[Sidenote: A destroyer is torpedoed but does not sink.]

I don't suppose I can tell you which boat either, if the authorities
won't. You do not know any one on board of her, however. They saw it
coming, jammed on full speed, and nearly cleared it. It took them just
at the stern and blew off about 30 feet as neatly as son would bite the
end off a banana. The submarine heard the explosion, of course, from
below, and came to the surface to see the "damned Yankee" sink, only to
find the rudderless, sternless boat steaming full speed in a circle with
her one remaining propeller, and to be greeted by a salvo of four-inch
shells that made her duck promptly. The man killed saw the torpedo
coming and ran aft to throw overboard some high explosives stowed
there--but he didn't quite make it.

[Sidenote: Damaged destroyers somehow get back to port.]

Our destroyers are really wonderful boats--you can shoot off one end of
them, ram them, cut them in two, and still they float and get to port
somehow.

Some time ago, on a pitch-dark night, one of them was rammed by a
British boat and nearly cut in two. Was there a panic? Not at all. As
she settled in the water, they got out their boats and life-rafts, the
officers and a few selected men stayed on board, and the rest pulled off
in the darkness singing, "Are we downhearted? No!" and "Hail, hail, the
gang's all here." She floated, though with her deck awash; the boats
were recalled, and they brought her in. She is fixed up and back in the
game again now.