Powerfully armed, but with a false screen disguising the extent of her armament, the apparently easy {204} prey, H. M. S. _Prize_, a topsail schooner of 200 tons, was sighted, on April 30, 1917, by a prowling submarine. This opened fire at about three miles range, and, according to plan, Lieutenant W. E. Sanders ordered some of his crew, as though in a panic, to lower a boat and push off. Meanwhile the ship's head was put into the wind, and the gun crews lay flat on the deck to conceal themselves. Still shelling the schooner and inflicting numerous casualties--borne in silence as part of the game--the submarine approached to within seventy yards, apparently satisfied that she had been definitely abandoned. That was Lieutenant Sanders' chance, and he made the fullest use of it. Running up the White Ensign, the screens were dropped, and every available gun opened fire. The submarine's conning-tower was blown to pieces, as was her forward gun, all of the crew of the latter being destroyed; while a machine-gun on the _Prize_ raked her deck. In less than five minutes she was on fire and sinking in a cloud of smoke, her captain and one of her men being picked up and brought aboard the _Prize_ as prisoners. The _Prize_ herself, however, was now sinking fast; and it was only by the most strenuous efforts of all aboard that the holes in her were plugged and she was kept afloat till, two days later, she was found by a motor-launch. Less successful, but equally representative of the work of these individualist adventure-ships, was the extraordinary action fought by the _Dunraven_ in the following August. Commanded by Captain Gordon Campbell, who had already distinguished himself in {205} this particular form of warfare, the _Dunraven_, apparently an ordinary armed merchant-ship, sighted an enemy submarine on the horizon. Observing that the _Dunraven_ continued her zig-zag course, the submarine at once set off in chase of her, remaining submerged till within less than three miles, when she came to the surface and opened fire. With what was seemingly her single gun, the _Dunraven_ began to reply to this, at the same time sending out distress signals, by means of her wireless, in order to preserve her supposed character. Later, as the shells began to drop nearer, she lowered her "panic" party, being already herself then on fire aft.