There were now eight battleships, all pre-dreadnoughts, left at Tenedos,
and at noon six of them started off in line a-head toward the strait.
The English ships already within were passing further up and went out of
sight.
The bombarding ships were steaming constantly up and down, turning at
each end of the stretch, which is about a couple of miles long.
A long thin veil of black smoke was drifting slowly westward from the
fighting. At about 1:30 Erenkeui Village, standing high on the Asiatic
side, received a couple of shells. At 1:45 a division of eight
destroyers in line steamed into the entrance of the strait, and a little
later the last two battleships from Tenedos joined, the Dublin
patrolling outside. An hour later the most striking effect was produced
by a shell falling on a fort at Kilid Bahr, which evidently exploded
another magazine. A huge mass of heavy jet-black smoke gradually rose
till it towered high above the cliffs on the European and Asiatic sides.
It ballooned slowly out like a gigantic genie rising from a fisherman's
bottle.
By now the action was slackening, and at 3:45 five ships were slowly
steaming homeward from the entrance. At 4:30 there were still eight
vessels in the strait, but the forts had practically ceased to fire.
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