"It might be my turn next, and that of the brave men who crowded the barbette.
"Was I afraid?" he continued. "I confess I was. It was something more than fear that took possession of my soul. I felt a cold terror creeping round my heart, for I had no hopes of life. Such terror as this it must be that a doomed man experiences when walking towards the scaffold with trembling limbs and cold perspiring knees. But I had prayer to support me. I do not know if you will quite understand me, when I say that I could see far beyond the awful din and roar and smoke of battle, see an eye above bidding me be of good cheer, whether death should come or not.
"Every bullet has it billet. Yes, but a bursting projectile in modern warfare has not one billet, but a hundred. The destruction some of these shells cause cannot be grasped by anyone who has not seen it.
"But here is a curious thing. No sooner did the first great boom of one of our guns take place, and our huge shell go roaring away on its mission of destruction, than all fear and terror passed away. I was as exalted now, although calm, as if I had taken a great dose of morphia, such as Dr. Grant once gave me.
"The first shot came from the foe—I mean the first that told. We could see from where I stood the quick, spiteful puff of white smoke and its awful tongue of red fire, and almost at the same time nearly every man around me had fallen to the deck with the fearful concussion as the Chinese projectile struck us almost amidships.
"But now the battle raged fast and furious. Small though we were in comparison with the Chinaman, we circled around, and hardly did we fire a shot which did not tell.
"We soon had the intense satisfaction of seeing the Ting-Yuen in flames. A few more of our shots and a torpedo would have sunk her, had not her sister ship, the Chen-Yuen, come to her and stood by her.
"The Chinese flag-ship was now unable to work her guns, but if," said Creggan, "my memory serves me right, it was the last shell she fired which worked such fearful havoc on board our poor ship.
"This shell was not only terrible in itself, but, bursting near to a large heap of ammunition, it exploded it, tearing our decks almost to pieces, and killing or wounding about eighty of our crew.
"I myself escaped that time," he continued.