THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS
fairly riddled before a lyddite fire broke out and caused her abandonment. She was ultimately torpedoed and sunk by the flagship. Of the United States ships only the Grayson was lost. She was made helpless early in the battle when a shell tore away her whole stern. Attempts to tow her out of range were unsuccessful, and, in spite of the efforts of her officers and crew to save her, she sank shortly after. The Allies lost four officers and thirty-one men and had upwards of sixty injured. Against this the German loss was approximately eighty dead, of which fully a third were drowned, over a hundred injured and two hundred and seventy-two taken prisoner. Of the cargo boats the Bok Fjord was sunk and three others more or less seriously damaged, with a loss of six lives and injury to as many more. Temporary repairs were effected by one o'clock, by which time the warships were again in formation and the flotilla was headed back on its course under reduced speed.
Wireless messages had been picked up promptly and soon after one o'clock four destroyers came boiling out of the west. Too late to get into the scrap, after a two hundred mile race at thirty-two knots or better, the Limies looked the dejection they undoubtedly felt as they wheeled around be-
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