New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-10-19

/ west, as our 1leeI eueeu MIN VII iio
coming up from behind them, follow
Thus, for while we had the enemy
| to the westward of us, where he made
a better mark, but the day was closing
and the weather thickened, and the
enemy wanted to get away. At S:l5 the
foe, still heading southwest, was COW
cred by his destroyers in great screen
Of gray smoke, and he got away as
darkness fell Our fleets lay between
the enemy and his home ports. During
the night our heavy ships, keeping well
clear Of possible mine fields, swept
down south to south and west of Horns
Reef, so that they might pick him up in
the morning.
When morning came our main fleet
could find no trace Of the enemy TO the
southwark, but our destroyer hotillas
further north had been very busy with
the enemy's ships, apparently running
for Horns Reef Channel.
/ II looked then as if when we lost
sight of the enemy in the screen Of
smoke and darkness he had changed his
course and broken for home astern our
main fleets. Whether that was a sound
maneuvre or otherwise, he and the
4 still flows of the North Sea alone can
tell. But how is layman to give any
coherent account of an affair where q
whole country's coastlne was the back
ground to battle covering geographi-
cal degrees? The records give an i'm
/ preston of illimitable gray waters
nicked on their uncertain horizons with
the smudge and blur of ships, sparkling
with fury against ships hidden under
curve of the world
Mist and FOgs Obscure Distances
One sees these distances madden
/ irgly obscured by walking mists and
/ weak fogs or wiped out by layers Of
! funnel and gun smoke and realizes how
at the pace the ships were going any
thing might be stumbled upon in the
haze or charge out of it when it lifted
glare of a great vessel afire might be
reported as local fire on a nearby
enemy or. vice versa, how a silhouette
caught for an instant in a shaft of pale
! light let down from q low stay might
be fatally difficult to identify until il
would be too late.
But, add to all this, the inevitable
confusions and misreckonings of time,
shape and distance, charges at every
angle of squadrons through and across
other squadrons, sudden shifts of cen
tres of fights, and even swifter restora-
tons, wheelings, sweepings and re-
groupments, such as accompany the
passage across space Of colliding uni
verses, then blanket the whole inferno
with the darkness of night at full
speed and see what you can make Of II.
A little time after the action began
TO heat up between our battle-cruis ers
and the enemy's, eight or ten OF our
destroyers opened the ball for their
branch Of service by breaking UP the
attack of an enemy light-cruiser and
fifteen destroyers. or those they ac-
counted for at least two destroyers--
some think more-and drove others
| back on their battle-cruisers. This
scattered that fight a good deal over
the sea.
Destroyers Hold Out for Enemy
Three Of our destroyers held on for
the enemy's battle feet, who came down
on them at ranges which eventually
grew less than three thousand yards.
Our people ought to have been lifted
off the seas bodily, but they managed
to fire a couple of torpedoes apiece
while the race was diminishing. They
had no illusions. Says one OF three,
speaking of her second shot, which she
loosed at fairly close range: This tor
pedo was fired because II was consid-
cred very unlikely that the sh:p would
escape disablement before another OPP
portunity could be offered" But still
they lived three destroyers against all
the battle-cruiser fleets, with their
quickfirers, as well as the fire of a
batch of enemy's destroyers at six
hundred yards-and they were thank
full for small mercies.
The position being favorable, third
torpedo was fired from each, while they
yet noated, at two thousand five hun
dred yards. One destroyer was hit
somewhere in its vitals and Sweryed
badly across her next astern, which
was obliged to alter her course to
avoid a collision, thereby railing 10 nre
fourth torpedo. Then that next
astern observed the signal for the de,
stroyers' recall and went back to report
to her fotilla captain alone.
OF her two companions, one was bad
ly hit and remained stopped between
the lines; the other remained stopped,
but was ahoat when last seen. Ships
that remain stopped are liable TO be
rammed or sunk by methodlcal gun
fire.
Enemy's Nerves Not Steadied
Perhaps fifty minutes work was put
In before there was any really vicious
edge to the action, and it did not
steady the nerves Of the enemy's battle
cruisers any more than another at.
tack made by another detachment OF
ours.
"What does one do when one passes
n ship that remains stopped l ask
of a youth who had had experience
Nothing special; they cheer and you
cheer back. One doesn't think about