CHAPTER VIII.
BOMBARDING THE TURKISH FORTS.
“Jack, I do believe they are going in today to engage the Turkish forts!” exclaimed Amos, after taking a good look around at the stirring picture.
The sun, not far above the horizon, shone upon the glistening sea, and in almost every quarter the boys could see war vessels moving steadily in the direction of the land ahead. There were battleships, super-dreadnaughts, cruisers, torpedo-boat destroyers and dispatch boats, all stripped for action and looking in grim earnest as they moved along in seemingly endless procession.
“I’m a little inclined to say the same thing myself,” Jack announced. “But no matter whether it happens or not we are in great luck to be able to set eyes on a glorious picture like this.”
“I’ll never forget it if I live to the age of Methuselah!” affirmed Amos. “Just see how the mosquito craft dodge around, and serve to protect the big ships from any sort of torpedo attack. They must be on the watch all the time, because even a giant super-dreadnaught would go down like a stone if struck from a submarine.”
“I hope the Thunderer isn’t doomed to wind up that way, then,” remarked Jack. “With something like a thousand men aboard, we would have a mighty small chance to swim clear of the wreck, and might be sucked down when she sank. But they’re not depending so much on torpedoes out here as floating mines.”
“That’s what the lieutenant told us when on the destroyer,” said Amos. “It seems that there is always a swift current or tide flowing on the surface from out of the straits. By setting floating mines free above the Narrows, the German engineers, who are helping their allies, the Turks, in this campaign, can send them down upon the battle fleet as it works in the straits.”
“Those are what they call contact mines, I reckon, Jack?”
“Yes, they have triggers projecting from them, and contact with the side of a warship causes the explosion. They’ve already caused a whole lot of trouble, and several big war vessels have gone down in the straits through their work.”
“Then, besides, there have been heaps of regular mines, to be fired by electricity,” Amos went on to say. “The Allies have small boats called mine sweepers that use a sort of net, and drag for these mines. They’ve cleared most of them out of the first five miles of the straits, I understand.”