The Navy took steps to defeat this manœuvre and on January 8, 1918, the _Vasco da Gama_ (flagship) anchored off Lisbon. At 10.45 A.M. a battery of three field pieces at Saint George’s Castle in the middle of the city, opened fire on the _Vasco da Gama_. The flagship fired five shots in return and hoisted a red flag under the ensign. The shots of the shore battery were dispersed, but some seemed to strike the ship. Shrapnel and projectile were fired. At 11.10 A.M. the _Vasco da Gama_ hauled down her flag and hoisted a white flag at the foremast and abandoned ship. A number of shots were then fired at the destroyers _Douro_ and _Guardiana_, which also struck their colors and hoisted white flags. The cruiser _Almirante Reis_, a transport, and several gunboats did likewise. At 11.20 A.M. firing ceased at the shore battery. Rifle fire continued in the city streets. The Arsenal plant closed down at the beginning of the firing and the workmen employed on board the _Corsair_ stopped about 11 A.M. No further work was done by the Arsenal force that day. On January 9th (the next day) the Arsenal resumed operations as usual, and I was informed that the trouble was over and work would continue as before. The _Vasco da Gama_, with the _Guardiana_ and _Douro_, stood down the river on January 11th, apparently undamaged. The crew of the _Corsair_ felt a personal interest in the Provisional President, Sidonio Paes, as some of them had sat at the table next to him in the dining-room of the hotel and one or two of the officers had met him at the theatre. One of the street spectacles was a huge parade in honor of Sidonio Paes, and a bluejacket described it as “tremendous enthusiasm, everybody yelling to beat the band and waving their hats, and the Portuguese thought it was great, but it wasn’t as good a show as when the Seventy-First Regiment came back from the Mexican Border and marched up Fifth Avenue.” What the _Corsair_ considered the big moment of the long stay in Lisbon was when the landing party marched off the yacht to rescue the two officers and the four men who had gone ashore to look for the coxswain and find out what the row was all about. The ship’s searchlight was turned and held to illuminate the bright folds of the Stars and Stripes while the gun crews stood ready for action, every sight-setter, plugman, and shell-handler taut upon his toes and blithely confident that the _Corsair_ could knock the adjacent buildings into a cocked hat.