pointed position to be in readiness to support the
Harwich Force when the time came. Probably one of the objects of this
expedition was to entice the German capital ships to come out from
their base and fight. If so, the expedition, though quite successful
in its other aims, failed in that respect. For even at this early
stage of the war the enemy refused to accept the challenge of the
British Navy. The fighting took place within thirty miles of the
German base. Within a very short time the enemy could have put an
overwhelming force into action against our ships. But he did not do
so, and allowed his light cruisers and destroyers to be sunk within
hearing of his passive battleships and battle cruisers.

So on the morning of August 28 the Harwich Force, composed of two
light cruisers--the _Arethusa_, Commodore Tyrwhitt's flagship, and the
_Fearless_, commanded by Captain W.F. Blunt--with forty destroyers,
were sweeping round towards Heligoland. This, of course, was very
early in the war, and the _Arethusa_, a brand-new ship, had had no
time to carry out her gun practice and complete other preparations
when she was ordered out. At 4 a.m. the _Arethusa_ and twenty of the
destroyers were within seventy miles of Heligoland, sweeping down
towards the island at twenty knots, the _Fearless_ and the other
twenty destroyers following five miles astern. The weather was fine,
but when it is not rough in the North Sea it is usually misty, and it
was so on this occasion, the visibility being only 5000 yards. Just
before 7 a.m. an enemy destroyer appeared on _Arethusa's_ port bow.
One of our destroyer divisions was ordered to chase her. This, as one
who took part in the action put it, "started the ball." The fog lifted
a bit, and the sun's rays occasionally broke through it. And now out
of the mists ahead loomed several objects which proved to be enemy
destroyers and torpedo-boats. It was evident that the Harwich Force
had run into the patrols that it had been sent to seek out. A very
brisk engagement was now fought between our destroyers and those of
the enemy. In the course of this destroyer action, the 4th Destroyer
Division, composed of the _Liberty_, _Laurel_, _Lysander_, and
_Laertes_, engaged an enemy light cruiser and torpedoed her, but did
not put her out of action. Both _Liberty_ and _Lysander_ were a good
deal knocked about and had numerous casualties, the captain of the
_Liberty_ being among the killed.

A curious incide