The two British warships came together with a terrible crash!
So great was the force of the shock that Frank, standing on the far side, was thrown clear over the rail. But the lad's grasp upon his chum's arm was so tight that it dragged Jack along with him; and the two boys fell into the sea together.
Aboard both British ships all was confusion now. With startled cries, men rushed on deck. Unable to see in the dense fog, they became panic stricken. While these same men would have faced death bravely in battle, they were completely bewildered at this moment.
In vain the officers aboard both vessels sought to bring some semblance of order out of the confusion. Something had gone wrong with the electric lighting apparatus on both vessels. There was no light. The fog was as thick as ever. The crews stampeded for the rails, but at the rails they hesitated, for they did not wish to throw themselves into the great unknown.
Next came the stampede for life preservers. Men fought over their possession, whereas, in cooler moments, hardly a man aboard either ship who would not willingly have given the life preservers to companions.
Had the men thrown themselves into the sea immediately, it is likely that many of them would have been saved; but their hesitation cost them dearly.
In vain did the reversed engines of both ships work. The sharp steel bow of the Indefatigable had become so firmly embedded in the side of the Queen Mary that it could not be unloosened.
And so the two battleships sank, together in their last moments as they had been when they had faced almost certain destruction under the muzzles of the great German guns such a short time before.
Now men from both ships hurled themselves into the sea in an effort to cheat the waters of their prey. Commanders and officers, however, realizing that there was no hope of life even in the sea, so swiftly were the ships sinking, stood calmly on the bridges and awaited the end. For, they realized, the suction would be so strong when the vessels took their final plunge, that all those anywhere near in the water would be drawn under.
Captain Raleigh sent a hail across the water in a loud voice.