With Beatty off Jutland: A Romance of the Great Sea Fight

e-control station, it will be necessary to follow the fortunes of t

tower afforded shelter only from slivers of steel and the bursting shrapnel; it was vulnerable to large projectiles. Relying solely on her speed and quickness of helm, the destroyer's mission was to dart in towards the enemy lines and get in as many hi

le a far-flung line of destroyers took up station ahead. The course was now E.S.E., slightly converging upon the enemy, whose

ng the gigantic Warspite, was bearing N.N.W., with the obj

tleships from their retreat through the Skager-Rack to Kiel. Yet at the same time the odds against Beatty were bordering upon the enormous. His duty was to engage, entice, and hold the enemy in a northerly direction without being overwhelmed by superior force. Even at t

er was keeping station broad on the beam of the Queen Mary, and warding off threatened submarine attacks

tered Crosthwaite, as a regular tornado of heavy

began to make themselves felt. Between the patches of haze, rent by the lurid flashes of the guns, could be descried the greenish-grey outlines of the hostile vessels fast being reduced to scra

yed; a gallant battle-cruiser of nearly 19

but in the Jutland fight, regardless of the fate of the battle-cruiser, the rest of the squadron redoubled their efforts. Not for one second did the hellish din cease, as th

uickly did she disappear that the Tiger, following astern, pas

badly hit, sank, taking with h

n numbers was considerably relaxed, the danger was by no means over. For, in the now thicker haze, the German battle fleet had arrived upon the scene, and Beatty was literally betwixt two

hree-funnelled battleship, possibly the Thuringien, received terrific punishment. Masts, funnels, turrets, were blown away piecemeal, until, a mass of smoke and flames, she hauled off line and was quickly screened by the smoke from some of t

versing their previous direction. It was at this juncture that the British destroyers were ordered to take advanta

n vessels. Never before in the history of naval warfare had destroyers been ordered to attack battleships save at night. Everything depended upon ski

a course that would bring them in contact with the enemy line. Thick clouds of fire-tinged smoke belched from their funnels--not due to bad s

up his station within the conning-tower. All his mental powers were at work, and yet he remained perfectly

e, Crosthwaite strained his bloodshot eyes upon the destroyer next ahead, ready at the first sign to reduce speed or swerve should the little craft be hit or fall out of line. The possibility of

l around the devoted destroyers; yet, seemingly bea

e torpedo-men stood rigidly at attention. Their two deadly weapons had been "launched home" and the tubes trained ten degrees for'ard of the beam. With his hand upon the firing-trigger the torpedo coxswain of each end waited, as impassive a

ent, Crosthwaite thought that she had received a mortal blow. Her alert commander had noticed a suspicious

ercepting the British destroyers, or whether about to launch a torpedo attack upon Beatty's battle-cruisers, Crosthwaite knew not. All he did know was that the rival

o, their quick-firers barking as rapidly as the gunners could thrust home the cartridges and clang the breech-blocks. So intricate was the mano

hreatened the Calder, for a British destroyer, hit in her e

ws or astern of the crippled destroyer without certain risk of colliding with others of the flotilla. Then he waited--perhaps five seconds--in breathless suspense. T

a smack at the German vessel that had hit her so badly. The gun-layer, pressing his shoulder to the recoil-pad, bent over the

he gun-layer. By the vagaries of explosion he was practically unhurt, except for being partially stunned by the terrible detonation. For some minutes he stood stock-still, as if unable to realize that

ng hard astern. Caught by the backwash of the revolving screws, he was swept past the side like

yer made his way aft, and, saluting the gunner, requested t

had spotted the Calder practically without steerage-way, and had made up his min

sh beneath the surface. Anxiously the lieutenant-commander watched the ever-diverging lines that marked

rpedo-boat was slow in answering. A column of water leapt 200 feet in the air; by the time it subsided the hostile craft

gun-fire, while another pair, their upper works reduced to a mass of tangled scrap-iron, had mistaken each ot

lear for the furtherance of the British destroyers' attack upon the larger vessels of the hostile fleet; but the difficul

semblance of order, and, under a galling fire, hurled the