Shortly after the _Audacious_ struck the mine, the s.s. _Olympic_, on passage from the United States to Liverpool, closed the ship on learning of the disaster, and Captain Haddock, C.B., R.N.R., who was in command, at once volunteered to help in any way possible. Captain Dampier, of the _Audacious_, asked that his ship might be taken in tow and brought into Lough Swilly, and Captain Haddock, disregarding the danger of submarine attack or of being mined, took immediate steps to carry out this request. Unfortunately a considerable sea was running, which increased during the day. In spite of the most magnificent and seamanlike handling of the _Olympic_ by Captain Haddock, and later in the day excellent work on the part of the master of the _Thornhill_, the hawsers constantly parted, owing to the state of the sea and the weight of the _Audacious_, the stern of that ship being almost awash by the afternoon. The two ships were worked in a manner which Sir Lewis Bayly reported as beyond praise. The attempts to tow the injured ship had to be abandoned before dark, and Sir Lewis Bayly, Captain Dampier and the few officers and men who had remained on board to work the hawsers, etc., were taken off the _Audacious_ by 7.15 P.M. The remainder of the ship’s company had been removed without accident, in spite of the heavy sea, in the course of the day by destroyers, trawlers, and other small craft, and in the boats of the _Audacious_. The work of the destroyers on this occasion was, as usual, of the greatest value, and the exceedingly seamanlike handling of the _Fury_ by Lieutenant-Commander Sumner, who, in the teeth of the greatest difficulties, took heavy wire towing hawsers between the _Audacious_ and the towing ships on several occasions, elicited from Sir Lewis Bayly expressions of warm admiration. Arrangements were made for the _Liverpool_ to stand by the _Audacious_ during the night, but at 9 P.M. she suddenly blew up with great violence and sank. The cause of this explosion was never ascertained with certainty. At the time the ship blew up the _Liverpool_ was not far distant, and a good deal of _débris_ fell on the deck of that ship, killing one petty officer. This was the only casualty due to the loss of the _Audacious_. Meanwhile, at 1.8 P.M., information reached me from Kingstown that the s.s. _Manchester Commerce_ had been sunk on the night of the 26th by a mine in the vicinity of the disaster to the _Audacious_, and at 4.40 P.M. a report came from Malin Head that a four-masted sailing vessel, the _Caldaff_, had also struck a mine in the neighbourhood on the previous night.