Reports of vessels torpedoed,
of open boats containing survivors afloat on the sea, followed one
another swiftly until not only Newport but the entire country was
aroused.
Admiral Knight and Admiral Gleaves, who had been keeping the Navy
Department at Washington in touch with every phase of the situation,
beginning with the arrival of the U-53 the preceding day, lost no time
in sending destroyers forth to the rescue, while already there was the
cheering word that the destroyer _Batch_ was on the scene and engaged in
rescue work.
The departure of the destroyers was a spectacle that brought thousands
of men, women, and children of Newport to the points of vantage along
the shore or to small craft of all sorts in which they kept as close to
the destroyers, preparing for their seaward flight, as they could. It
was Sunday, a day when crowds were at leisure, but it was also a day
when many of the officers and crew of the flotilla were on shore-leave.
They were summoned from all points, however, and within a short time
after the first call for help had been received the _Jarvis_, with
Lieutenant L. P. Davis in command, was speeding to sea at the rate
ordered by Admiral Gleaves, thirty-one knots an hour.
Inside half an hour the other destroyers shot out to sea at the same
speed as the _Jarvis_ while the spectators cheered them, and such as
were in small boats followed until the speeding craft had disappeared.
There was the _Drayton_--Lieutenant Bagley, who later was to know the
venom of the German submarine--the _Ericson_, Lieutenant-Commander W.
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