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 colliers, which they had carried off forcibly with them from Cardiff, and removing their crews. Delay at such a moment was most dangerous.

Soon after 3.45 p.m. the lookout on board the Lion reported from the masthead, smoke on the horizon right ahead. The Lion's head was set towards the smoke, which could be only faintly seen, and her speed was increased to twenty-one knots. The Kincardineshire altered course simultaneously—she was ten miles away on the port beam of the Lion, and in constant communication by wireless with the Selkirk, which was still farther out. Ten minutes later the Selkirk signalled that she saw smoke, and that with the ten destroyers accompanying her she was steering towards it. Her message added that the Irish Sea destroyers were in sight, coming in very fast from the north, nine strong, with intervals of two miles between each boat, still keeping their speed of thirty knots.

The cordon was now complete, and the whole force of twenty-two cruisers and torpedo craft turned in towards the spot where the enemy was located. At 4.5 the lookout on the Lion reported a second cloud of smoke on the horizon, rather more to starboard than the one first seen, which had been for some minutes steadily moving west. This second cloud was moving very slowly north-westwards.

The captain of the Lion determined to proceed with his own ship towards this second cloud, and directed the Kincardineshire, which was slightly the faster cruiser, to follow the movements of the first-seen smoke and support the Selkirk in attacking the ships from which it proceeded.

The enemy's fleet soon came into view several miles away. Three large steamers were racing off towards the Atlantic and the west; seven smaller ships were steaming slowly north-west. In the path of the three big liners were drawn up the Selkirk and the ten destroyers of the Devonport flotilla, formed in line abreast, with intervals of two miles between each vessel, so as