Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1912-01-19
A Battle on the Sea,

TITHER there was no news OF the
naval battle that morning or
the prince kept to himself what
- ever came until past midday.
Then the bulletins came with a rush
bulletins that made Lieutenant Kurt
wild with excitement
'Barbarossa disabled and sinking"
he cried
He walked about the swinging cabin,
and for time he was wholly German.
Then he became English again.
Think Of 1t. Smallways! The old ship
We kept 30 clean and tidy! All smash
ed about and the iron flying about in
fragments, and the chaps one knew
Gott!-fying about too! Scalding water
squirting, fire and the smashsmash
OF the guns! They smash when you're
nearl Like everything bursting to
pieces! Wool won't stop it-nothing!
Der alte Barbarossaw
"Any other ships?" asked Smallways
presently.
"Gott! Yes! We've lost the Karl der
Crosse, our best and biggest. Run
down In the night by British liner
that blundered into the fghting-in try
Ing to blunder out They're fighting in
q gale. The liners afioat with her nose
broken, sagging about! There never
was such battle-never before"
So 1t was the news Of the battle
came tiltering through to them all that
morning. The Americans had lost a
second ship, name unknown. The
Hermann had been damaged in cover
ing the Barbarossa Kurt fretted like
an imprisoned animal about the air
ship. now going up to the forward
gallery under the eagle, now down
into the swinging gallery, now poring
over his maps. He infected Small
ways with sense OF the immediacy
of this battle that was going on just
over the curve of the earth. But
when Bert went down to the gallery
the world was empty and still, clear
inky blue sky above and rippled
veil Of still, thin sunlit cirrus below.
through which one saw a racing drift
Of rain cloud and never a glimpse Of
sea. Throb, throb, throb, throb. went
the engines, and the long, undulating
wedge Of airships hurried after the
flagship like fight of swans after
their leader. Save for the quiver of
the engines it was as noiseless as a
dream. And down there somewhere
in the wind and rain guns roared,
shells crashed home and, after the old
manner Of warfare, men toiled and
died.
AS the afternoon wore on the lower
weather abated and the sea became in
termittently visible again The air
fleet dropped slowly to the middle air.
and toward sunset they had glimpse
of the disabled Barbarossa far away to
the east. Smallways heard men hurry
Ing along the passage and was drawn
out to the gallery, where he found
nearly a dozen officers collected and
scrutinizlng the helpless ruins # the
battleship through fieldglasses. Two
other vessels stood by her, one an ex-
hausted petrol tank, very high out of
the water, and the other a converted
EHGE nurt was at the end of the gal
Ary, little apart from the others.
"Gottv' he said at last, lowering his
binocular 'it is like seeing an old
friend with his nose cut off-waiting
to be finished. Der Barbarossaw
With a sudden impulse he handed
bis glass to Bert, who had peered be-
meath his hands. ignored by every one.
seeing the three ships merely as three
brown black lines upon the sea.
Never had Bert seen the like of that
magnifled slightly hazy image before
1t was not simply battered ironclad
that wallowed helpless; it was a man
gled ironclad. 1t seemed wonderful
she still Hoated. Her powerful en-
Eines had been her ruin. In the ilong
chase of the night she had got out of
line with her consorts and nippad in