THE RUSSIAN OUTRAGE 277 



frantically. If the gunners had been cool and taken 

 aim there could not have been a steamboat left upon 

 the ground ; but they were frenzied with fright, paralysed 

 with terror of the unseen but suspected, for reports had 

 been current that the Baltic Fleet was to be waylaid and 

 destroyed in the North Sea by Japanese torpedo-craft. 



For a few startled seconds the fishermen believed 

 that the ships of war had suddenly opened a sham fight ; 

 then cries of terror and amazement mingled with the din 

 of the discharges, and hoarse voices gave the order to 

 get the gear up or let it go, while engine-room tele- 

 graphs rang wildly for "Full speed ahead." Anything 

 and anyhow to get away from a neighbourhood which 

 had swiftly become an area of destruction and death. 

 As well might harnessed hares have tried to run from 

 greyhounds. The trawlers were held in place by their 

 heavy unwieldy gear, which cannot be easily hauled or 

 cut away. In the old days a few blows with a hatchet 

 or jack-knife would have cut the trawl-warp and set the 

 smack free ; but steel ropes are far different and tougher 

 matters, and the steamboats of the Gamecock Fleet 

 were literally held prisoners while the blundering 

 battleships steamed past them and kept up a monstrous 

 bombardment. 



Some fifty peaceful little trawling vessels, an in- 

 dustrious fleet spread over an area of seven or eight 

 miles, utterly defenceless, unable even to run away and 

 at the mercy of giant warships that bristled with guns, 

 great and small. How much ammunition was expended 

 is not known, but for fully ten minutes the sea was 

 pitted with the hail of missiles and the neighbouring 

 steamboats were riddled. From the bridges and decks 



