Anyway, these ships were not in a position to carry out the programme laid down for war with England, and so scurried back to the security of their fortified bases. So, also, they were not quite ready for raiding our commerce. Still, they were able to put a good many cruisers, regular and auxiliary, on the ocean highways, and for a time gave us a good deal of trouble. In the Mediterranean they had the big battle-cruiser _Goeben_ and the small cruiser _Breslau_, and on the morning of 4th August these two ships bombarded Bona and Philippeville on the Algerian coast. They did but little damage; in fact, it was merely a "runaway knock". The next morning they arrived at Messina, a neutral port, where they had either to remain indefinitely and be disarmed or leave within a prescribed period. The German officers decided to leave, and after a theatrical business of devoting themselves to death, and depositing their wills and private papers with the German Consul--taking good care to report this to the Berlin Press, which published glowing accounts of the "mad daring" of their devoted seamen--they got under way and steamed out, with colours flying and bands playing. Soon after midnight--6th-7th August--the look-outs on board the _Gloucester_, a light cruiser carrying no heavier gun than a 6-inch, "spotted" them moving along under cover of the land. After steering a parallel course for some time she crossed their sterns to get between them and the land in order to see them better, and hung closely to them all night and morning. "We let the two ships go on under cover of the darkness," wrote one of the crew, "and they were moving without lights at about 23 knots, and then followed almost at full speed. The _Goeben_ went on ahead, and the _Breslau_ not far behind her. Just about two o'clock the _Breslau_ slowed down.... As far as we could tell she fired two torpedoes ... and then discharged several salvoes from her 4-inch guns. We at once replied with our fore 6-inch gun, and, although it was dark, we found that with the second shell we cleared her quarter-deck.... Neither the torpedoes nor shells from the _Breslau_ hit their mark.... Although they were slightly faster vessels, we kept our distance from them without losing anything all day, and in the afternoon sighted the Greek coast after having made the fastest run across that open bit of water that ever was made. The weather was fine, and there was not a sight of another war-ship except the Germans.... When they were off Cape Matapan, the most southerly point of the Greek mainland, the _Breslau_ stopped again, as she had done in the night, and waited for us to come on. This time we did not wait for her to open fire, but discharged our fore 6-inch gun directly we got within range."[89]