The other cruisers and the
destroyers of the British fleet brought up the rear. In the chase
which followed the Germans were handicapped by the fact that the
_Bluecher_ was far too slow to be brought into action, which meant that
either the other ships must leave her behind to certain destruction
or that they must slow down to keep with her. They chose the latter
course, while her stokers did their best to increase her speed. In
the English fleet there was the same trouble with the _Indomitable_,
but inasmuch as the British were the pursuers and had a preponderance
in ships and in the range of their guns, this did not matter so
much to them. But the stokers of the _Indomitable_ worked as hard,
if not harder, than those of the _Bluecher_.
By half past nine the two forces were seven miles apart and the
battle was on. It is necessary here to give certain facts about
gunnery on a large modern battleship. Firing at a range of seven
miles means a test of mathematics rather than of the mere matter of
pointing guns. At that distance the target--the ship to be hit--is
barely visible on the sky line on the clearest and calmest sea. If a
hole the size of the head of a pin be made in a piece of cardboard
and the latter he held about a foot and a half from the eye, the
distant ship will just about fill the hole.
The guns on the modern battleships are not "laid"; that is, they
are not aimed as were the cannon of past days or the rifle of today.
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