"The captain turned away to reload mouldies after that, an' just as we swung out o' line I saw a salvo straddle the _Killarney_, and two or three shells hit square 'tween her funnels an' after sup'rstruct'r'. They must have gone off in her engine room, for there was more steam than fire risin' from her as we turned an' left her astern, an' she looked stopped dead. A Hun cru'ser was closin' the blazin' wreck o' her, firm' hard; but, by Gawd, what d'you think I saw. The only patch on the ol' _Killarney_ that was free o' the ragin' fires was her stern, an' from there the steady flashes of her after gun showed it was bein' worked as fast an' reg'lar as ever I seen it done at any night-firin' practice. I looked to see her blow up every minnit, but she was still spittin' wi' that littl' after gun when the sudden flashin' up of the fightin' lights for'ard turned my attenshun nearer home. "I could just make out a line of what looked like 'stroyers headin' cross our bows, an' thought we'd stumbled into 'nother nest o' Huns till they answered back wi' the signal o' the day, an' I knew it was one of our own flotillas we'd been catchin' up to. That flashin' up o' lights come near to doin' for us tho', for it showed us up to a big Hun steamin' three or four miles off on the port beam, an' he claps a searchlight on us an' chases it up wi' a sheaf o' shells. The only proj that hit us bounced off wi'out doin' much hurt to the ship, but some flyin' hunks o' it smashed the mouldie davit and knocked out most o' the crews o' the after tubes, includin' the T.G.M.[C] That put a stop to reloadin' operashuns wi' a mouldie in only one o' the tubes. By good luck we managed to zigzag out o' the searchlight beam right after that, an' was free to turn back an' try to start a divershun for the poor ol' _Killarney_. [Footnote C: Torpedo Gunner's Mate.] "Her fires looked to be dyin' down when we first picked her up, but right after that some more projes bust on her an' she started blazin' harder than ever. I watched for the spittin' o' that littl' after gun, but when it come it looked to spurt right out o' the heart o' a blazin' furnace, showin' the fire was now burnin' from stem to stern. One more salvo plastered over her, an' that one got no reply. The good ol' '_Killy_' had shot her bolt, an' her finish looked a matter o' minnits.