Among the smaller vessels—the torpedo boats—which had singled each other out, the execution had been terrible. Dead and wounded strewed the decks and there was no time for the uninjured to give aid. They were too busy attending to their guns and manoeuvering their vessels.
But the outcome of an engagement such as this could have but one result, it seemed. Outnumbered as they were and fighting as bravely as they knew how, the British were getting the worst of it. Rather than sacrifice more lives and ships, Vice-Admiral Beatty, on the Lion, gave the signal to retire. He was in hopes that the Germans would follow and thus fall into the clutches of the main British fleet which was advancing at full speed and with which Vice-Admiral Beatty had been in communication by wireless.
The Germans accepted the bait as the British drew off slowly; and as they advanced more ships steamed up from the east. It was a second German squadron advancing to the aid of the first.
There was a cry of surprise from the British, for they had not known that there was a second fleet in such close proximity. These new vessels evidently were the reserves the German admiral had been depending upon to turn the tide of battle should his first line ships not be able to overcome the British.
Seeing apparent victory within his grasp, the German admiral signalled his fleet to full speed; so the British retreated more rapidly.
Suddenly there was a terrible explosion to the right of the Queen Mary. Frank and Jack, as well as all others on the Queen Mary, gazed in that direction. The battle cruiser Invincible suddenly sprang into a sheet of flame and parted in half. A German shell had struck her vitals.
A cry of despair broke from the British as the Invincible—the greatest British ship to suffer so far—dived beneath the waves.
CHAPTER XVII
THE MAIN FLEET ARRIVES
It was by a miracle, it seemed, that the Queen Mary, the Indefatigable, the Marlborough and the Lion, now in the front line, had escaped being struck in their vitals by the German shells that flew all about. On the Queen Mary, dead men and wounded men strewed the deck. They were being carried below as rapidly as possible, where the ship's surgeon, with a corps of assistants, was attending to their wounds.