Page:The Invasion of 1910.djvu/447

 fast assembling, as ships and torpedo vessels came up one by one from Devonport as soon as they had mobilised.

Ten more destroyers arrived at four on Sunday afternoon, and were at once extended north; at 8 p.m. the two fast Portsmouth armoured cruisers Southampton and Lincoln arrived, and steamed northwards to prolong the cordon formed by the ships to the north of the Scillies, and a few minutes later a third ship of the "County" class, hastily mobilised, the Cardigan, arrived, and placed herself under Rear-Admiral Armitage, commanding the Devonport Reserve. She was stationed just to the south of the Scillies.

All the evening, wireless signals had been coming in from the Channel Cruiser Squadron, as it moved northwards far out at sea beyond the advanced guard about Land's End. At 8.5 p.m. a signal from it announced that a large liner was in sight moving south-west, and that Admiral Hunter's ships were in full chase of her. The British cruiser Andromache, off the Scillies, and the three ships of the "County" class off Land's End, were at once directed upon the point where Admiral Hunter's signals had reported the enemy. Thirteen British vessels thus were converging upon her, twelve of them good for twenty-three knots or more.

The captain of the Deutschland, after dashing through the British cordon off Lundy Island, stood for several hours westwards at twenty knots, intending at dusk to turn and pass wide of the Scillies, and hoping to escape the British under cover of darkness. He was under no illusions as to the danger which threatened him. From every quarter British wireless signals were coming in—from the west, south, and north—while to the east of him was the cul-de-sac of the Bristol Channel. All lights were screened on board his gigantic liner.

About 8 p.m. his lookouts reported a large ship rapidly moving north, ten miles away. He slightly altered course, hoping that he had escaped observation, and stood more to the south. Two minutes later the