Quotation from: The Strength of the Strong

Written by: Jack London

It was in the early spring of 1940 that Gluck destroyed the Mare
Island navy-yard. From a room in Vallejo he sent his electric
discharges across the Vallejo Straits to Mare Island. He first
played his flashes on the battleship Maryland. She lay at the dock
of one of the mine-magazines. On her forward deck, on a huge
temporary platform of timbers, were disposed over a hundred mines.
These mines were for the defence of the Golden Gate. Any one of
these mines was capable of destroying a dozen battleships, and
there were over a hundred mines. The destruction was terrific, but
it was only Gluck's overture. He played his flashes down the Mare
Island shore, blowing up five torpedo boats, the torpedo station,
and the great magazine at the eastern end of the island. Returning
westward again, and scooping in occasional isolated magazines on
the high ground back from the shore, he blew up three cruisers and
the battleships Oregon, Delaware, New Hampshire, and Florida--the
latter had just gone into dry-dock, and the magnificent dry-dock
was destroyed along with her.