Evening star., 1924-12-07


| opened fire at point-blank range.
There was an awe-inspiring ex-
| plosion within a foot or so of my
head, and more terrifying still, with
in not more than two feet six inches
OF the dynamite. as a shell struck the
light deck over my head, which was
only just high enough for me 70
| stand up under. II was. however
only a common" shell--that is. one
charged with gun-powder and not high
explosive, and, except for some smoke
and a good many splinters, we were
none the worse. The effect on the
captain, however, was instanteous
and electrifying.
AS the shell burst he made one
dive to get away, leaving the wheel
to spin which way it might, and the
ship also. II he was quick, however,
was quite a little quicker, for ]
had him by the collar with a grip Of
iron as he passed, and threw him
over on his back. and with my pistol
pressed under his chin I ordered him
to stand up and keep the ship on its
course.
/ have not the slightest doubt that
I was pretty rough, and, II so, IL was
| what l meant to be, as we were In q
tight place, and not one where II was
wise to leave any doubt possible as
to ones intentions. My man, who had
been in the Navy for years before the
war. kept the ship straight on her
course during this short tussle, which
lasted seconds only.
|, In the meanwhile three more shells
got us in the white-painted poop
where we were posted behind our
dynamite barricade. which no longer
ormed as desirable or effective q
form OF defense as it had before.
However, nothing blew up, and we
still remained alive. When he actually
got between the two gunboats the
ire momentarily ceased. for they
were then afraid Of hitting each
other.
AS we forged ahead they both com.
nenced firing again. and the Russian
captain again started struggling in
his terror. so much go that / really
thought I was going to be obliged to
shoot him. in case he might start up
all his countrymen, who formed the
majority on board the Armenian.
! therefore jammed my pistol at the
back of his neck, and quietly asked
MY man, in English, to stand back. as
expected l would have 20 shoot the
coward directly, and 1t would make a
nasty mess! On these words the cap
| tain, who had hitherto maintained
that he knew no English, went all
imp in my hands, and never offered
another struggle Of any sort.
We were now leaving the guard
ships astern, and got four or Ave
| more shells into us--ali in the in-
ternaliy white painted construction
we were standing In, for apparently
the remainder of our vessel was In
visible from the guardships. The
gunboats ceased firing when they
could no longer see us, by which time
we could not see them, either, even II
we had wished to, which we certainly
| did not.
x !; = \
DROBABLY Of all the sighs OF re-
lief which were heaved that
night ] heaved the biggest one then,
as IL was hard to conceive how IL was
possible to come safely through such
fire as that to which we had been
| subjected, with such box of fire.
works as the ship we were on, with
out giving highly sensational pyro-
| technic display. Indeed, IL would
never have been believed that shells
could burst so close to dynamite with
] out decorating It.
The explanation. of course, Is that