As the _Bouvet_ retired an officer on a British destroyer saw three shells strike her. Almost at the same moment she blew up with a terrific explosion, and was hidden in a dense cloud of smoke. In three minutes she heeled over and disappeared. A consort rushed to her assistance, only to find bubbles rising to the surface, and a pall of black smoke slowly lifting. Out of her crew of 630, only 64 were saved. At first it was thought that the enemy's shells had destroyed her, but the real cause of the disaster was a floating mine. The Turks, seeing the narrow waterway full of ships, had dropped mines in the channel, and the current had swept them along on their mission of destruction.
This grave misfortune led to no slackening of the bombardment. An hour and a half later the _Irresistible_, a British battleship, thirteen years old, also fouled a mine. She began to list heavily, and slowly dragged her way from the firing line towards the entrance to the straits. At ten minutes to six she sank, but happily not until our destroyers had taken off nearly all her ship's company. The rescue of the _Irresistible's_ crew was a very gallant and skilful bit of work, for the destroyers were under Turkish fire all the time. A midshipman named Hugh Dixon did splendid service in picking up officers and men while shells were falling round his boat. He afterwards received the Distinguished Service Cross.
[Illustration: The Irresistible and the Ocean in Action.
(_By permission of The Illustrated London News._)
This picture, taken from the deck of a British warship, shows the _Irresistible_ and _Ocean_ shelling the Kum Kale and other forts on the Asiatic side. Both vessels were sunk on March 18, 1915, by drifting mines. (See page 175.)]
The tale of disaster was not yet complete. A quarter of an hour after the _Irresistible_ went down the floating mines claimed another victim. The _Ocean_, a British battleship, fifteen years old, suddenly sank; but once more the destroyers were on the alert, and few lives were lost. Nor had other ships of the fleet escaped scathless. The _Gaulois_ had been holed in the bows, the fire-control station on the _Inflexible's_ foretop had been shot away, and several of her men had fallen. Later in the day she received a gaping wound from a mine.