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


a giants cold ehisel; the structure sag
ged at its center where the gratings
were splintered and broken.
There was a pungent, acrid odor
throughout the ship. Down the ladders,
/ TO where the doctors waited, bleeding
forms were being carried. The white
decks-even the walls of the citadel
were spattered with red drops.
The Admiral, who had his eye to one
/, of the Sits in the great metal wall, as
Emery entered, suddenly staggered.
Emery and Captain Howarth and Com
mander Keene, the fleet captain, and
the navigator fell forward, the latter to
his knees. Instinctively they had all
raised their hands and clasped their
temples. The quartermaster and the
ensign at the wheel alone remained
erect, clinging to the spokes. The Ad-
miral turned his bloodshot eyes upon
the others. his lips moved and he form
ed some words, but not a sound could
the hag-lieutenant hear. There was
bulge in the port side of the coming
tower, like a great blister about to
break. The Admiral pointed at it.
Emery touched it with his hands. 1t
was so hot it burned his fingers. Fair
and square the conning-tower had been
struck by thirteen-inch armour-pierc-
ing shell. Three minutes later it was
hit a glancing shot, and then twice
more by heavy shells. The Admiral
stumbled over to one of the telephones.
He shouted something into the mouth
piece, and then, his face strained and
white, waited for a reply Emery cross
ed over to him. The Admiral grasped
him by the shoulders.
Are we all deaf?" he cried. Can
you hear me. what I say?"
A thin little trickle of blood rain from
mis- nostrils.
Il can, SIR the fiag-lieutenant shout
ed back, nodding.
What? Speak 1oudi My God, my
hearings gone. I want to call up the
central station and speak to the eIectri-
clan and operator" roared the Admiral
Captain Howarth stepped to the in
strument.
!. Il can't hear anything" re groaned.
Here, Emery, try. Quick, mani"
The lieutenant bent over the earpiece
and listened. Although his hearing had
somewhat returned to him, he could
make out nothing.
There's something wrong he cried.
sI'll try the tubes" He raised the lit
tie brass lid and listened. There was
a kissing, whist1ing sound plainly audi
BILE.
THE tube is broken" he cried.
There's steam escaping somewhere, I
could swear
Il want to send a message to Rear
Admiral Bates shouted Admiral Ben
ton. II want to signal him by wire
less to close up. I intend to try TO
break through the British lines. Well
all be sunk out here-they've four guns
to our one"
Every now and then could be felt Tie
shock of some big projectile against the
Arizona's sides or Superstructure. At
her was being poured the concentrated
fire of three first-class battleships and
cruiser. It was only question of time
when she would be put out of action.
Her top sides We're riddled through and
through. From her tunnels smoke was
pouring; for the oil, owing to some ac-
cident to the blowers, did not burn well.
How long she could stand it no one
knew.
The fag-lieutenant grasped the Adj
arm.
I'll go and reach them, sir-i:l sig
nal them he said.
He held out a notebook and pencil. !
The Admiral understood.
NO no." he cried, you must not!'
Emery extended the notebook and
smiled back into his bloodshot eyes.
The Admiral wrote something hastily.
Bareheaded, the flag-lieutenant dart .
ed through the entrance, lodged past
the rear shield, and had a step or two
to take before he could gain the pro-
tecting wall of the citadel. /
Curiosity will tempt men to do many
things. 1t tempted him that day to
stand a second there in the open where |
all was bright and clear. The oddite
fumes, blown back from the guns, stung
his throat and nostrils. and started him !
coughing violently. But he could see
everything-eve
Just short distance ahead, within
four hundred yards, was the Tennessee. /
He would hardly have recognized her
now! Both military nasts were gone
at the height of her smoke-stacks, and
one of the latter was shorn off at least I
a dozen feet. She was as full of holes
as a tin tossed in the air might be from
a charge of bird-shot. Yet her guns
were hard at work. The English line
was firing slower than the American.
Across the space between the vessels !
Emery could see the shots crossing;
the larger ones groaned and rumbled
as they came and went in the game
Of pitch and toss. The guns OF lighter
caliber were keeping up a steady,
fire that screamed in high
treble. Perhaps the most awful thing
in the whole picture was it's very clear
ness.
Emery jumped inside the superstruc-
ture, and there paused in absolute dis
may. Only the two forward six-inch
guns were in action. About the farthest
lay almost the entire crew. The gun
mount itself had been destroyed and
the oreech rested on the deck. In the
short space of the few minutes-for
since the action had begun it was but
little over quarter OF an hour-great-
ar havoc had been wrought than Emery