Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/122

110 crash and a shock that seemed as if it would shake the vessel to pieces. The two under-officers looked at the telephotoscope, and saw a great ship just behind them with a yawning rent cut all along its side.

'Very nicely cut,' said the captain.

But the Lightning had not come off scatheless. Thirty-three of her compartments had been pierced, five of her largest guns dismounted and rendered useless, and more than a hundred men killed.

There was next a conflict with torpedo-boats, and these kept fully half of the guns employed in destroying or warding them off. And so the Lightning fought on for hour after hour. Compartment after compartment was pierced and its inmates destroyed. The torpedoes tore off great masses from the metal sheathing, but Captain Mainton handled her well, and she did more damage than she received. When the eightieth hour came, the bows were crushed in by a ram and the sides