Early in September we first heard of the famous German raider the _Emden_. She had been on the China station when war broke out, and now she appeared in the Bay of Bengal and began her career of destruction. I will tell you her full story later on, when I come to the day when she was sunk. Now we will learn how the German commerce raider _Cap Trafalgar_ was sent to her doom. She was a fast liner, armed with eight 4-inch guns and machine guns. Strange to say, her victorious opponent was a British armed liner, the _Carmania_, of the White Star line. Liverpool boys and girls are sure to have seen the _Carmania_ lying in the Mersey, or at the Prince's landing-stage, for she has regularly crossed the Atlantic since 1905. On 14th September the crew of the _Carmania_ were just sitting down to their midday meal when the lookout men sighted a strange vessel. She was a liner as big as the _Carmania_. She was not at first recognized as an enemy, because she had rigged up a dummy funnel, and made herself look something like a Union Castle liner. The British captain, however, was suspicious, so he ordered a shot to be fired across the stranger's bows as a signal to heave-to. No sooner had the shot plumped into the water than the stranger opened fire, and the German flag fluttered to her masthead. The _Carmania_ let fly her port guns, and soon both vessels were fighting hammer and tongs. Both were big ships, and very good targets: the _Carmania_, for example, is 675 feet long and 60 feet out of the water, and aiming at her is like shooting at the side of a street. The _Cap Trafalgar_ hit the _Carmania_ more than three hundred times, but only two of the shots were serious. For the most part the shells flew high, and only damaged the _Carmania's_ rigging and upper works. The British gunners aimed low, and her captain so manoeuvred the ship that she was end on to her enemy most of the time. [Illustration: How they kept the Flag flying.] Shot after shot hit the _Cap Trafalgar_ on the water line, and soon she caught fire. After the duel had lasted one hour and forty-five minutes she heeled over at such an angle that the men on the _Carmania_ could actually look down her funnels. Then there was an explosion, and her bows went under; another explosion followed, and she slowly disappeared. Many of the men struggling in the water were rescued by the empty collier that accompanied her. The _Carmania_ was prevented from sending her boats to the rescue because she was on fire forward. Our loss was nine men killed, five seriously wounded, and twenty-one slightly wounded. The following message was received from the Admiralty soon after the news reached London:-- "Well done. You have fought a fine action to a successful finish." * * * * *