The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1917-09-13

placed it in the sings. They swung
It forward into the breech Of the tube.
One man at the pump rapidly filled the
breech chamber with the compressed
air that was to send the missile upon
it's course.
-; Donald, in the coming tower. still
held the cruiser within the mirror He
saw the smoke coil from her guns. he
heard their dull reverberation, and
knew that at any moment the blinded
F55 might be sent staggering to her
death through the wake Of her wash.
But he was animated by the single
minded purpose which inspired all and
made the steel and human mechanism
q bolt forged for death.
Clouts, at the wheel, did not allow
the little craft to deviate hairs
breadth from her course.
"Stand byw
The hiss of the oxygen apparatus
dominated all other sounds. At her
45-knot speed the missile left the
launching tube with heavy thud. and
the ship quivered as she shook herself
free.
And Donald knew that his shot had
gone home.
The whir grew less, but all listened
until the end Of the mile-long journey.
On board the enemy ship everyone
could see the air bubbles that came up
from the speeding missile and its
white. foaming wake. There was no
time to maneuver the giant ship. They
prayed-they could do no more-that
the torpedo might not have been shot
true; that it might deviate from its
imminent path.
1t came on inexTably. The firing
became wilder. The gunners, alb
sorbed as they were in their task.
seemed permeated with the contagious
terror caused by that white, ripping
pencil line that was extending toward
their ship.
The missile struck the battle cruiser
aMidships, blowing out section Of
her hull, single water-tight compart-
ment. The cruiser hardly staggered
from the blow.
The torpedo had struck glancing,
and missed the full force of its deliv-
cry. The wound was in itself too
small to sink or even badly cripple the
great ship; triumph of shipbuilding,
and calculated to withstand just such
an impact.
Unfortunately for her, the maximum
of the shock was received beneath the
powder room, adjacent to the ammu-
milton chamber, whose doors were
open at that moment for the removal
Of the Pinch shells by the ammuni-
ton hoist.
The shock was followed by an inf
mite suspense. Perhaps it. lasted for
two seconds. The cruiser drove
through the waves like some sea mon /.
ster that had received a deadly thrust
Then, with q defamation that was
heard from Sumburgh to Sutherland. |
she went sky-high in tumbling ruin. !
Donald, within the coming tower, saw
q blur frost the mirror Of the peri |
scope.
Another second passed. Then the .
F55 went Keeling under the terrific /
force Of the explosion. She spun
round under the waves and thrilled as
4 she herself faced disruption.
The bilge-pumps cleared her diving
-anks. She rose, nose upward, scent
ng the air; her stern followed, and
she lay awash in the water once more.
rhe matches were removed.
Not vestige Of the cruiser was to
De seen. She had sunk in less than
hree minutes.
But hard by, not three-quarters Of
/ mile to port, a pillar of smoke, lit
Up by fame, curled out Of the Be0tia's
latches. Deeming her the submarines
lecoy, the cruisers gunners had rid
He'd her with shells from the two 12-
nch guns at the bow. !
She seemed to stagger through the
moke that wreathed her. She. Was
lying By IRE and water, too. and tie
win elements. In their eternal co01lct.
ecked nothing Of her human ftelsAt.
And Ida was tAsrs-IdA Doomed 70
)ee4sh. Il sAs were not already 60,
nlsDs Aslp speedily camel sd i
O0oald teok H. helm III ~
1sAsd thasuSA ~ waH1e = - o.
sellSa g ~ 0aa6e npGes N11eA ~.
a Aasd - stalhoarl I've Ieats had
llrsedy teea launeAsd, ana bobbed
idieu3sUly be1lds Ase; sGAsfs ~
aained high - n he aiE: impotsnt
ecause he Mt pesvsated thsir being
owersd, and dashed thsmselveo 70
leces against the hun % tAey swung
rom tAe shattered davits,
A. the E06 drew near the ocean
eemed to open. Silently. softly. the
envexi1 of ths hull clipped down and
vas lost 20 view - the suns edge
oes into the horizon, A swirl and
ddy In the sea, and nothing remained
kept the two boats and some tiny,
oll-like figures that bobbed In the
'ater.
"a