Page:America Fallen!.djvu/102

90 of each division of dreadnoughts turned eight points to port and the fleet anchored. They lay bow and stern, in two parallel columns, 2,000 yards apart, with the starboard batteries bearing on the city of New York.

Every ship was cleared for action; and on each the battle-flags were flying.

Meanwhile on shore the engineer companies of the German troops in Forts Hancock, Hamilton, and Wadsworth, after selecting the points of vantage for defence of the landward approaches, had staked out the trenches, and the Germans were feverishly digging and fortifying against attack. The 3-inch rapid-fire guns for protecting the mine fields were unbolted from their concrete foundations, and remounted in selected positions on hastily-improvised platforms. Also, the 3-inch landing guns of the fleet were brought ashore in the ships' boats and wheeled into position.