Extra efforts were made by the engineer force to gain headway on the incoming water. When the water had risen to the fire-boxes and continued to increase, on the report of the Chief Engineer that the water was beyond control, I ordered all hands to abandon ship. Having gone aboard the _Corsair_, the Commanding Officer asked me how long I thought the ship would keep afloat, to which I replied four or five hours. He then suggested towing, so I returned to the ship with my Executive Officer and sixteen men, taking a tow-line which was made fast to the stern, the best method of towing under the existing circumstances. No results were obtainable and an attempt was made to shift the tow-line to the bow. While the tow-line was being shifted forward, from observations made by me in the engine-room it was evident that the ship could not stay afloat much longer as she was then rapidly settling by the head. I again gave orders to abandon the ship, which was done, and the _Californian_ soon began to sink rapidly, going down bow first until the stern was almost perpendicular. Later the ship slowly righted and the stern disappeared entirely at 9.04 A.M. in Latitude 46° 17′ 15″ North, Longitude 2° 10′ 30″ West. The _Corsair_ had tried and failed, which was ever so much better than not trying at all, and as one of her men mournfully observed, “With any sort of a break in luck, we would have salvaged her and a cargo that was so valuable that the Army organization was figuring out some way of raising it during the summer.” [Illustration: A MASCOT FROM THE CALIFORNIAN KNOWN AS “THE MUTT”] [Illustration: THE NEWFOUNDLAND PUP SAVED FROM THE FRENCH FISHING BARK] This was the only ship lost out of a convoy with which the _Corsair_ operated during the long period of this service in and out of the Gironde, from June to November of 1918. On several occasions steamers were attacked and sunk or damaged just before joining or just after leaving the escort. These included the _Montanan_, the _Westbridge_, the _Westward Ho_, the _Cubore_, and the French cruiser _Dupetit Thouars_. When the S.O.S. calls came, the _Corsair_ hurried to stand by, but other naval vessels happened to be nearer the scene and were able to save the survivors, or the ship managed to remain afloat, as in the case of the _Westward Ho_. A cruise in August, beginning on the ill-omened 13th, turned out to be anything but monotonous, from start to finish. The air was full of tragic messages from torpedoed ships. It was like a dying flurry of the German submarine campaign. The excitement began with this entry in the _Corsair’s_ record: