As one digs deeper into the records, one sees the various temperaments
of men revealing themselves through all the formal wording. One
commander may be an expert in torpedo-work, whose first care is how
and where his shots went, and whether, under all circumstances of
pace, light, and angle, the best had been achieved. Destroyers do not
carry unlimited stocks of torpedoes. It rests with commanders whether
they shall spend with a free hand at first or save for night-work
ahead--risk a possible while he is yet afloat, or hang on coldly for a
certainty. So in the old whaling days did the harponeer bring up or
back off his boat till some shift of the great fish's bulk gave him
sure opening at the deep-seated life.
And then comes the question of private judgment. "I thought so-and-so
would happen. Therefore, I did thus and thus." Things may or may not
turn out as anticipated, but that is merely another of the million
chances of the sea. Take a case in point. A flotilla of our destroyers
sighted six (there had been eight the previous afternoon) German
battleships of Kingly and Imperial caste very early in the morning of
the 1st June, and duly attacked. At first our people ran parallel to
the enemy, then, as far as one can make out, headed them and swept
round sharp to the left, firing torpedoes from their port or left-hand
tubes. Between them they hit a battleship, which went up in flame and
_débris_. But one of the flotilla had not turned with the rest. She
had anticipated that the attack would be made on another quarter, and,
for certain technical reasons, she was not ready. When she was, she
turned, and single-handed--the rest of the flotilla having finished
and gone on--carried out two attacks on the five remaining
battleships. She got one of them amidships, causing a terrific
explosion and flame above the masthead, which signifies that the
magazine has been touched off. She counted the battleships when the
smoke had cleared, and there were but four of them. She herself was
not hit, though shots fell close. She went her way, and, seeing
nothing of her sisters, picked up another flotilla and stayed with it
till the end. Do I make clear the maze of blind hazard and wary
judgment in which our men of the sea must move?