Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/116

104 was burst open, the liquid immediately spurted out and was converted into dense clouds of steam that obscured whole lines of ships from view.

But still the clash and clatter went on. The ships dashed out of the rolling columns of smoke and rammed, fired, and hammered at one another with ceaseless vigour. Sometimes the whole side of a ship was blocked by the whirling masses of wreckage that hung on to the guns and outworks. The destruction was frightful. There was no way of getting out of the refuse of the tremendous conflict. Far and wide over space extended the columns of vapour, the clouds of vaporized metal, and the twisted and scoriated remnants of what were once magnificent ships. When the battle had lasted sixty hours, fully four thousand vessels had been blown to pieces, while nearly all the rest were more or less damaged.

But other forces besides the impact of cannon-shot contributed to the destruction.