completing his foul work, the enemy gave up the contest.
Reeking of the combat, the _Vosges_ foundered under her wounds. The sea
took her from her gallant crew, but they had not given up the
ship--their flag still fluttered at the peak as she went down.
_Anglo-Californian_ fought a grim, silent fight for four hours, matching
the intensity of the German gunfire by the dogged quality of her mute
defiance. _Palm Branch_ turned away from galling fire at short range,
double-banked the press in the stokehold, and cut and turned on her
course to confuse the ranges. Her stern was shattered by shell, the
lifeboats blown away; the apprentice at the wheel stood to his job with
blood running in his eyes. Fire broke out and added a new terror to the
situation. There was no flinching. Through it all the engines turned
steadily, driven to their utmost speed by the engineers and firemen. A
one-sided affair--a floating hell for seamen to stand by, helpless, and
take a frightful gruelling! But they stood to it, and came to port.

If, under new and treacherous blows, our hearts beat the faster, there
was little pause, no stoppage, in the steady coursing of our
sea-arteries. We fought the menace with the same spirit our old
sea-fathers knew. Undeterred by the ghastly handicap against us--the
galling fetters of a policy that kept us unarmed, we pitted our brains
and seamanship against the murderous mechanics of the enemy. To the new
under-water attack there were few adequate counter-measures in the
records of our old seafaring. We revised the standard manual, drew text
from old games, shield from the cuttlefish, models for our sweeps from
discarded sea-tackle. Special devices, new plans, stern services were
called for; we devised, we specialized--our readiness was never more
instant. Out of our strength we built up a new Service. Instruction and
equipment came from the Royal Navy, but the men were ours. In the throes
of our exertions the Merchants' Service repeated a tradition. The stout
aged tree shot forth another worthy limb--a second Navy--not less ardent
or resourceful than the first offshoot, now grown to be our guardian.

Our branches twined and interlocked in service of a joint endeavour.
Under the fierce blast of war we swayed and weighed together in shield
of our ancient foundation. Within our ranks we had cunning fishers,
keen, resolute sea-fighters of the banks, to whom the coming of a
strange mechanical devil-fish offered a new