"A salvo of German shells," he said, "hit the quarterdeck, setting the whole of that part on fire. A few minutes afterward a terrific explosion occurred in the second magazine. Both our guns were then right back on their slides and out of action. The general opinion was that the whole turret had been unseated by the German salvo. The officer of the turret told me that the ship was sinking rapidly and that I was to get the turret crew out as quickly as possible, which I did. The officer then told me to carry out the usual routine: 'Every man for himself.' I left the turret through the hatch on the top and found the ship was lying on her side. She was broken amidship, with the stern and bows both sticking out of the water at an acute angle. I sat on the turret for a few moments, and while there I thought I saw several men fall into the water. The stern was on fire and red hot. Then an explosion blew the whole bow right out of the water, causing the after part of the ship to give a tremendous lurch, and throwing me off the turret into the water. Just before I struck the water, I heard another terrific explosion above my head, as apparently the after magazine exploded. When I came to the surface {179} of the water, nothing of the _Queen Mary_ was to be seen, except a lot of wreckage, spars, and that sort of thing. The _Tiger_ was steaming behind us during the action, and probably passed right over the spot where the _Queen Mary_ had gone down. The _Queen Mary_ took only about a minute to sink. I remained in the water a long time, clinging to a spar, and saw a destroyer come up, and saw her turn round and make off again. A few minutes afterward, the Fifth Battle Squadron (comprising the _Queen Elizabeth_ type of ship) steamed past at about 23 knots, firing continually. The enemy shots were mostly falling short. One enemy shell exploded in the water close to where I was, and the concussion knocked me off my spar, causing me to lose consciousness. The next thing I remember was finding myself, about four hours later, in the forecastle of a destroyer. I was told that I had been picked up by their whaler about thirty-five minutes after the _Queen Mary_ had been blown up. I was found on a large hatch which was floating in the water." With the battle-cruisers swinging round to the north, the destroyers having been recalled, let us return for a moment to the _Nomad_, _Nestor_, and _Nicator_. Proceeding with their attack, the destroyer _Nomad_ had soon been put out of action, but the _Nestor_, most spiritedly led by Commander the Hon. E. B. B. Bingham, had fired her third torpedo at the second of the enemy cruisers from a distance of less than two miles. Before being able to fire her fourth, she too had become crippled; while the _Nicator_, having to turn inside her in order to avoid a collision, {180} had been unable to fire her last torpedo, but had succeeded in escaping and rejoining her flotilla.