"That marks the end of the channel they've swept," the Sub bellowed; but the Sub was much too interested in the shells which were humming and shrieking, right over the boat now, some of them bursting as they struck the sea, others falling in with a "flomp". Another moment and the white light was left behind, wriggling excitedly as the wash of the steamboat made the buoy dance. Another hundred yards and they were out of the line of fire.
There was a sudden shout from the bows: "Something ahead, sir!" and out of the darkness came cries and shouts for help. They steered towards them, stopping engines, and found two men in an almost sinking dinghy—a trawler's dinghy—one of them trying to paddle with bits of bottom board.
They hauled them in and left the boat behind.
The men were numbed and half dazed. One, a signalman, had a cut on his head and was bleeding freely.
"285's blown up, sir; we're the only ones left."
Neither knew anything, except that there had been a great heave under their trawler and they'd found themselves in the water, swum about, found the dinghy, and got into her. One man had started feebly baling her out with his hands, whilst the other had ripped up one of her bottom boards and tried to paddle to the ships.
"She was only a-goin' round in circles and a-drifting inshore," he said.
They hadn't seen any more of the crew, but the Sub stopped engines and halloed into the darkness. No answer coming back, he returned to the Achates at full speed. "Squinting Susan" and "Peeping Tom" had to be passed, but they and the Swiftsure were still busy with their little game, and so no one bothered about them.
Until the Sub brought the news, no one knew of the disaster to trawler No. 285—not even the second trawler, which had already returned. Some of the crew of the Swiftsure's picket-boat had seen a sudden glare on the water—-like a flash running along the surface—which they thought was a shell bursting. Nobody had heard any explosion.
In case there were any more survivors, the Swiftsure's picket-boat went back to search the mine-field, and luckily found the skipper of the trawler and two more men drifting about on wreckage. Even they could give no definite account of what happened. One thought he heard a noise; another that he'd seen a flash; they all remembered a great heave under them and finding themselves in the water.