ting!_" It was a signal that typified the sporting spirit in
which our Navy went to work from the beginning to the end of the war.
Soon the chance came to this flotilla of firing the first shots that
were fired in the naval war.

At 10.30 the _Koenigin Luise_, a German mail steamer that had been
fitted out as a mine-layer, was sighted. Chased by the destroyers
_Lance_ and _Landrail_, she was brought to action half an hour later.
Then the destroyers _Lark_ and _Linnet_ joined in the chase, and by
midday the other ships had come up. The enemy had evidently been badly
damaged by our fire, for she was steaming away at a considerably
reduced speed. At 12.15 she was in a sinking condition; so her crew
abandoned her and jumped overboard. But her engines had not been
stopped, and she still went on slowly until at last she turned round
on her side and began to settle down. Out of the _Koenigin Luise's_
complement of one hundred men, forty-three, some of whom were badly
wounded, were picked up by our boats. Of these, twenty were taken into
the _Amphion_.

The mine-layer had evidently been at work on the English coast,
possibly even before the declaration of war; for at 6.35 on the
following morning, August 6, the _Amphion_ struck a mine. There was a
violent explosion under the fore bridge. Every man on the fore
mess-decks was killed, as were eighteen out of the twenty German
prisoners in the ship. Captain Fox and the four officers on the bridge
were stunned and badly burnt on hands and face. The _Amphion_ now
began to settle down by the head, and her sides forward were turning
black as the result of the internal fires. For three or four minutes
she continued to move slowly in a circle before the word could be
given to stop the engines. The men all collected on the quarter-deck.
There was absolutely no sign of panic. The boats were lowered quietly.
The discipline was magnificent. Within a quarter of an hour after the
explosion the boats from the destroyers were alongside the _Amphion_,
and all the survivors were taken off.

After this had been safely effected, the fire that was raging under
the fore mess-decks having reached the magazines, another terrific
explosion occurred in the _Amphion_. This blew away a large portion of
the fore part of the ship, and quantities of wreckage began to fall
over the surrounding sea, causing several casualties in the
destroyers. One shell fell on board the _Lark_, killing two men of the
_Amph