The target thus presented was an excellent one.
"Fire!" cried Jack again.
The aft battery crashed out and once more the British cheered.
Two shells plowed into the crippled German just on the water line.
"A death wound," muttered Frank.
The lad was right.
The German vessel staggered under the force of the impact and seemed to reel backward. Men leaped to the rails and hurled themselves into the sea.
Suddenly there was a loud explosion and the ship seemed to split in two, a blaze of red fire stretching high into the heavens from the middle of the vessel as it did so. Then blackness enveloped it again and the two parts of the ship fell back into the water with a hiss like that of a thousand serpents. The first German ship was gone.
It was first blood to the Essex and the crew cheered again.
But the other five German vessels came on apace. The gun on the forward ship spoke, but the shell went wild.