That Sunday afternoon our troops tried to advance along the ridge beyond Suvla Point, and did make some headway; but they came up against a wretched redoubt, a thousand yards from Jephson's Post, crammed with machine-guns, and were brought to a standstill.
The _Talbot_ and the _Swiftsure_ did most of the covering work; but the Turkish trenches up there, and that redoubt, were so protected by the folds and curvatures of the hills that their high-velocity guns were very ineffective.
When this business was finished, "Cuthbert", the hostile aeroplane, came over from Maidos, and made a "bee-line" for the balloon ship once more. As he approached, the _Manica_ commenced hauling down the balloon and its observers, and simply screeched at "Cuthbert" with her maxims; but the aeroplane did not take anything seriously, plumped down two bombs within half a mile of her--not nearer--appeared to be perfectly content, and went home again, followed by some very pretty shrapnel from the _Talbot_.
There was very heavy firing on shore on the extreme left that night--all through the night--and by the morning the soldiers had lost the ground they had gained the day before.
In the usual "strafe" that morning, two shells hit the _Achates_ without causing any casualties; but by now it had become thoroughly understood that if the ships remained where they were, and did not get up anchor and move about, the Turks would soon leave off shooting at them. So, from now onwards, ships seldom shifted billet during these frequent shellings. This may have spoilt the Turks' amusement--for it must have been most amusing to the Turkish gunners to see them scurrying about the harbour--but the constant shifting became too boring altogether. The poor old distilling ship--the _Bacchus_--and the _Ajax_, a store ship, came in for the worst time. The Turks had a special "down" on them both, and seldom a day went by without them being hit, first of all with small "stuff", and, later on, by 5.9-inch shells.
Fritz put in another appearance that Monday morning, and had another "go" at the balloon ship--the _Hector_ this time--but something had gone wrong, as before, with the "balance chamber" of his torpedo, and it gracefully dived underneath her. However, she hauled down the balloon in a hurry--she thought the "balance chamber" of the next torpedo might be in better working order--and inside the submarine net she came, only to be driven out again by shells which flew chirpily over the _Achates_, and dropped all round her. A lucky shot in the balloon--and "finish" that--so up came her anchor, and she pushed across to Kephalo.