Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-02
cHAprER xIv-continued.

In the fury OF warfare which now en-
sued let the reader fix his eye upon a mid
| die-sized and comparatively unimportant
| ship which stands far back in the star
board limb OF the British wedge. She Is
called the Iphisenia; second-class cruiser;
| tonnage. 5000; horsepower, 1900; not very
wonderfully armored. but agile in the wa
| ter. and capable OF showing a clean pair
of heels. On board Of her is-Fate.
| Yonder Is the Gefon engaged with the
Terrible. and yonder both the Pascal and
| the incompatible with the Revenge, and
| yonder again the Barfleur with the Admiral
| NachimoiY and the Powerful with the Jean
Bart. Wide is the war and various. The
| British wedge has penetrated the fleet of
| the allies. The navies of the world are
| mixed together In a hotch-potch of COM
| bat. Either with design or without. the
| battle, within five minutes from its start.
| has become a mere melee of thunder.
| There are Instances, on one side and the
| other. OF splendid maneuvering of the TS'tt
| thing done at the right moment But these
| all are Individual, between ship and ship,
| captain and captain. Neither on the one
side nor on the other is there any wide
| plan, or grand plot, or omnipresent eye.
On the whole. 1t is a question of weight
of metal against weight of metal. The
| great man is not there
Slowly, in his dark prison. the Chinese
| iron is entering into the soul OF john
| Hardy. He Is being taught the meaning
| Of Fear, and familiarity with the face of
Pain This. too, was necessary for him. :.
But see what a mess the Terrible Is
making of the Gefion yonder in the very
thick of things. Some of the ships are
| fighting at little more than pistol-shot
\ distance; and the Terrible is well within
| half knot Of the dsmantled Geffon when
Commander Maddern, careering to star
| board, trumpets forth through the uproar
| in a kind of German: Haul down your
| flag. or I'll ram!" And half minute later
| down sails the flag of the Gefion: and half
| a minute later still, down dives the Geffon
herself to her final harbor at the bottom
of the Hwang Hal which swallows with
| her all that part of her crew which pin
| mace of the Terrible is unable to rescue.
But the Revenge has lodged a Pinch
shell in the fore port magazine OF the In
domptable in vain. The French ship shud-
ders-then, a little forward of amidships,
| there is red belch that spouts high above
| her mast. and curves outward in lurid
| rain far over the sea-then there Is long
reverberation Of gathering thunder-and
| the incompatible bursts and sinks. But this
| row Is mingled with another, caused by
| the ram of the laundering Pascal which
| Is working and ravening in the central
armor belt of the Revenge. The three YES
| sells disappear from sight within a minute
| Of each other.
There, on the far starboard edge of the
| British line of battle the Iphigenia-on
| board of which is Fate-is leveling her
Gardeners and Nordenfeldts upon a small
| approaching second-class torpedo boat;
| growing harshly is she, like hound
which bristleS and CRASHES and snarls,
| treating backward, at the sudden appari
| ton of an advancing cobra.
| The torpedo boat lances one of her nee
| dies of steel but 1t is caught by wave,
| tossed upwards in a Whit of spray and
| sent flying to starboard. where 1t eXplodes
under the stern of the French f1rst-cass
| battery cruiser Arethuse. As the tube of
| the torpedo boat sends forth another ex-
| plosive the of the Iphigenia passes
into and over her small assailant the tor
pedo explodes ten yards away, but tears
| hole In the for'ard protective bulkhead of
down by the starboard bow.
But what is this phenomenon which now
suddenly appalls every eye-the eyes of
friend and foe; something appalling by its
mere novelty. not hitherto seen in sea or
land warfare-something in the air-with all
the properties and the powers of a spirit
Of evil?
1t is a balloon-narrow, low and long
French In origin 1t can be Steered back
ward and forward even in the teeth of a
light wind; and its operators have the
power of dropping dynamite shells with a
steel casing, containing liquid oxygen and
blasting gelatine, upon the hostile ships. 1t
has come sailing with the light breat of
the southwest monsoon from French ship
which has studiously kept far on the out
skirts of the battle.
1t Is not a toy; nor is 1t sent up as a Gu
riosity for the amusement of the British
ships. 1t becomes stationary high over the
Barf1eur a black dot is seen to disengage
itself from 1t, and a moment or two after
ward nnety-five British sailors are dead
and the engines of the Barfieur are no
longer there Then. sparng of its Shells
1t moves on in another direction, and then
swiftly in another, and another letting fall
each time, like some evil bird, its deadly
droppings. Except two, which fall into
| the sea, every shell destroys a ship. One
bullet of rife would be sufficient to prove
| fatal to it, but 1T is high, its movements
are swift and sudden, and when at last ii
tumbIes, pierced. into the sea, the battle
is all but over. 1t has done its work.
| This had been the wisdom of France In
| the time of peace; that she had not de-
! spsed the ingenious man, and his in
| genuities; she had invited the thinker; she
had welcomed the dreamer of dreams.
| This was the second time since the be-
| ginning of the that the British had
| come into contact with the Forges ct Chan
| tiers de la Mediterranee and had shuddered
| intensely at the contact
But we are an ocean race! Every cock
ON his own dunghll-and England on the
sea. But for the French balloon the Brit
| ish would very likely have won the battle
| by five seaworthy ships and one unsea-
| worthy. AS 1t was, they won by two sea-
| worthy ships and one unseaworthy.
The last shot was fired by the Iphgenia
| at German third-class cruiser which she
| sank This was the last but two OF the al
| He'd vessels left afloat; the other two, hav-
| ing some time since struck their flag were
| now sinking fast
Besides the Iphgenia, which had engines
| tunnels, screws and rudder intact but had
| a considerable crank Forwards, three were
| afioat of the British craft the Daphne a
| twin-screw sloop. practically uninjured. and
| the Barfieur, floating mere log, unable to
| move. There were fifty-seven men alive
| in her.
| The Iphigenia had one boat and the
| Daphne two still capable of passing over
| the water; and these were soon out two
| of them making toward the Barfieur to take
+, off her crew, and the third In the direction
of one of the still floating two ships of the
| Allies. for the purpose Of rescue
| The sea was oiliy smooth; the breeze had
died to mere breath; the sun had climbed
| to noon.
| All was STILL Over four buried navies the
water swung laziIy-as cradle which one
has ceased to rock. of its own motion
Wefrdly sad Is that vast and wandering
| grave fof the sailor, and careless is the
| great heart of the sea.
So intent were all who fioated during this
quiet noontide in the central ocean upon
| the humane work of rescue that no one