MAP ILLUSTRATING THE ENEMY ATTACK ON BOSTON AND NEIGHBORING CITIES
The Deadly Blind Man’s Buff
The ships entered a shrouded, black sea where there was not a light to warn of reef or shoal. Lightless themselves, they groped with deep-sea leads and sounding machines till they assured themselves of safe positions where they might have sea-room to swing around in great closed circles at high speed.
These circles would cut deeply into the circles of the fire zones of the defenses. At close range the vessels, invisible to the forts, could send a furious volley into them, and rush past before the guns could find them, to return on their circle and fire from some other point. It was the penalty that darkness lays on land defenses. But it penalized the ships, also.[93]
They would have to fire without sighting their mark. They dared not betray themselves to the waiting guns on land by throwing their search-lights on the defenses, while the defenses could sweep the sea incessantly, for their searchlights were disposed along miles of coast, far aloof from the batteries.