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[Page 136]
1916
However, he was attacked no less than four times during the night by our destroyers, & next day our Fleet searched the sea, but found no trace of the enemy &, therefore, returned to harbour. This account is, perhaps, quiet inaccurate as regards details, as it is written so recently after the event, and episodes have not yet been properly sorted out. No doubt, in time to come, volumes will be written on the action, & it will take longer to read about it than it took to fight it. Naturally we were very sore at having missed such a prominent part. To have suffered to many bitter disappointments in the past & then to have missed the one golden opportunity, made us all quite angry. As will be seen in the course of this diary, this was the third occasion on which we had narrowly missed figuring in an action. Our arrival at the Falkland Islands was only three weeks after Admiral Sturdee's action against the German cruisers, & we reached England just one week after Admiral Beatty's action off the Dogger Bank. This time we had missed our opportunity by a day. True, it was not our fault, but just our bad luck. Nevertheless, some called our ship the "conscientious objector". During our stay at Scapa, a tragedy happened in our midst scarcely before we had got over