Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/104

92 effects of the terrible fire to which they were exposed. Many of the ships had large dark-coloured rents in their hulls, from which masses of twisted and broken metal-work protruded. The fittings on the exteriors were severely damaged. The balustrades were shot away, the muzzles of the guns were cut off and blown into space, and the protection apparatus on the outsides was soon pounded into a useless mass of wires and rods. Dismounted guns, mangled bodies, and reddened limbs were floating about everywhere, some of them suddenly vanishing as they were struck by a passing shot. Great pieces of metal with the guns and other machinery attached to them were blown off wherever a shell from one of the largest cannon hit its mark. The scene was sublime, but awful. The sides of every ship soon became a seething mass of flame and smoke, in the midst of which its form could be barely distinguished. Every moment long white flashes leapt outwards,