The commanders of the German fleet, perceiving these small boats from
afar, thought that the British were resorting to the old principle
of boarding, and the German light cruiser _Mainz_ came out to fire
upon them. Two of the British small boats had to be abandoned as
their mother ships made off before the oncoming German. They were
in a perilous position, right beneath the guns of the fortress.
But now a daring and unique rescue took place. The commander of
the British submarine _E-4_ had been watching the fighting through
the periscope of his craft, and seeing the helpless position of
the two small boats, he submerged, made toward them, and then,
to the great surprise of the men in them, came up right between
them and took their occupants aboard his boat.
Repairs had been made on the _Arethusa_ which enabled her to go into
action again by ten o'clock. Accompanied again by two light cruisers
of ten four-inch guns and the _Fearless_, she turned westward in
answer to calls for assistance from the destroyers _Lurcher_ and
_Firedrake_, which accompanied the submarines and which reported
that they were being chased by fast German cruisers. Suddenly the
light cruiser _Strassburg_ again came out of the mist and bore
down on the British cruisers. Her larger guns were too heavy and
had too long a range for those of the British craft, and the latter
immediately sent out calls which brought into action for the first
time certain ships belonging to the squadron of British light cruisers,
which had been stationed to the northwest--the upper left-hand
corner of the page.
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