After all that Eblis picked herself up, and discovered that she was
still alive, with a dog's chance of getting to port. But she did not
bank on it. That grand slam had wrecked the bridge, pinning the
commander under the wreckage. By the time he had extricated himself
he "considered it advisable to throw overboard the steel chest and
dispatch-box of confidential and secret books." These are never
allowed to fall into strange hands, and their proper disposal is the
last step but one in the ritual of the burial service of His Majesty's
ships at sea. Gehenna, afire and sinking, out somewhere in the dark,
was going through it on her own account. This is her Acting
Sub-Lieutenant's report: "The confidential books were got up. The
First Lieutenant gave the order: 'Every man aft,' and the confidential
books were thrown overboard. The ship soon afterwards heeled over to
starboard and the bows went under. The First Lieutenant gave the
order: 'Everybody for themselves.' The ship sank in about a minute,
the stern going straight up into the air."
But it was not written in the Book of Fate that stripped and battered
Eblis should die that night as Gehenna died. After the burial of the
books it was found that the several fires on her were manageable,
that she "was not making water aft of the damage," which meant
two-thirds of her were, more or less, in commission, and, best of all,
that three boilers were usable in spite of the cruiser's shells. So
she "shaped course and speed to make the least water and the most
progress towards land." On the way back the wind shifted eight points
without warning--it was this shift, if you remember, that so
embarrassed Cripple and Paralytic on their homeward crawl--and, what
with one thing and another, Eblis was unable to make port till the
scandalously late hour of noon on June 2, "the mutual ramming having
occurred about 11.40 P.M. on May 31." She says, this time without any
legal reservation whatever, "I cannot speak too highly of the courage,
discipline, and devotion of the officers and ship's company."
Her recommendations are a Compendium of Godly Deeds for the Use of
Mariners. They cover pretty much all that man may be expected to do.
There was, as there always is, a first lieutenant who, while his
commander was being extricated from the bridge wreckage, took charge
of affairs and steered the ship first from the engine-room, or what
remained of it, and later from aft, and otherwise manoeuvred as
requisite, among doubtful bulkheads. In his leisure he "improvised
means of signalling," and if there be not one joyous story behind that
smooth sentence I am a Hun!