I'm really looking forward to the chance to stand on the deck of a mighty battleship amidst a gale while scanning the horizon for an elusive foe.
On the same topic.
"Suddenly my periscope revealed some big ships. Black monsters; six tall broad beamed giants steaming in two columns.
They were still a long way off, but they showed up clearly on the horizon, and even at this great distance they looked powerful, massive.
....
It was a stimulating, majestic spectacle as the dark grey giants approached like fate itself.
The six ships, which had at first proceeding in two columns, formed line ahead. Like a herd of prehistoric monsters
they closed on one another with slow movements, spectre-like, irresistible.
"
From von Hase - Kiel and Jutland
"From the
Lion's bridge the enemy appeared on the eastern horizon in the form of four separate wedges or triangles of smoke
with another mass of smoke ahead of them, coming form the destroyers. Suddenly from the rearmost of these wedges came a stab of white flame.
"He's opened fire," said Captain Chatfield, and we waited for what seemed a long time, probably about twenty-five seconds, until a great column
of water and spray arose in the sea at a distance of more than a mile on our port bow.
....
Minute by minute the range came down, and during each interval further flashes were observed from the enemy, and further fountains of water rose
between us - always creeping a little nearer, but still short. One looked on in a curiously detached way, as though the performance could be no
particular concern of ours.
As soon as the range, as reported, had come down to 22,000 yards, Captain Chatfield told the Gunnery Lieutenant to try a sighting shot. Almost on the
instant one of our 13.5's in "B" turret roared out, and the cordite smoke blew back in our faces. Again there was an interval in waiting; and
far away, between us and the nearest smoke wedge, one could see through one's glass the tiny fountain of water that told us that the shot was short."
From F. Young - With the battlecruisers.
