[Sidenote: Courageous work of the gunners.]
The guns' crews were held at their stations hoping for an opportunity to
fire on the submarine should it appear before the ship sank, and orders
were given to the guns' crews to begin firing, hoping that this might
prevent further attack. All the ship's company except the guns' crews
and necessary officers were at that time in the boats and on the rafts
near the ship, and when the guns' crews began firing the people in the
boats set up a cheer to show that they were not downhearted. The guns'
crews only left their guns when ordered by the commanding officer just
before the ship sank. The guns in the bow kept up firing until after the
water was entirely over the main deck of the after half of the ship.
The state of discipline which existed and the coolness of the men is
well illustrated by what occurred when the boats were being lowered and
were about half way from their davits to the water. At this particular
time, there appeared some possibility of the ship not sinking
immediately, and the commanding officer gave the order to stop lowering
the boats. This order could not be understood, however, owing to the
noise caused by escaping steam from the safety valves of the boilers
which had been lifted to prevent explosion, but by motion of the hand
from the commanding officer the crews stopped lowering the boats and
held them in mid-air for a few minutes until at a further motion of the
hand the boats were dropped into the water.
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