. The odds are
seriously against the commander, but
he has made up mis- mind to face them
and take his chances in a grand and
daring rush.
The die is cast. 1t is touch and go
with death. The destroyer gives no
mercy nor does she expect any-she
would not receive it even if she did.
Full speed ahead she rushes towards
her quarry-the vast bulk whose
seachlights send out intense beams
which are like gigantic feelers on the
face of the waters, feelers for thai
ruthless enemy which can dash I'D.
fire, and disappear almost before her
presence has been guessed. These
very searchlights prove the battleship's
undoing by acting as target for the
swooping foe.
The commander Is daring, and luck
1 is with him. He approaches his prey
and runs up within striking distance
unobserved, for the strong beams have
momentarily left the course he is TAX.
ing and leave black space in which
he can steal onward unseen. A signal
from the conning-tower, and the first
torpedo is discharged. Another order
and the second goes, lest the first
should have missed the target.
But the luck of the bold has been
with the commander, and both the
terrible missiles have struck home
By the time they explode the de-
stroyer has turned and is racing back
into the dark night and safety. Of re-
taliatory fire there is none, since
hopeless panic has fallen upon the
battleship's company when the roar
and conclusion have pronounced her
DOOM
! But there is another side to the
! picture, and it is darker than the
black night in which the destroyer is
hurrying frantically towards her prey.
The target is the same, and the means
of reaching and defending it are I'M
altered; it is only the end which
differs.
In this case the destroyer is seen
before she can discharge her tor
pedoes effectively. before she can turn
hn to.a ltxr
towards the battleship, but into no
friendly patch of darkness.
The sweeping searchlights find her
out and instantly the night is red,
dened with the fire of guns, the great
sides blaze with anger and the fight
ipg-tops are lurid. There is the rap
ping of quick-frers and the savage
crash of heavier weapons.
There is the rattle, TOO, of rifles,
most of them wildly fred, and most of
them missing their target. 1t is one
thing to take steady aim in time of
peace, when officers are watchful and
ammunition has to be accounted for;
when there is time to think and moth.
ing to fear: it is another thing en-,
tirely when an enemy's destroyer
rushes up and before her presence is
known has discharged that white,
shark-like form which, if it strikes,
means such destruction.
But wild and ragged as the gun and
rifle fire has been, there are shots
which have struck home. The con-
ning-tower has been pierced and
smashed; a shot has entered the
vitals of the destroyer-has gone in at
one side and out at the other as If
she had been matchwood. The decR
is torn and denied with bullets and
red with the blood of the slain; and
/ from the shattered ventilators rises a
mass of mingled smoke and steam
and powder fumes.
| On deck not a soul survives, be
/ low every man is dead at his post
! ii is an inferno in which existence is
/ impossible. In the conning-tower it
self the commander has taken his last
/ view of all things, his neryeless hands