"Clear ship for action!"
The command was given quietly, and instead of blowing their bugles and whistles, and ringing their bells, the under-officers passed the commands along by word of mouth. Silently the men obeyed, but what a rushing around ensued! To an outsider the men might have appeared in helpless confusion, yet nothing could have been more orderly.
As mentioned before, all unnecessary woodwork had already been disposed of, but now the decks were cleared of even the ventilator pipes wherever they interfered with the range of the big guns, and chains were run out, to help work guns from the outside as well as from the inside. Added to this, a gangway that had been kept until the last minute was slid into the sea, and then the various hatchways were fitted with steel covers, to protect those below from the explosion of a stray shell or the plunging fire of small arms.
In the bowels of the warships the engineers and others had also been busy, coupling the various engines so that they might work one for another, attaching the power to the machinery that worked the big guns and to the electric circuit, for my
