CHAPTER XIX
ADRIFT
The great naval battle of Jutland was over.
The British fleet now had given up pursuit of the fleeing Germans andVice-Admiral Beatty paused to take stock of his losses; and they wereenormous.
Three great battle cruisers had gone to the bottom--the _Queen Mary_,of 27,000 tons; the _Indefatigable_, of 18,750 tons, and the_Invincible_, of 17,250 tons. Cruisers lost included the _Defense_, of14,600 tons; the _Black Prince_; of 13,550 tons, and the _Warrior_, of13,550 tons. The giant battle cruiser _Marlborough,_ of 27,500 tons,had been badly damaged, as had the _Lion_ and other vessels. Thedestroyers _Tipperary, Turbulent, Nestore, Alcaster, Fortune, SparrowHawk, Ardent_ and _Shark_ had been sunk. Total losses ran high into themillions and in the number of men above 7,000.
The German losses had been less, but nevertheless, taking intoconsideration damage done to the effectiveness of the two fleets as awhole, the enemy had sustained the harder blow. The British fleet stillmaintained control of the North Sea, while the Germans, because oftheir losses, had been deprived of a large part of the fightingstrength of their fleet. The British, in spite of their heavier losses,would recover more quickly than could the enemy.
The dreadnaught _Westphalen_ was the largest ship lost by the Germans.It was of 18,600 tons. The three German battleships lost, the_Pommern_, the _Freiderich_ and the _Frauenlob_, were each of 13,350tons. Four battle cruisers had been sent to the bottom. They were the_Elbing_, the _Essen_, the _Lutzow_ and the _Hindenburg_, each of14,400 tons. The German losses in torpedo destroyers had beenparticularly heavy, an even dozen having been sent to the bottom.Besides this, the enemy had lost three submarines and two Zeppelinairships, besides a number of smaller aircraft. In men the Germans hadlost slightly less than the British.
And so both British and Germans counted the battle a victory; theGermans because in total tonnage sunk they had the best of it; theBritish, because they held the scene of battle when the fighting wasover and because the enemy had retired.
But, no matter with which side rested the victory, there was nogainsaying the fact that the battle of Jutland was the greatest navalstruggle of all time.
After giving up pursuit of the enemy, the British withdrew. Damage tothe various vessels was repaired as well as could be done at sea andthe ships in need of a more thorough overhauling steamed for England,where they would go into dry-dock. The bulk of the British fleet,however, still in perfect fighting trim, again took up the task ofpatrolling the North Sea, that no German vessels might make theirescape from the fortress of Heligoland, for which point the enemyheaded immediately after the battle.
In spite of the severe losses of the Germans, the return of the highsea fleet to Heligoland was marked by a grand ovation by the civilpopulation. Various reports were circulated on the island, and allthrough Germany for that matter. One report had it that the entireBritish fleet had been sent to the bottom; and Berlin, and all Germany,rejoiced.
But as time passed and the German fleet still remained secure behindits fortifications, the German people began to realize that the victoryhad not been so great as they had been led to believe. They knew theyhad been fooled; and they vented their anger in many ways.
Street riots occurred in Berlin and in others of the large cities. Thepeople demanded to be told the facts. Later they were told, in ameasure, but even then they were denied the whole truth. So conditionsin the central empires grew from bad to worse.
Jack and Frank, struggling in the water where they had been hurled bythe collision of the _Queen Mary_ and the _Indefatigable_, were glad ofthe company of Harris, who had bobbed up so suddenly alongside of themin the darkness.
Harris greeted Jack's exclamation of surprise with a grin.
"Yes; it's me," he replied, discarding his grammar absolutely; "and I'mglad to see you fellows again. Question is, what are we going to donow?"
"Well, you know as much about it as I do," declared Jack. "I haven'tany idea how far we are from shore, but I am afraid it is farther thanwe can swim."
All three cast their eyes over the water. There was not a spar norother piece of wreckage in sight. But Jack made out a few momentslater, some distance to the east, what appeared to be a ship of somesort. He called the attention of the others to it.
"Suppose we might as well head in that direction, then," declaredHarris.
"Right," agreed Frank.
He struck out vigorously and the others did the same.
It was a long ways to that little speck on the water and the lads knewthat if the vessel were moving away from them they probably would belost. But at that distance the vessel seemed to be stationary, so theydid not give up hope.
Half an hour later Frank exclaimed: "We're making headway. Ship must bestanding still."
"Well, I wish it would come this way," declared Harris. "We're still along way from safety."
"It's probably a German, anyhow," said Jack, "so if we are rescued itwill be only to be made prisoners."
"That's better than being made shark bait," said Harris; "and, by theway, speaking of sharks, I have heard that there were many of them inthese waters."
Frank shuddered; for he had a wholesome disgust for the man eaters.
"Hope they don't smell us," he said.
"And so do I," agreed Jack. "We couldn't hope to fight them off, for wehave no arms."
"I've got a knife," said Harris, "but I am afraid I wouldn't know whatto do with it should a shark get after me."
The three became silent, saving all their strength for swimming.
An hour later they had drawn close to the vessel.
"It's a German all right," said Jack, regretfully.
"Any port in a storm," said Harris. "That talk of shark a while backmade me feel sort of squeamish. I want to get out of this water."
They continued to swim toward the ship.
"Wonder what's the matter on board?" exclaimed Frank, suddenly.
They had approached close enough now to see men rushing hurriedly aboutthe deck. Hoarse commands carried across the water, though the wordswere unintelligible to the three swimmers at that distance.
"Something wrong," said Jack, quietly.
"That's what I call hard luck," declared Frank. "Here we think we havereached a place of safety and something goes wrong."
"Don't cry till you're hurt, youngster," said Harris, quietly. "Theship is there and we're pretty close to it. Those fellows aboard,German or English, are bound to lend us a hand."
"I'm not so sure about that," declared Frank.
"Well, I am," said Harris. "The German sailor is all right. It's theGerman officer who makes all the trouble. They'll help us if they can."
The three swimmers were a short distance from the ship now.
Jack raised his voice in a shout.
"Help!" he cried in German.
There was no move aboard the German vessel to indicate that the lad'scry had been heard.
"Told you so," said Frank.
"Don't cry too soon, youngster," said Harris. "We'll try it again, andall yell together."
They did and this time their cries were heard.
Several men aboard the German vessel stopped their rushing about andgazed across the sea in the direction of the swimmers. One man produceda glass and levelled it in their direction. Then he turned to theothers and they could be seen to gesticulate excitedly.
"One wants to save us and the others don't," declared Frank.
For some moments the men continued to argue. One shook his finger inthe faces of the others and pointed in the direction of the swimmers.
"You're all right," declared Frank, speaking of the one man. "Wish Iwere there to lend you a hand. But I'm afraid the others are too muchfor you."
At this juncture the man who opposed the others produced a revolver andmade an angry gesture. He was ordering the others to the aid of thethree friends in the water.
"By Jove!" said Harris. "He's all right. I'd like to be able to do hima goo
d turn."
And the chance was to come sooner than he expected.
Apparently the men aboard the German vessel had decided to obey theorder of the man who would save the three swimmers. A boat was loweredover the side.
Three men stood ready to leap into it. The hopes of the three friendsin the water rose high; but they were shattered a moment later in asudden and unexpected manner.
A dull rumbling roar came suddenly across the water. Instantly allbecame confusion aboard the German vessel. Officers shouted hoarsecommands and struck out with the flat of their swords as members of thecrew rushed for the rails.
"An explosion!" cried Frank. "Swim back quickly."
The others understood the significance of that strange rumbling aboardthe German vessel as quickly as Frank, and turning rapidly, they struckout as fast as they could.
An explosion such as that dull roar indicated could have but one resultand the lads knew it. Evidently there had been a fire on board--thataccounted for the strange activities of the men on the ship--and theflames had reached the vessel's magazine.
A second and a louder roar came now. Men jumped into the sea by thescores and struck out vigorously that they might not be pulled under bythe suction when the ship sank.
Then there came an explosion even louder than the rest. The great shipparted in the middle as though cut by a knife. A huge tongue of flameshot high in the air. Hoarse cries from aboard, screams and frightfulyells. Split in twain, the vessel settled fore and aft.
A second huge tongue of flame leaped into the sky; and then the vesseldisappeared beneath the sea.
Giant waves leaped in the direction taken by Jack, Frank and Harris.The sea churned angrily about them and the three had all they could doto keep their heads above water. Then the water calmed down. Franklooked around and there, not fifty feet away, rolling gently on thewaves, was the small boat so recently lowered over the side of theGerman vessel.
With a cry to the others to follow him, Frank turned about and headedfor the boat with powerful strokes.