Sea-Hounds

that set Able-seaman Melton talking of the things he had seen and felt and heard the time he was standing anti-submarine watch in the Firebrand, when

tilla Leader I chanced to be in at the time. A fairly decent day was turning into a dirty night, and the steadily thickening mistiness which accompanied a sodden rain in process of transformation into soft snow had reduced the v

he Flyer take on an accelerated throb as her speed was increased, and a moment later the wake began to boil higher as the helm was put hard-a-starboard to bring her round. We were steaming a cable's length on the starboard bow of the Olympus, the leading ship of the squadron at the ti

nine or ten points, I suddenly saw the ominously bulking bows of the Olympus come juggernauting out of the night, with the amorphous loom of the bridge and foretop towering monstrously above. The Flyer seemed fairly to jump out of the water

to warn the forebridge. The great super-dreadnought responded to her helm very smartly considering her tonnage, and she turned just far enough to starboard to avoid grinding us under. I could almost look up through the port hawse-pipe as the flare of her bow loomed above my head,

rue British sailor moved by righteous anger; a forty or fifty degree heel to starboard as the curling bow-wave of the Olympus thwacked resoundingly along her port side, and the

rdered face against the outside of the closely-reefed hood of my "lammy" coat, and muttered thickly something about being afraid he had got himself into trouble. When I had pulled loose a snap and improved communications by unmuffling a lee ear

, with the white foam flyin' off both sides of it, bearing down right for where I was standin'-all that was so like what I saw the night of Jutlan

ks before she had been visible from his less-favourable vantage, they would probably have be

something of that dare-devilish exploit) "could have looked to you like the Olympus ramping down on a right-angling course and threatening to slice off the Flyer's stern

minit, sir, an' no sooner was we clear o' the first un than the second come tearin' down on us, tryin' to cut us in two amidships. An' that last un was a battl' cru'ser nigh as big as the 'Lympus, all

fireside reminiscence. But, both these facts notwithstanding, I felt that, since I was leaving the Flyer to go to another base directly she arrived in harbour on the morrow, it would be criminal to neglect the opportunity of hearing what was perhaps the most sportingly spectacular of all the Jutland destroyer actions related by one who was actually in it. I did not dare to distract Melton's attention from his lookou

oth as his brother Yank. Because I could hardly take him to the captain's cabin, which I was occupying for the moment, for a yarn, and because he, likewise, could not take

intervals of the flurries of flakes where the starboard bow-wave curled back from the Olympus, gave an intermittent bearing to help in keeping station. Underfoot was the blackness of the pit, not the faintest gleam reflecting from the waves washing over the weather side to swirl half-knee high about our sea boots. Even overhead all that was visible were fluttering pa

th mittened hands to extract from its greased tissue paper wrapper, and the seductive fragrance of crunched peppermint mingled with the acrid fumes of burning petroleum as he leaned close and began to tell how the --th Flotilla, to which the Firebrand belonged, screening the --th B.S. of the Battle Fleet, came upon the scene toward the end of the long summer afternoon.

reenin'. The Killarney was leadin' an' after her came the Firebran', Seagull, Wreath, an' Consort, makin' up the First Divishun. Wreath an' Consort sighted some Hun U-boats and 'stroyers while this move was on, an' plunk'd off a few shot

ck of milk chocolate without removing its wrapping of foil and paper, b

n 'em an' their way back home, an' that they was tryin' to sneak through in the darkness. The Wreath, at the end o' the line nearest 'em, spotted 'em first, and she, 'cause she didn't want to give herself 'way wi' flashin', reported what she'd seen by low-power W.T. to

the Killarney's bridge and busted. She was zigzaggin' a coupl' o' points on Firebrand's starboard bow just then, so my standin' aft didn't prevent my gettin' a good look at what was happenin'. I could see the bodies o' four or five men flyin' up wi' the wreckage o' the explosion, an' then, all in a minnit, she was

er. She was the fairest mark ever a gun trained on, and p'raps that was what tempted the Hun to keep pumpin' projes at her instead o' givin' mo

nnit, that the crew of our after torpedo tube was gettin' busy, an' while I was watchin' 'em, over flops the mouldie and starts to run. I knew it was aimed for one or t'other o' the two leadin' Huns, but wasn't dead sure which till I saw the after funnels an' mainmast o' the second toppl' over an' a big flash o' fire take their place. Then it looked like there was exploshuns right of

m her as we turned an' left her astern, an' she looked stopped dead. A Hun cru'ser was closin' the blazin' wreck o' her, firm' hard; but, by Gawd, what d'you think I saw. The only patch on the ol' Killarney that was free o' the ragin' fires was her stern, an' from there the steady flashes of her

s tho', for it showed us up to a big Hun steamin' three or four miles off on the port beam, an' he claps a searchlight on us an' chases it up wi' a sheaf o' shells. The only proj that hit us bounced off wi'out doin' much hurt to the ship, but some flyin' hunks o' it smashed the mouldie davit and knocked ou

edo Gunn

hed for the spittin' o' that littl' after gun, but when it come it looked to spurt right out o' the heart o' a blazin' furnace, showin' the fire was now burnin' f

o be nosin' in to end the mis'ry. She did not bear right for a mouldie, but we opened up wi' the foremost gun, an' I saw the shells bustin' on her bridge and fo'c'sl' like rotten apples chucked 'against a wall. The light blinked off as the first proj hit home, but there was no way to tell if it was shot away or no. It was the second time that night that

youngster-hood, a plump, hard ball of toothsome saccharinity called-obviously from its resistant resiliency-an "All-Day Sucker." When he spoke again I knew in an instant that a sure

had run close to what may have been a part of the main en'my battl' line wi'out nothin' bein' reported. Our firin' had give us away, o' course, an' the nearest ships must have had their guns trained on us, waitin' to be sure what we was. One o' 'em must have made up his mind we was

ashes that I saw she had three funnels, wi' what looked like some kind o' marks painted on 'em in red. I saw our second funnel give a jump and crumple up as a proj hit it, an' then a spur

ed her life. I could feel by the way she jumped an' gathered herself that last second that the ol' g

clean out o' his neck. It was our port bows that come together, an' for only a sort o' glancin' blow. But it was the stem o' the Firebran' that was turned in sharpest, an' it was her that was hittin' up-by a good ten knots-the most speed. She was left in a terribl' mess, but most o' the damage was from her rammin' the Hun, not from the Hun rammin' her. While as for what

unch with which he emphasised the assertion had put a period to the life of his "All-Day Sucker," which was never intended to be treated like chewing toffy. Dipping into the grab-bag of my "lammy" coat

erin' in the wreckage o' the forebridge, an' another somewhere 'midships, while there was also a big glare throwin' up where the foremost funnel was shot away. We was as soft an' easy a target as even a Hun could ask for; an' yet that one was in too much of a f

the bridge an' searchlight platform an' mast was shoved right back an' piled up on the foremost funnel. The whaler an' dingy was carried away, an' my first thought, for I was sure she was sinkin', was that we had no boats to put off in. I could see two or three wounded crawlin' out o' the raffle, but I knew that the most to be dished would be in the wreck o' the bridg

already well down by the head, an'-leastways, it looked so to me at the time-still settlin' fast. An' I was just reflectin' that, even if she was lucky enough not to burn up, or blow up, or founder, she was still too easy pickin' for the Huns to miss doin' he

ne, an' out of the hole it left a big spurt o' flame an' smoke was rushin' that would have showed him up for miles. There was a red hot fire ragin' under his fo'c'sl', too, an' I

course enough to do the trick. His stem shot by wi' twenty feet or more clearance, an' it was only the fat bulge of him that kissed us off in passin'. It was by the glare o' his fires, not ours, which throwed no light abaft the superstructure I was on, that I saw some of the hands was already workin' to rig a jury steerin' gear aft. Then he was gone, an' much too full o' his own troubles to tu

ne, she was open to the whole North Sea from the galley right for'ard. This made the first an' second bulkheads o' no use, an' made the third bulkhead all that stood 'tween us an' goin' to the bottom. Then there was the fires-'bove deck an' 'tween decks-that had to be put out 'fore they got to the magazines, an' the engines to be k

egan carryin' on just as if it was 'Gen'ral Quarters.' Some cove wi' the stump o' his hand tied up wi' First Aid dressin' was sent up to relieve me on the lookout, an' I was put to fightin' fires an' clearin' up the wreck 'bove decks. As there ain't much to burn on a 'stroyer if the cordi

ghtnin' into his own frame by way o' his ax or saw. No one that had been on any part o' the bridge was wi'out some kind o' hurt, but the three dead was a deal less than was to be expected. There was also three very bad knocked up, an' on one o' them the surgeon-a young probas

' three o' the best o' 'em was a engine-room artif'cer, a stoker P.O., and a stoker that was in the fore stokehold when the bridge was pushed back an' carried away that funnel. They ducked into their resp'rators, stuck to their posts a' kept the fans goin' till the fumes was all cleared away. Nothin' else would have saved the foremost boiler-an' wi' it the ship herself-blowin' u

ds o' the Hun. As we'd have been more hindrance than help to the Fleet, he did not try to rejoin the flotilla, but turned west an' headed for the coast o' England on the chance of makin' the nearest base whil

in a glass after havin' small-pox in Singapore. She wasn't a ship at all, any more'n my face was a face. She was just a mess, that's all, an' clinkin' an' clankin' an' wheezin' a

was like gettin' a turribl' load off your chest when we dropped 'em over in their hammocks wi' a fire-bar stitched in alongside 'em to take 'em down. Nothin' is so depressin' to a sailor as bein' s

lowed even slower'n before to keep the bulkhead from being driv' in. But she weathered it, by Gawd she did, an' next mornin' the goin' was easier. We made the Tyne at noon. It was just a heap o' ol' scrap-iron so far as the eye could see

ger-time goes fast on home leave-to turn that scrap-iron back into a 'stroyer again. The ol' Firebran's got

r than saw that there was something further he wanted to say, perhaps some final tribute to his officers and mates of the Firebrand,

e Jackies very much; 'specially their candy an' chewin' gum.

nge ingredients entering into the composition of the cement that is binding Britain and America together, a