| Sacrifice Of Thunder Child |
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The Sacrifice of ''Thunder Child'' was a fictitious battle described in H. G. Wells 's '' The War Of The Worlds '', although the action is never given a name in Wells's own text. It took place on Wednesday evening, immediately after the Martians Conquered London and the surrounding areas, while large number of Refugee s were attempting to escape by sea from the Essex coast. (Note that contrary to Popular Misconception , this battle did ''not'' occur in the Thames estuary, which had been rendered untenable, but rather off the mouth of the Blackwater .) Included in the rag-tag fleet of ships was a paddle wheel steamer laden with characters important in the novel and other Refugee s from London . Three Martian tripod fighting-machines approached the area. HMS ''Thunder Child'' , a Torpedo Ram patrolling about two miles away, raced to engage them, but without firing. The reasons she did not use her Torpedo es is not difficult to presume; hitting the narrow legs of the fighting-machines would be very unlikely. The reason she did not fire her guns is explained by the narrator; since the ship's guns remained quiet as she charged the tripods, she was not seen as a threat, and therefore not immediately destroyed by their Heat-Ray. In both cases, the crowded and turbulant mass of refugee shipping stretching from Foulness to The Naze may have influenced the captain's decision. The Martians, who were unfamiliar with large warships (there being no large bodies of water on Mars ), at first responded to ''Thunder Child'''s charge with only with a gas attack, which was ineffective against the moving ship. After seeing the ship's continued advance, the Martians deployed their Heat-Ray, which inflicted tremendous damage on ''Thunder Child''. She was, however, able to ram one of the fighting-machines, destroying it. Now between the remaining two Martians, in sinking condition but with steering and propulsion still functional, ''Thunder Child'' turned toward a second fighting-machine and began to use her guns. Although she appeared to score no significant hits, and one of her misses sank a nearby fishing smack, she was able to set a collision course with one of the Martians before the Heat-Rays found her again. The resulting catastrophic explosion of her boilers and ammunition magazines destroyed ''Thunder Child'', but the thousands of tons of incandescent wreckage struck the Martian machine, crumpling it like cardboard. ''Thunder Child'' was lost, but her valiant attack occupied the Martians long enough for three other Royal Navy ironclads to arrive. The fate of the third Martian fighting machine is not revealed by Wells, but the battle did enable the civilian shipping to escape. ARTISTS IMPRESSIONS '']] REFERENCE |
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