He signalled to the engineer for every pound of steam--and at that moment (I am told) much of the machinery was already red-hot.

The ship was sheered well to starboard of the _Vandalia_, the last remaining cable slipped.

For a time--and there was no onlooker so cold-blooded as to offer a guess at its duration--the _Calliope_ lay stationary; then gradually drew ahead.

The highest speed claimed for her that day is of one sea-mile an hour.

The question of times and seasons, throughout all this roaring business, is obscured by a dozen contradictions; I have but chosen what appeared to be the most consistent; but if I am to pay any attention to the time named by Admiral Kimberley, the _Calliope_, in this first stage of her escape, must have taken more than two hours to cover less than four cables.