Then it dropped out of sight, as if the bearer had leaped down a hatchway.

For a moment all was profound darkness, and then an immense fan-like expanse of flame shot far up into the sky, as if from the crater of a volcano, and was crossed by the curving streaks of fire made by shells in their eccentric flight.

Across the water came the crashing roar of the prodigious explosion, followed a few moments later by the sounds of wreckage and bodies as they dropped into the sea.
Then again impenetrable gloom and profound stillness succeeded.

The batteries on shore were awed into silence by the awful sight, and the waiting friends on the ships held their breath.
The hope was that Lieutenant Somers and his companions had fired the fuse and then rowed away in their boats, but as minute followed minute without the sound of muffled oars from the hollow night reaching the straining ears, suspense gave way to sickening dread.

The vessels moved to and fro about the entrance, as if the inanimate things shared in the anxiety that would not allow them to remain still.