When Lieut. St. Aubyn, killed in the Heligoland naval battle, was buried
the other day in London, his mother sent a wreath bearing the
inscription:
“To my darling boy. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.”
The following authentic incident of the Heligoland fight is perhaps the
most dramatic of the war. A British destroyer, having sunk an enemy,
lowered a lifeboat to pick up German survivors. Before the lifeboat
returned a German cruiser came out and attacked her, forcing her to
abandon the lifeboat.
The British crew was left alone in an open boat without food twenty-five
miles from the nearest land, and that land the enemy’s fortress, with
nothing but fog and foes surrounding. Suddenly up popped a British
submarine close by, opened the conning tower and took the British on
board, leaving the German survivors alone in the lifeboat.