Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-10-20

~ lCCl Az CA6A LII 6Ao u 40 Az
carried her. close against him. up the
stairs. Then. strangely, he saw
Garry's little boy-the straight, smil.
ing little fellow with the Arizona rib
bon on his hat; in the next instant Bob
was himself again and was conscious
that he was facing Louden, the firing
pointer. who still held to the firing key,
though for the moment Louden's eyes,
too, were staring at nothing-very far
away.
In the suspense the motion of the
ship had become more m~enacing-the
heave of the great waves against the
steel sides, the sweep of the spray
over the deck. and the noise of the
wind. In such a sea few would be
saved If the ship went down.
Some one behind a bulkhead swore
violently; Bob did not try to discover
who. 1t was the swapping of nerves
during inaction; and the outburst was
against the smoke-the crazy SCOT
which the destroyers were sending UP
and which shut everything away and
stopped the guns from firing.
A deep. rumbling detonation-very
different from the banging resound of
the guns of the destroyers-came down
the wind; the noise of the "fours'
diminished.
Wendell tried again to make out
something through his periscope but
the smoke was still all about the
Arizona.
"What do you make Of that, HoltT'
he asked Of the turret captain. 'Tor-
pedo?"
Eyes. sir; one of the destroyers gone,
I should say, sir"
One of the ~destroyers gone! That.
now, was plain. The smoke about the
Arizona was thinning and. as Bob's
field of vision extended q couple Of
hundred yards forward and to the
left, he saw a destroyer sinking by the
stern. 1t was one of the new and
larger of the destroyers-a long, -four
funneled boat with two mssts and
with sharp prov pointing to the sky.
1t was the Aylwin. or the Balch. which
had been on guard ahead the few min
utes before, It's guns going, its fun
nels belching smoke for the hiding of
the Arizona; smoke still steamed from
the forward tunnels as the destroyer
sank; but its guns were silent, leering
to the sky. Men were falling from It's
slanting deck into the sea others chung
to stays or s~tanchions. They made no
signal to the battleship as 300 yards
away, 1t rushed by In the haze Of
smoke which the other destroyers sus.
tanned. The Arizona. bent on the de-
%struction Of life. could not halt to save
men from the vessel which had been
protecting the ~battleship: the men on
the destroyer knew It; n of them
waved and Bob knew that he was
cheering. as the Arizona passed; then
he leaped into the sea.
The clatter of a machine gun; the
rattle Of another, replying, sounded
from the air overhead. The turret
guns of the Arizona were still masked
and silent; the torpedo defense batter.
les on the battleship still lacked a
target; the noise Of the machine gun
became distinct. Two aeroplanes were
fghting-an American machine pur.
sued by a monoplane of the enemy
and driven back over the American
ships. Bob saw the duel but a flash.
ing second as the aircraft swept over
head. The smoke was disappearing;
the destroyer, which had been belchine
the pail, appeared again-or rather
three of them appeared where there
had been four.
orange. one. nine. o double o." the
telephone transmitters in the turret
were talking again. The visual upon
The bulkhead displayed the range as
The sightsetters sprang to their sights.
Commence firing!"
The Arizona had passed through the
zone where the enemy's submarines
had waited; the American observers in
the a%eroplanes and on the destroyers
far ahead had reported no more sub
mersibles in a position of danger; those
which had been passed could not, sub
merged, overtake the battleships. The
Pennsylvania, with its patrol of de-
stroyers ahead and on both sides, also
was safe. Far, far ahead the great
cruisers Of the enemy appeared In
fight. A mast was gone from one of
the Peras, the third ship in the line
at which the Arizona had been firing.
The gun crew cheered as Bob reported
1t to them; cheered again for the
Pennsylvania as he told the men that
the Carthage lacked a funnel. The
enemy had been hit and were In flight.
Boys, that was the Balch they tor
pedoed! Boys, for the Balch-and for
the Salem the other day!"
The right gun leaped back in its re
coil as the firing pointer pressed his
key. The roar of a gun from the
Pennsylvania doomed in rivalry over
the water. Both ships were firing but
one gun again to find the range before