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diff --git a/17689.txt b/17689.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b0d54b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/17689.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3997 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea Warfare, by Rudyard Kipling + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sea Warfare + +Author: Rudyard Kipling + +Release Date: February 6, 2006 [EBook #17689] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA WARFARE *** + + + + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +SEA WARFARE + + + +BY + +RUDYARD KIPLING + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED +ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON +1916 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +THE FRINGES OF THE FLEET 1 + +TALES OF "THE TRADE" 93 + +DESTROYERS AT JUTLAND 145 + + + + +THE FRINGES OF THE FLEET + +(1915) + + In Lowestoft a boat was laid, + Mark well what I do say! + And she was built for the herring trade, + But she has gone a-rovin', a-rovin', a-rovin', + The Lord knows where! + + They gave her Government coal to burn, + And a Q.F. gun at bow and stern, + And sent her out a-rovin', etc. + + Her skipper was mate of a bucko ship + Which always killed one man per trip, + So he is used to rovin', etc. + + Her mate was skipper of a chapel in Wales, + And so he fights in topper and tails-- + Religi-ous tho' rovin', etc. + + Her engineer is fifty-eight, + So he's prepared to meet his fate, + Which ain't unlikely rovin', etc. + + Her leading-stoker's seventeen, + So he don't know what the Judgments mean, + Unless he cops 'em rovin', etc. + + Her cook was chef in the Lost Dogs' Home, + Mark well what I do say! + And I'm sorry for Fritz when they all come + A-rovin', a-rovin', a-roarin' and a-rovin', + Round the North Sea rovin', + The Lord knows where! + + + + +THE AUXILIARIES + +I + + +The Navy is very old and very wise. Much of her wisdom is on record +and available for reference; but more of it works in the unconscious +blood of those who serve her. She has a thousand years of experience, +and can find precedent or parallel for any situation that the force of +the weather or the malice of the King's enemies may bring about. + +The main principles of sea-warfare hold good throughout all ages, and, +_so far as the Navy has been allowed to put out her strength_, these +principles have been applied over all the seas of the world. For +matters of detail the Navy, to whom all days are alike, has simply +returned to the practice and resurrected the spirit of old days. + +In the late French wars, a merchant sailing out of a Channel port +might in a few hours find himself laid by the heels and under way for +a French prison. His Majesty's ships of the Line, and even the big +frigates, took little part in policing the waters for him, unless he +were in convoy. The sloops, cutters, gun-brigs, and local craft of all +kinds were supposed to look after that, while the Line was busy +elsewhere. So the merchants passed resolutions against the inadequate +protection afforded to the trade, and the narrow seas were full of +single-ship actions; mail-packets, West Country brigs, and fat East +Indiamen fighting, for their own hulls and cargo, anything that the +watchful French ports sent against them; the sloops and cutters +bearing a hand if they happened to be within reach. + + +THE OLDEST NAVY + +It was a brutal age, ministered to by hard-fisted men, and we had put +it a hundred decent years behind us when--it all comes back again! +To-day there are no prisons for the crews of merchantmen, but they +can go to the bottom by mine and torpedo even more quickly than their +ancestors were run into Le Havre. The submarine takes the place of the +privateer; the Line, as in the old wars, is occupied, bombarding and +blockading, elsewhere, but the sea-borne traffic must continue, and +that is being looked after by the lineal descendants of the crews of +the long extinct cutters and sloops and gun-brigs. The hour struck, +and they reappeared, to the tune of fifty thousand odd men in more +than two thousand ships, of which I have seen a few hundred. Words of +command may have changed a little, the tools are certainly more +complex, but the spirit of the new crews who come to the old job is +utterly unchanged. It is the same fierce, hard-living, heavy-handed, +very cunning service out of which the Navy as we know it to-day was +born. It is called indifferently the Trawler and Auxiliary Fleet. It +is chiefly composed of fishermen, but it takes in every one who may +have maritime tastes--from retired admirals to the sons of the +sea-cook. It exists for the benefit of the traffic and the annoyance +of the enemy. Its doings are recorded by flags stuck into charts; its +casualties are buried in obscure corners of the newspapers. The Grand +Fleet knows it slightly; the restless light cruisers who chaperon it +from the background are more intimate; the destroyers working off +unlighted coasts over unmarked shoals come, as you might say, in +direct contact with it; the submarine alternately praises and--since +one periscope is very like another--curses its activities; but the +steady procession of traffic in home waters, liner and tramp, six +every sixty minutes, blesses it altogether. + +Since this most Christian war includes laying mines in the fairways of +traffic, and since these mines may be laid at any time by German +submarines especially built for the work, or by neutral ships, all +fairways must be swept continuously day and night. When a nest of +mines is reported, traffic must be hung up or deviated till it is +cleared out. When traffic comes up Channel it must be examined for +contraband and other things; and the examining tugs lie out in a blaze +of lights to remind ships of this. Months ago, when the war was young, +the tugs did not know what to look for specially. Now they do. All +this mine-searching and reporting and sweeping, _plus_ the direction +and examination of the traffic, _plus_ the laying of our own +ever-shifting mine-fields, is part of the Trawler Fleet's work, +because the Navy-as-we-knew-it is busy elsewhere. And there is always +the enemy submarine with a price on her head, whom the Trawler Fleet +hunts and traps with zeal and joy. Add to this, that there are boats, +fishing for real fish, to be protected in their work at sea or chased +off dangerous areas whither, because they are strictly forbidden to +go, they naturally repair, and you will begin to get some idea of what +the Trawler and Auxiliary Fleet does. + + +THE SHIPS AND THE MEN + +Now, imagine the acreage of several dock-basins crammed, gunwale to +gunwale, with brown and umber and ochre and rust-red steam-trawlers, +tugs, harbour-boats, and yachts once clean and respectable, now dirty +and happy. Throw in fish-steamers, surprise-packets of unknown lines +and indescribable junks, sampans, lorchas, catamarans, and General +Service stink-pontoons filled with indescribable apparatus, manned by +men no dozen of whom seem to talk the same dialect or wear the same +clothes. The mustard-coloured jersey who is cleaning a six-pounder on +a Hull boat clips his words between his teeth and would be happier in +Gaelic. The whitish singlet and grey trousers held up by what is +obviously his soldier brother's spare regimental belt is pure +Lowestoft. The complete blue-serge-and-soot suit passing a wire down a +hatch is Glasgow as far as you can hear him, which is a fair distance, +because he wants something done to the other end of the wire, and the +flat-faced boy who should be attending to it hails from the remoter +Hebrides, and is looking at a girl on the dock-edge. The bow-legged +man in the ulster and green-worsted comforter is a warm Grimsby +skipper, worth several thousands. He and his crew, who are mostly his +own relations, keep themselves to themselves, and save their money. +The pirate with the red beard, barking over the rail at a friend with +gold earrings, comes from Skye. The friend is West Country. The +noticeably insignificant man with the soft and deprecating eye is +skipper and part-owner of the big slashing Iceland trawler on which he +droops like a flower. She is built to almost Western Ocean lines, +carries a little boat-deck aft with tremendous stanchions, has a nose +cocked high against ice and sweeping seas, and resembles a hawk-moth +at rest. The small, sniffing man is reported to be a "holy terror at +sea." + + +HUNTERS AND FISHERS + +The child in the Pullman-car uniform just going ashore is a wireless +operator, aged nineteen. He is attached to a flagship at least 120 +feet long, under an admiral aged twenty-five, who was, till the other +day, third mate of a North Atlantic tramp, but who now leads a +squadron of six trawlers to hunt submarines. The principle is simple +enough. Its application depends on circumstances and surroundings. One +class of German submarines meant for murder off the coasts may use a +winding and rabbit-like track between shoals where the choice of water +is limited. Their career is rarely long, but, while it lasts, +moderately exciting. Others, told off for deep-sea assassinations, are +attended to quite quietly and without any excitement at all. Others, +again, work the inside of the North Sea, making no distinction between +neutrals and Allied ships. These carry guns, and since their work +keeps them a good deal on the surface, the Trawler Fleet, as we know, +engages them there--the submarine firing, sinking, and rising again in +unexpected quarters; the trawler firing, dodging, and trying to ram. +The trawlers are strongly built, and can stand a great deal of +punishment. Yet again, other German submarines hang about the skirts +of fishing-fleets and fire into the brown of them. When the war was +young this gave splendidly "frightful" results, but for some reason or +other the game is not as popular as it used to be. + +Lastly, there are German submarines who perish by ways so curious and +inexplicable that one could almost credit the whispered idea (it must +come from the Scotch skippers) that the ghosts of the women they +drowned pilot them to destruction. But what form these shadows +take--whether of "The Lusitania Ladies," or humbler stewardesses and +hospital nurses--and what lights or sounds the thing fancies it sees +or hears before it is blotted out, no man will ever know. The main +fact is that the work is being done. Whether it was necessary or +politic to re-awaken by violence every sporting instinct of a +sea-going people is a question which the enemy may have to consider +later on. + + Dawn off the Foreland--the young flood making + Jumbled and short and steep-- + Black in the hollows and bright where it's breaking-- + Awkward water to sweep. + "Mines reported in the fairway, + "Warn all traffic and detain. + "'Sent up Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain." + + Noon off the Foreland--the first ebb making + Lumpy and strong in the bight. + Boom after boom, and the golf-hut shaking + And the jackdaws wild with fright! + "Mines located in the fairway, + "Boats now working up the chain, + "Sweepers--Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock and Golden Gain." + + Dusk off the Foreland--the last light going + And the traffic crowding through, + And five damned trawlers with their syreens blowing + Heading the whole review! + "Sweep completed in the fairway. + "No more mines remain. + "'Sent back Unity, Claribel, Assyrian, Stormcock, and Golden Gain." + + + + +THE AUXILIARIES + +II + + +The Trawlers seem to look on mines as more or less fairplay. But with +the torpedo it is otherwise. A Yarmouth man lay on his hatch, his gear +neatly stowed away below, and told me that another Yarmouth boat had +"gone up," with all hands except one. "'Twas a submarine. Not a mine," +said he. "They never gave our boys no chance. Na! She was a Yarmouth +boat--we knew 'em all. They never gave the boys no chance." He was a +submarine hunter, and he illustrated by means of matches placed at +various angles how the blindfold business is conducted. "And then," he +ended, "there's always what _he'll_ do. You've got to think that out +for yourself--while you're working above him--same as if 'twas fish." +I should not care to be hunted for the life in shallow waters by a man +who knows every bank and pothole of them, even if I had not killed his +friends the week before. Being nearly all fishermen they discuss their +work in terms of fish, and put in their leisure fishing overside, when +they sometimes pull up ghastly souvenirs. But they all want guns. +Those who have three-pounders clamour for sixes; sixes for twelves; +and the twelve-pound aristocracy dream of four-inchers on +anti-aircraft mountings for the benefit of roving Zeppelins. They will +all get them in time, and I fancy it will be long ere they give them +up. One West Country mate announced that "a gun is a handy thing to +have aboard--always." "But in peacetime?" I said. "Wouldn't it be in +the way?" + +"We'm used to 'em now," was the smiling answer. "Niver go to sea again +without a gun--_I_ wouldn't--if I had my way. It keeps all hands +pleased-like." + +They talk about men in the Army who will never willingly go back to +civil life. What of the fishermen who have tasted something sharper +than salt water--and what of the young third and fourth mates who have +held independent commands for nine months past? One of them said to me +quite irrelevantly: "I used to be the animal that got up the trunks +for the women on baggage-days in the old Bodiam Castle," and he +mimicked their requests for "the large brown box," or "the black dress +basket," as a freed soul might scoff at his old life in the flesh. + + +"A COMMON SWEEPER" + +My sponsor and chaperon in this Elizabethan world of +eighteenth-century seamen was an A.B. who had gone down in the +_Landrail_, assisted at the Heligoland fight, seen the _Bluecher_ sink +and the bombs dropped on our boats when we tried to save the drowning +("Whereby," as he said, "those Germans died gottstrafin' their own +country because _we_ didn't wait to be strafed"), and has now found +more peaceful days in an Office ashore. He led me across many decks +from craft to craft to study the various appliances that they +specialise in. Almost our last was what a North Country trawler called +a "common sweeper," that is to say, a mine-sweeper. She was at tea in +her shirt-sleeves, and she protested loudly that there was "nothing in +sweeping." "'See that wire rope?" she said. "Well, it leads through +that lead to the ship which you're sweepin' _with_. She makes her end +fast and you make yourn. Then you sweep together at whichever depth +you've agreed upon between you, by means of that arrangement there +which regulates the depth. They give you a glass sort o' thing for +keepin' your distance from the other ship, but _that's_ not wanted if +you know each other. Well, then, you sweep, as the sayin' is. There's +nothin' _in_ it. You sweep till this wire rope fouls the bloomin' +mines. Then you go on till they appear on the surface, so to say, and +then you explodes them by means of shootin' at 'em with that rifle in +the galley there. There's nothin' in sweepin' more than that." + +"And if you hit a mine?" I asked. + +"You go up--but you hadn't ought to hit em', if you're careful. The +thing is to get hold of the first mine all right, and then you go on +to the next, and so on, in a way o' speakin'." + +"And you can fish, too, 'tween times," said a voice from the next +boat. A man leaned over and returned a borrowed mug. They talked about +fishing--notably that once they caught some red mullet, which the +"common sweeper" and his neighbour both agreed was "not natural in +those waters." As for mere sweeping, it bored them profoundly to talk +about it. I only learned later as part of the natural history of +mines, that if you rake the tri-nitro-toluol by hand out of a German +mine you develop eruptions and skin-poisoning. But on the authority of +two experts, there is nothing in sweeping. Nothing whatever! + + +A BLOCK IN THE TRAFFIC + +Now imagine, not a pistol-shot from these crowded quays, a little +Office hung round with charts that are pencilled and noted over +various shoals and soundings. There is a movable list of the boats at +work, with quaint and domestic names. Outside the window lies the +packed harbour--outside that again the line of traffic up and down--a +stately cinema-show of six ships to the hour. For the moment the film +sticks. A boat--probably a "common sweeper"--reports an obstruction in +a traffic lane a few miles away. She has found and exploded one mine. +The Office heard the dull boom of it before the wireless report came +in. In all likelihood there is a nest of them there. It is possible +that a submarine may have got in last night between certain shoals and +laid them out. The shoals are being shepherded in case she is hidden +anywhere, but the boundaries of the newly discovered mine-area must be +fixed and the traffic deviated. There is a tramp outside with tugs in +attendance. She has hit something and is leaking badly. Where shall +she go? The Office gives her her destination--the harbour is too full +for her to settle down here. She swings off between the faithful tugs. +Down coast some one asks by wireless if they shall hold up their +traffic. It is exactly like a signaller "offering" a train to the next +block. "Yes," the Office replies. "Wait a while. If it's what we +think, there will be a little delay. If it isn't what we think, there +will be a little longer delay." Meantime, sweepers are nosing round +the suspected area--"looking for cuckoos' eggs," as a voice suggests; +and a patrol-boat lathers her way down coast to catch and stop +anything that may be on the move, for skippers are sometimes rather +careless. Words begin to drop out of the air into the chart-hung +Office. "Six and a half cables south, fifteen east" of something or +other. "Mark it well, and tell them to work up from there," is the +order. "Another mine exploded!" "Yes, and we heard that too," says +the Office. "What about the submarine?" "_Elizabeth Huggins_ reports...." + +_Elizabeth's_ scandal must be fairly high flavoured, for a +torpedo-boat of immoral aspect slings herself out of harbour and +hastens to share it. If _Elizabeth_ has not spoken the truth, there +may be words between the parties. For the present a pencilled +suggestion seems to cover the case, together with a demand, as far as +one can make out, for "more common sweepers." They will be forthcoming +very shortly. Those at work have got the run of the mines now, and are +busily howking them up. A trawler-skipper wishes to speak to the +Office. "They" have ordered him out, but his boiler, most of it, is on +the quay at the present time, and "ye'll remember, it's the same wi' +my foremast an' port rigging, sir." The Office does not precisely +remember, but if boiler and foremast are on the quay the rest of the +ship had better stay alongside. The skipper falls away relieved. (He +scraped a tramp a few nights ago in a bit of a sea.) There is a little +mutter of gun-fire somewhere across the grey water where a fleet is +at work. A monitor as broad as she is long comes back from wherever +the trouble is, slips through the harbour mouth, all wreathed with +signals, is received by two motherly lighters, and, to all appearance, +goes to sleep between them. The Office does not even look up; for that +is not in their department. They have found a trawler to replace the +boilerless one. Her name is slid into the rack. The immoral +torpedo-boat flounces back to her moorings. Evidently what _Elizabeth +Huggins_ said was not evidence. The messages and replies begin again +as the day closes. + + +THE NIGHT PATROL + +Return now to the inner harbour. At twilight there was a stir among +the packed craft like the separation of dried tea-leaves in water. The +swing-bridge across the basin shut against us. A boat shot out of the +jam, took the narrow exit at a fair seven knots and rounded in the +outer harbour with all the pomp of a flagship, which was exactly what +she was. Others followed, breaking away from every quarter in silence. +Boat after boat fell into line--gear stowed away, spars and buoys in +order on their clean decks, guns cast loose and ready, wheel-house +windows darkened, and everything in order for a day or a week or a +month out. There was no word anywhere. The interrupted foot-traffic +stared at them as they slid past below. A woman beside me waved her +hand to a man on one of them, and I saw his face light as he waved +back. The boat where they had demonstrated for me with matches was the +last. Her skipper hadn't thought it worth while to tell me that he was +going that evening. Then the line straightened up and stood out to +sea. + +"You never said this was going to happen," I said reproachfully to my +A.B. + +"No more I did," said he. "It's the night-patrol going out. Fact is, +I'm so used to the bloomin' evolution that it never struck me to +mention it as you might say." + +Next morning I was at service in a man-of-war, and even as we came to +the prayer that the Navy might "be a safeguard to such as pass upon +the sea on their lawful occasions," I saw the long procession of +traffic resuming up and down the Channel--six ships to the hour. It +has been hung up for a bit, they said. + + Farewell and adieu to you, Greenwich ladies, + Farewell and adieu to you, ladies ashore! + For we've received orders to work to the eastward + Where we hope in a short time to strafe 'em some more. + + We'll duck and we'll dive like little tin turtles, + We'll duck and we'll dive underneath the North Seas, + Until we strike something that doesn't expect us, + From here to Cuxhaven it's go as you please! + + The first thing we did was to dock in a mine-field, + Which isn't a place where repairs should be done; + And there we lay doggo in twelve-fathom water + With tri-nitro-toluol hogging our run. + + The next thing we did, we rose under a Zeppelin, + With his shiny big belly half blocking the sky. + But what in the--Heavens can you do with six-pounders? + So we fired what we had and we bade him good-bye. + + + + +SUBMARINES + +I + + +The chief business of the Trawler Fleet is to attend to the traffic. +The submarine in her sphere attends to the enemy. Like the destroyer, +the submarine has created its own type of officer and man--with +language and traditions apart from the rest of the Service, and yet at +heart unchangingly of the Service. Their business is to run monstrous +risks from earth, air, and water, in what, to be of any use, must be +the coldest of cold blood. + +The commander's is more a one-man job, as the crew's is more +team-work, than any other employment afloat. That is why the relations +between submarine officers and men are what they are. They play +hourly for each other's lives with Death the Umpire always at their +elbow on tiptoe to give them "out." + +There is a stretch of water, once dear to amateur yachtsmen, now given +over to scouts, submarines, destroyers, and, of course, contingents of +trawlers. We were waiting the return of some boats which were due to +report. A couple surged up the still harbour in the afternoon light +and tied up beside their sisters. There climbed out of them three or +four high-booted, sunken-eyed pirates clad in sweaters, under jackets +that a stoker of the last generation would have disowned. This was +their first chance to compare notes at close hand. Together they +lamented the loss of a Zeppelin--"a perfect mug of a Zepp," who had +come down very low and offered one of them a sitting shot. "But what +_can_ you do with our guns? I gave him what I had, and then he started +bombing." + +"I know he did," another said. "I heard him. That's what brought me +down to you. I thought he had you that last time." + +"No, I was forty foot under when he hove out the big un. What happened +to _you_?" + +"My steering-gear jammed just after I went down, and I had to go round +in circles till I got it straightened out. But _wasn't_ he a mug!" + +"Was he the brute with the patch on his port side?" a sister-boat +demanded. + +"No! This fellow had just been hatched. He was almost sitting on the +water, heaving bombs over." + +"And my blasted steering-gear went and chose _then_ to go wrong," the +other commander mourned. "I thought his last little egg was going to +get me!" + +Half an hour later, I was formally introduced to three or four quite +strange, quite immaculate officers, freshly shaved, and a little tired +about the eyes, whom I thought I had met before. + + +LABOUR AND REFRESHMENT + +Meantime (it was on the hour of evening drinks) one of the boats was +still unaccounted for. No one talked of her. They rather discussed +motor-cars and Admiralty constructors, but--it felt like that queer +twilight watch at the front when the homing aeroplanes drop in. +Presently a signaller entered. "V 42 outside, sir; wants to know which +channel she shall use." "Oh, thank you. Tell her to take so-and-so." +... Mine, remember, was vermouth and bitters, and later on V 42 +himself found a soft chair and joined the committee of instruction. +Those next for duty, as well as those in training, wished to hear what +was going on, and who had shifted what to where, and how certain +arrangements had worked. They were told in language not to be found in +any printable book. Questions and answers were alike Hebrew to one +listener, but he gathered that every boat carried a second in +command--a strong, persevering youth, who seemed responsible for +everything that went wrong, from a motor cylinder to a torpedo. Then +somebody touched on the mercantile marine and its habits. + +Said one philosopher: "They can't be expected to take any more risks +than they do. _I_ wouldn't, if I was a skipper. I'd loose off at any +blessed periscope I saw." + +"That's all very fine. You wait till you've had a patriotic tramp +trying to strafe you at your own back-door," said another. + +Some one told a tale of a man with a voice, notable even in a Service +where men are not trained to whisper. He was coming back, +empty-handed, dirty, tired, and best left alone. From the peace of the +German side he had entered our hectic home-waters, where the usual +tramp shelled, and by miraculous luck, crumpled his periscope. Another +man might have dived, but Boanerges kept on rising. Majestic and +wrathful he rose personally through his main hatch, and at 2000 yards +(have I said it was a still day?) addressed the tramp. Even at that +distance she gathered it was a Naval officer with a grievance, and by +the time he ran alongside she was in a state of coma, but managed to +stammer: "Well, sir, at least you'll admit that our shooting was +pretty good." + +"And that," said my informant, "put the lid on!" Boanerges went down +lest he should be tempted to murder; and the tramp affirms she heard +him rumbling beneath her, like an inverted thunder-storm, for fifteen +minutes. + +"All those tramps ought to be disarmed, and _we_ ought to have all +their guns," said a voice out of a corner. + +"What? Still worrying over your 'mug'?" some one replied. + +"He _was_ a mug!" went on the man of one idea. "If I'd had a couple of +twelves even, I could have strafed him proper. I don't know whether I +shall mutiny, or desert, or write to the First Sea Lord about it." + +"Strafe all Admiralty constructors to begin with. _I_ could build a +better boat with a 4-inch lathe and a sardine-tin than ----," the +speaker named her by letter and number. + +"That's pure jealousy," her commander explained to the company. "Ever +since I installed--ahem!--my patent electric washbasin he's been +intriguin' to get her. Why? We know he doesn't wash. He'd only use +the basin to keep beer in." + + +UNDERWATER WORKS + +However often one meets it, as in this war one meets it at every turn, +one never gets used to the Holy Spirit of Man at his job. The "common +sweeper," growling over his mug of tea that there was "nothing in +sweepin'," and these idly chaffing men, new shaved and attired, from +the gates of Death which had let them through for the fiftieth time, +were all of the same fabric--incomprehensible, I should imagine, to +the enemy. And the stuff held good throughout all the world--from the +Dardanelles to the Baltic, where only a little while ago another batch +of submarines had slipped in and begun to be busy. I had spent some of +the afternoon in looking through reports of submarine work in the Sea +of Marmora. They read like the diary of energetic weasels in an +overcrowded chicken-run, and the results for each boat were tabulated +something like a cricket score. There were no maiden overs. One came +across jewels of price set in the flat official phraseology. For +example, one man who was describing some steps he was taking to remedy +certain defects, interjected casually: "At this point I had to go +under for a little, as a man in a boat was trying to grab my periscope +with his hand." No reference before or after to the said man or his +fate. Again: "Came across a dhow with a Turkish skipper. He seemed so +miserable that I let him go." And elsewhere in those waters, a +submarine overhauled a steamer full of Turkish passengers, some of +whom, arguing on their allies' lines, promptly leaped overboard. Our +boat fished them out and returned them, for she was not killing +civilians. In another affair, which included several ships (now at the +bottom) and one submarine, the commander relaxes enough to note that: +"The men behaved very well under direct and flanking fire from rifles +at about fifteen yards." This was _not_, I believe, the submarine that +fought the Turkish cavalry on the beach. And in addition to matters +much more marvellous than any I have hinted at, the reports deal with +repairs and shifts and contrivances carried through in the face of +dangers that read like the last delirium of romance. One boat went +down the Straits and found herself rather canted over to one side. A +mine and chain had jammed under her forward diving-plane. So far as I +made out, she shook it off by standing on her head and jerking +backwards; or it may have been, for the thing has occurred more than +once, she merely rose as much as she could, when she could, and then +"released it by hand," as the official phrase goes. + + +FOUR NIGHTMARES + +And who, a few months ago, could have invented, or having invented, +would have dared to print such a nightmare as this: There was a boat +in the North Sea who ran into a net and was caught by the nose. She +rose, still entangled, meaning to cut the thing away on the surface. +But a Zeppelin in waiting saw and bombed her, and she had to go down +again at once--but not too wildly or she would get herself more +wrapped up than ever. She went down, and by slow working and weaving +and wriggling, guided only by guesses at the meaning of each scrape +and grind of the net on her blind forehead, at last she drew clear. +Then she sat on the bottom and thought. The question was whether she +should go back at once and warn her confederates against the trap, or +wait till the destroyers which she knew the Zeppelin would have +signalled for, should come out to finish her still entangled, as they +would suppose, in the net? It was a simple calculation of comparative +speeds and positions, and when it was worked out she decided to try +for the double event. Within a few minutes of the time she had allowed +for them, she heard the twitter of four destroyers' screws quartering +above her; rose; got her shot in; saw one destroyer crumple; hung +round till another took the wreck in tow; said good-bye to the spare +brace (she was at the end of her supplies), and reached the +rendezvous in time to turn her friends. + +And since we are dealing in nightmares, here are two more--one +genuine, the other, mercifully, false. There was a boat not only at, +but _in_ the mouth of a river--well home in German territory. She was +spotted, and went under, her commander perfectly aware that there was +not more than five feet of water over her conning-tower, so that even +a torpedo-boat, let alone a destroyer, would hit it if she came over. +But nothing hit anything. The search was conducted on scientific +principles while they sat on the silt and suffered. Then the commander +heard the rasp of a wire trawl sweeping over his hull. It was not a +nice sound, but there happened to be a couple of gramophones aboard, +and he turned them both on to drown it. And in due time that boat got +home with everybody's hair of just the same colour as when they had +started! + +The other nightmare arose out of silence and imagination. A boat had +gone to bed on the bottom in a spot where she might reasonably expect +to be looked for, but it was a convenient jumping-off, or up, place +for the work in hand. About the bad hour of 2.30 A.M. the commander +was waked by one of his men, who whispered to him: "They've got the +chains on us, sir!" Whether it was pure nightmare, an hallucination of +long wakefulness, something relaxing and releasing in that packed box +of machinery, or the disgustful reality, the commander could not tell, +but it had all the makings of panic in it. So the Lord and long +training put it into his head to reply! "Have they? Well, we shan't be +coming up till nine o'clock this morning. Well see about it then. Turn +out that light, please." + +_He_ did not sleep, but the dreamer and the others did, and when +morning came and he gave the order to rise, and she rose unhampered, +and he saw the grey, smeared seas from above once again, he said it +was a very refreshing sight. + +Lastly, which is on all fours with the gamble of the chase, a man was +coming home rather bored after an uneventful trip. It was necessary +for him to sit on the bottom for awhile, and there he played patience. +Of a sudden it struck him, as a vow and an omen, that if he worked out +the next game correctly he would go up and strafe something. The cards +fell all in order. He went up at once and found himself alongside a +German, whom, as he had promised and prophesied to himself, he +destroyed. She was a mine-layer, and needed only a jar to dissipate +like a cracked electric-light bulb. He was somewhat impressed by the +contrast between the single-handed game fifty feet below, the ascent, +the attack, the amazing result, and when he descended again, his cards +just as he had left them. + + The ships destroy us above + And ensnare us beneath. + We arise, we lie down, and we move + In the belly of Death. + + The ships have a thousand eyes + To mark where we come ... + And the mirth of a seaport dies + When our blow gets home. + + + + +SUBMARINES + +II + + +I was honoured by a glimpse into this veiled life in a boat which was +merely practising between trips. Submarines are like cats. They never +tell "who they were with last night," and they sleep as much as they +can. If you board a submarine off duty you generally see a perspective +of fore-shortened fattish men laid all along. The men say that except +at certain times it is rather an easy life, with relaxed regulations +about smoking, calculated to make a man put on flesh. One requires +well-padded nerves. Many of the men do not appear on deck throughout +the whole trip. After all, why should they if they don't want to? They +know that they are responsible in their department for their +comrades' lives as their comrades are responsible for theirs. What's +the use of flapping about? Better lay in some magazines and +cigarettes. + +When we set forth there had been some trouble in the fairway, and a +mined neutral, whose misfortune all bore with exemplary calm, was +careened on a near-by shoal. + +"Suppose there are more mines knocking about?" I suggested. + +"We'll hope there aren't," was the soothing reply. "Mines are all +Joss. You either hit 'em or you don't. And if you do, they don't +always go off. They scrape alongside." + +"What's the etiquette then?" + +"Shut off both propellers and hope." + +We were dodging various craft down the harbour when a squadron of +trawlers came out on our beam, at that extravagant rate of speed which +unlimited Government coal always leads to. They were led by an ugly, +upstanding, black-sided buccaneer with twelve-pounders. + +"Ah! That's the King of the Trawlers. Isn't he carrying dog, too! +Give him room!" one said. + +We were all in the narrowed harbour mouth together. + +"'There's my youngest daughter. Take a look at her!'" some one hummed +as a punctilious navy cap slid by on a very near bridge. + +"We'll fall in behind him. They're going over to the neutral. Then +they'll sweep. By the bye, did you hear about one of the passengers in +the neutral yesterday? He was taken off, of course, by a destroyer, +and the only thing he said was: 'Twenty-five time I 'ave insured, but +not _this_ time.... 'Ang it!'" + +The trawlers lunged ahead toward the forlorn neutral. Our destroyer +nipped past us with that high-shouldered, terrier-like pouncing action +of the newer boats, and went ahead. A tramp in ballast, her propeller +half out of water, threshed along through the sallow haze. + +"Lord! What a shot!" somebody said enviously. The men on the little +deck looked across at the slow-moving silhouette. One of them, a +cigarette behind his ear, smiled at a companion. + +Then we went down--not as they go when they are pressed (the record, I +believe, is 50 feet in 50 seconds from top to bottom), but genteelly, +to an orchestra of appropriate sounds, roarings, and blowings, and +after the orders, which come from the commander alone, utter silence +and peace. + +"There's the bottom. We bumped at fifty--fifty-two," he said. + +"I didn't feel it." + +"We'll try again. Watch the gauge, and you'll see it flick a little." + + +THE PRACTICE OF THE ART + +It may have been so, but I was more interested in the faces, and above +all the eyes, all down the length of her. It was to them, of course, +the simplest of manoeuvres. They dropped into gear as no machine +could; but the training of years and the experience of the year leaped +up behind those steady eyes under the electrics in the shadow of the +tall motors, between the pipes and the curved hull, or glued to their +special gauges. One forgot the bodies altogether--but one will never +forget the eyes or the ennobled faces. One man I remember in +particular. On deck his was no more than a grave, rather striking +countenance, cast in the unmistakable petty officer's mould. Below, as +I saw him in profile handling a vital control, he looked like the Doge +of Venice, the Prior of some sternly-ruled monastic order, an old-time +Pope--anything that signifies trained and stored intellectual power +utterly and ascetically devoted to some vast impersonal end. And so +with a much younger man, who changed into such a monk as Frank Dicksee +used to draw. Only a couple of torpedo-men, not being in gear for the +moment, read an illustrated paper. Their time did not come till we +went up and got to business, which meant firing at our destroyer, and, +I think, keeping out of the light of a friend's torpedoes. + +The attack and everything connected with it is solely the commander's +affair. He is the only one who gets any fun at all--since he is the +eye, the brain, and the hand of the whole--this single figure at the +periscope. The second in command heaves sighs, and prays that the +dummy torpedo (there is less trouble about the live ones) will go off +all right, or he'll be told about it. The others wait and follow the +quick run of orders. It is, if not a convention, a fairly established +custom that the commander shall inferentially give his world some idea +of what is going on. At least, I only heard of one man who says +nothing whatever, and doesn't even wriggle his shoulders when he is on +the sight. The others soliloquise, etc., according to their +temperament; and the periscope is as revealing as golf. + +Submarines nowadays are expected to look out for themselves more than +at the old practices, when the destroyers walked circumspectly. We +dived and circulated under water for a while, and then rose for a +sight--something like this: "Up a little--up! Up still! Where the +deuce has he got to--Ah! (Half a dozen orders as to helm and depth of +descent, and a pause broken by a drumming noise somewhere above, which +increases and passes away.) That's better! Up again! (This refers to +the periscope.) Yes. Ah! No, we _don't_ think! All right! Keep her +_down_, damn it! Umm! That ought to be nineteen knots.... Dirty trick! +He's changing speed. No, he isn't. _He's_ all right. Ready forward +there! (A valve sputters and drips, the torpedo-men crouch over their +tubes and nod to themselves. _Their_ faces have changed now.) He +hasn't spotted us yet. We'll ju-ust--(more helm and depth orders, but +specially helm)--'Wish we were working a beam-tube. Ne'er mind! Up! (A +last string of orders.) Six hundred, and he doesn't see us! Fire!" + +The dummy left; the second in command cocked one ear and looked +relieved. Up we rose; the wet air and spray spattered through the +hatch; the destroyer swung off to retrieve the dummy. + +"Careless brutes destroyers are," said one officer. "That fellow +nearly walked over us just now. Did you notice?" + +The commander was playing his game out over again--stroke by stroke. +"With a beam-tube I'd ha' strafed him amidships," he concluded. + +"Why didn't you then?" I asked. + +There were loads of shiny reasons, which reminded me that we were at +war and cleared for action, and that the interlude had been merely +play. A companion rose alongside and wanted to know whether we had +seen anything of her dummy. + +"No. But we heard it," was the short answer. + +I was rather annoyed, because I had seen that particular daughter of +destruction on the stocks only a short time ago, and here she was +grown up and talking about her missing children! + +In the harbour again, one found more submarines, all patterns and +makes and sizes, with rumours of yet more and larger to follow. +Naturally their men say that we are only at the beginning of the +submarine. We shall have them presently for all purposes. + + +THE MAN AND THE WORK + +Now here is a mystery of the Service. + +A man gets a boat which for two years becomes his very self-- + + His morning hope, his evening dream, + His joy throughout the day. + +With him is a second in command, an engineer, and some others. They +prove each other's souls habitually every few days, by the direct test +of peril, till they act, think, and endure as a unit, in and with the +boat. That commander is transferred to another boat. He tries to take +with him if he can, which he can't, as many of his other selves as +possible. He is pitched into a new type twice the size of the old one, +with three times as many gadgets, an unexplored temperament and +unknown leanings. After his first trip he comes back clamouring for +the head of her constructor, of his own second in command, his +engineer, his cox, and a few other ratings. They for their part wish +him dead on the beach, because, last commission with So-and-so, +nothing ever went wrong anywhere. A fortnight later you can remind the +commander of what he said, and he will deny every word of it. She's +not, he says, so very vile--things considered--barring her five-ton +torpedo-derricks, the abominations of her wireless, and the tropical +temperature of her beer-lockers. All of which signifies that the new +boat has found her soul, and her commander would not change her for +battle-cruisers. Therefore, that he may remember he is the Service and +not a branch of it, he is after certain seasons shifted to a +battle-cruiser, where he lives in a blaze of admirals and +aiguillettes, responsible for vast decks and crypt-like flats, a +student of extended above-water tactics, thinking in tens of thousands +of yards instead of his modest but deadly three to twelve hundred. + +And the man who takes his place straight-way forgets that he ever +looked down on great rollers from a sixty-foot bridge under the whole +breadth of heaven, but crawls and climbs and dives through +conning-towers with those same waves wet in his neck, and when the +cruisers pass him, tearing the deep open in half a gale, thanks God he +is not as they are, and goes to bed beneath their distracted keels. + + * * * * * + + +EXPERT OPINIONS + +"But submarine work is cold-blooded business." + +(This was at a little session in a green-curtained "wardroom" cum +owner's cabin.) + +"Then there's no truth in the yarn that you can feel when the +torpedo's going to get home?" I asked. + +"Not a word. You sometimes see it get home, or miss, as the case may +be. Of course, it's never your fault if it misses. It's all your +second-in-command." + +"That's true, too," said the second. "I catch it all round. That's +what I am here for." + +"And what about the third man?" There was one aboard at the time. + +"He generally comes from a smaller boat, to pick up real work--if he +can suppress his intellect and doesn't talk 'last commission.'" + +The third hand promptly denied the possession of any intellect, and +was quite dumb about his last boat. + +"And the men?" + +"They train on, too. They train each other. Yes, one gets to know 'em +about as well as they get to know us. Up topside, a man can take you +in--take himself in--for months; for half a commission, p'rhaps. Down +below he can't. It's all in cold blood--not like at the front, where +they have something exciting all the time." + +"Then bumping mines isn't exciting?" + +"Not one little bit. You can't bump back at 'em. Even with a Zepp----" + +"Oh, now and then," one interrupted, and they laughed as they +explained. + +"Yes, that was rather funny. One of our boats came up slap underneath +a low Zepp. 'Looked for the sky, you know, and couldn't see anything +except this fat, shining belly almost on top of 'em. Luckily, it +wasn't the Zepp's stingin' end. So our boat went to windward and kept +just awash. There was a bit of a sea, and the Zepp had to work against +the wind. (They don't like that.) Our boat sent a man to the gun. He +was pretty well drowned, of course, but he hung on, choking and +spitting, and held his breath, and got in shots where he could. This +Zepp was strafing bombs about for all she was worth, and--who was +it?--Macartney, I think, potting at her between dives; and naturally +all hands wanted to look at the performance, so about half the North +Sea flopped down below and--oh, they had a Charlie Chaplin time of it! +Well, somehow, Macartney managed to rip the Zepp a bit, and she went +to leeward with a list on her. We saw her a fortnight later with a +patch on her port side. Oh, if Fritz only fought clean, this wouldn't +be half a bad show. But Fritz can't fight clean." + +"And _we_ can't do what he does--even if we were allowed to," one +said. + +"No, we can't. 'Tisn't done. We have to fish Fritz out of the water, +dry him, and give him cocktails, and send him to Donnington Hall." + +"And what does Fritz do?" I asked. + +"He sputters and clicks and bows. He has all the correct motions, you +know; but, of course, when he's your prisoner you can't tell him what +he really is." + +"And do you suppose Fritz understands any of it?" I went on. + +"No. Or he wouldn't have lusitaniaed. This war was his first chance of +making his name, and he chucked it all away for the sake of showin' +off as a foul Gottstrafer." + +And they talked of that hour of the night when submarines come to the +top like mermaids to get and give information; of boats whose business +it is to fire as much and to splash about as aggressively as possible; +and of other boats who avoid any sort of display--dumb boats watching +and relieving watch, with their periscope just showing like a +crocodile's eye, at the back of islands and the mouths of channels +where something may some day move out in procession to its doom. + + Be well assured that on our side + Our challenged oceans fight, + Though headlong wind and heaping tide + Make us their sport to-night. + Through force of weather, not of war, + In jeopardy we steer. + Then, welcome Fate's discourtesy + Whereby it shall appear + How in all time of our distress + As in our triumph too, + The game is more than the player of the game, + And the ship is more than the crew! + + Be well assured, though wave and wind + Have mightier blows in store, + That we who keep the watch assigned + Must stand to it the more; + And as our streaming bows dismiss + Each billow's baulked career, + Sing, welcome Fate's discourtesy + Whereby it is made clear + How in all time of our distress + As in our triumph too, + The game is more than the player of the game, + And the ship is more than the crew! + + Be well assured, though in our power + Is nothing left to give + But time and place to meet the hour + And leave to strive to live, + Till these dissolve our Order holds, + Our Service binds us here. + Then, welcome Fate's discourtesy + Whereby it is made clear + How in all time of our distress + And our deliverance too, + The game is more than the player of the game, + And the ship is more than the crew! + + + + +PATROLS + +I + + +On the edge of the North Sea sits an Admiral in charge of a stretch of +coast without lights or marks, along which the traffic moves much as +usual. In front of him there is nothing but the east wind, the enemy, +and some few our ships. Behind him there are towns, with M.P.'s +attached, who a little while ago didn't see the reason for certain +lighting orders. When a Zeppelin or two came, they saw. Left and right +of him are enormous docks, with vast crowded sheds, miles of +stone-faced quay-edges, loaded with all manner of supplies and crowded +with mixed shipping. + +In this exalted world one met Staff-Captains, Staff-Commanders, +Staff-Lieutenants, and Secretaries, with Paymasters so senior that +they almost ranked with Admirals. There were Warrant Officers, too, +who long ago gave up splashing about decks barefoot, and now check and +issue stores to the ravenous, untruthful fleets. Said one of these, +guarding a collection of desirable things, to a cross between a +sick-bay attendant and a junior writer (but he was really an expert +burglar), "_No!_ An' you can tell Mr. So-and-so, with my compliments, +that the storekeeper's gone away--right away--with the key of these +stores in his pocket. Understand me? In his trousers pocket." + +He snorted at my next question. + +"_Do_ I know any destroyer-lootenants?" said he. "This coast's rank +with 'em! Destroyer-lootenants are born stealing. It's a mercy they's +too busy to practise forgery, or I'd be in gaol. Engineer-Commanders? +Engineer-Lootenants? They're worse!... Look here! If my own mother was +to come to me beggin' brass screws for her own coffin, I'd--I'd think +twice before I'd oblige the old lady. War's war, I grant you that; +but what I've got to contend with is crime." + +I referred to him a case of conscience in which every one concerned +acted exactly as he should, and it nearly ended in murder. During a +lengthy action, the working of a gun was hampered by some empty +cartridge-cases which the lieutenant in charge made signs (no man +could hear his neighbour speak just then) should be hove overboard. +Upon which the gunner rushed forward and made other signs that they +were "on charge," and must be tallied and accounted for. He, too, was +trained in a strict school. Upon which the lieutenant, but that he was +busy, would have slain the gunner for refusing orders in action. +Afterwards he wanted him shot by court-martial. But every one was +voiceless by then, and could only mouth and croak at each other, till +somebody laughed, and the pedantic gunner was spared. + +"Well, that's what you might fairly call a naval crux," said my friend +among the stores. "The Lootenant was right. 'Mustn't refuse orders in +action. The Gunner was right. Empty cases _are_ on charge. No one +ought to chuck 'em away that way, but.... Damn it, they were _all_ of +'em right! It ought to ha' been a marine. Then they could have killed +him and preserved discipline at the same time." + + +A LITTLE THEORY + +The problem of this coast resolves itself into keeping touch with the +enemy's movements; in preparing matters to trap and hinder him when he +moves, and in so entertaining him that he shall not have time to draw +clear before a blow descends on him from another quarter. There are +then three lines of defence: the outer, the inner, and the home +waters. The traffic and fishing are always with us. + +The blackboard idea of it is always to have stronger forces more +immediately available everywhere than those the enemy can send. _x_ +German submarines draw _a_ English destroyers. Then _x_ calls _x + y_ +to deal with _a_, who, in turn, calls up _b_, a scout, and possibly +_a squared_, with a fair chance that, if _x + y + z_ (a Zeppelin) carry on, +they will run into _a squared + b squared + c_ cruisers. At this point, the equation +generally stops; if it continued, it would end mathematically in the +whole of the German Fleet coming out. Then another factor which we may +call the Grand Fleet would come from another place. To change the +comparisons: the Grand Fleet is the "strong left" ready to give the +knock-out blow on the point of the chin when the head is thrown up. +The other fleets and other arrangements threaten the enemy's solar +plexus and stomach. Somewhere in relation to the Grand Fleet lies the +"blockading" cordon which examines neutral traffic. It could be drawn +as tight as a Turkish bowstring, but for reasons which we may arrive +at after the war, it does not seem to have been so drawn up to date. + +The enemy lies behind his mines, and ours, raids our coasts when he +sees a chance, and kills seagoing civilians at sight or guess, with +intent to terrify. Most sailor-men are mixed up with a woman or two; a +fair percentage of them have seen men drown. They can realise what it +is when women go down choking in horrible tangles and heavings of +draperies. To say that the enemy has cut himself from the fellowship +of all who use the seas is rather understating the case. As a man +observed thoughtfully: "You can't look at any water now without seeing +'Lusitania' sprawlin' all across it. And just think of those words, +'North-German Lloyd,' 'Hamburg-Amerika' and such things, in the time +to come. They simply mustn't be." + +He was an elderly trawler, respectable as they make them, who, after +many years of fishing, had discovered his real vocation. "I never +thought I'd like killin' men," he reflected. "Never seemed to be any +o' my dooty. But it is--and I do!" + +A great deal of the East Coast work concerns mine-fields--ours and the +enemy's--both of which shift as occasion requires. We search for and +root out the enemy's mines; they do the like by us. It is a perpetual +game of finding, springing, and laying traps on the least as well as +the most likely runaways that ships use--such sea snaring and wiring +as the world never dreamt of. We are hampered in this, because our +Navy respects neutrals; and spends a great deal of its time in making +their path safe for them. The enemy does not. He blows them up, +because that cows and impresses them, and so adds to his prestige. + + +DEATH AND THE DESTROYER + +The easiest way of finding a mine-field is to steam into it, on the +edge of night for choice, with a steep sea running, for that brings +the bows down like a chopper on the detonator-horns. Some boats have +enjoyed this experience and still live. There was one destroyer (and +there may have been others since) who came through twenty-four hours +of highly-compressed life. She had an idea that there was a +mine-field somewhere about, and left her companions behind while she +explored. The weather was dead calm, and she walked delicately. She +saw one Scandinavian steamer blow up a couple of miles away, rescued +the skipper and some hands; saw another neutral, which she could not +reach till all was over, skied in another direction; and, between her +life-saving efforts and her natural curiosity, got herself as +thoroughly mixed up with the field as a camel among tent-ropes. A +destroyer's bows are very fine, and her sides are very straight. This +causes her to cleave the wave with the minimum of disturbance, and +this boat had no desire to cleave anything else. None the less, from +time to time, she heard a mine grate, or tinkle, or jar (I could not +arrive at the precise note it strikes, but they say it is unpleasant) +on her plates. Sometimes she would be free of them for a long while, +and began to hope she was clear. At other times they were numerous, +but when at last she seemed to have worried out of the danger zone +lieutenant and sub together left the bridge for a cup of tea. ("In +those days we took mines very seriously, you know.") As they were in +act to drink, they heard the hateful sound again just outside the +wardroom. Both put their cups down with extreme care, little fingers +extended ("We felt as if they might blow up, too"), and tip-toed on +deck, where they met the foc'sle also on tip-toe. They pulled +themselves together, and asked severely what the foc'sle thought it +was doing. "Beg pardon, sir, but there's another of those blighters +tap-tapping alongside, our end." They all waited and listened to their +common coffin being nailed by Death himself. But the things bumped +away. At this point they thought it only decent to invite the rescued +skipper, warm and blanketed in one of their bunks, to step up and do +any further perishing in the open. + +"No, thank you," said he. "Last time I was blown up in my bunk, too. +That was all right. So I think, now, too, I stay in my bunk here. It +is cold upstairs." + +Somehow or other they got out of the mess after all. "Yes, we used to +take mines awfully seriously in those days. One comfort is, Fritz'll +take them seriously when he comes out. Fritz don't like mines." + +"Who does?" I wanted to know. + +"If you'd been here a little while ago, you'd seen a Commander comin' +in with a big 'un slung under his counter. He brought the beastly +thing in to analyse. The rest of his squadron followed at two-knot +intervals, and everything in harbour that had steam up scattered." + + +THE ADMIRABLE COMMANDER + +Presently I had the honour to meet a Lieutenant-Commander-Admiral who +had retired from the service, but, like others, had turned out again at +the first flash of the guns, and now commands--he who had great ships +erupting at his least signal--a squadron of trawlers for the protection +of the Dogger Bank Fleet. At present prices--let alone the chance of the +paying submarine--men would fish in much warmer places. His flagship +was once a multi-millionaire's private yacht. In her mixture of stark, +carpetless, curtainless, carbolised present, with voluptuously curved, +broad-decked, easy-stairwayed past, she might be Queen Guinevere in the +convent at Amesbury. And her Lieutenant-Commander, most careful to pay +all due compliments to Admirals who were midshipmen when _he_ was a +Commander, leads a congregation of very hard men indeed. They do +precisely what he tells them to, and with him go through strange +experiences, because they love him and because his language is volcanic +and wonderful--what you might call Popocatapocalyptic. I saw the Old +Navy making ready to lead out the New under a grey sky and a falling +glass--the wisdom and cunning of the old man backed up by the passion +and power of the younger breed, and the discipline which had been his +soul for half a century binding them all. + +"What'll he do _this_ time?" I asked of one who might know. + +"He'll cruise between Two and Three East; but if you'll tell me what +he _won't_ do, it 'ud be more to the point! He's mine-hunting, I +expect, just now." + + +WASTED MATERIAL + +Here is a digression suggested by the sight of a man I had known in +other scenes, despatch-riding round a fleet in a petrol-launch. There +are many of his type, yachtsmen of sorts accustomed to take chances, +who do not hold masters' certificates and cannot be given sea-going +commands. Like my friend, they do general utility work--often in their +own boats. This is a waste of good material. Nobody wants amateur +navigators--the traffic lanes are none too wide as it is. But these +gentlemen ought to be distributed among the Trawler Fleet as strictly +combatant officers. A trawler skipper may be an excellent seaman, but +slow with a submarine shelling and diving, or in cutting out enemy +trawlers. The young ones who can master Q.F. gun work in a very short +time would--though there might be friction, a court-martial or two, +and probably losses at first--pay for their keep. Even a hundred or so +of amateurs, more or less controlled by their squadron commanders, +would make a happy beginning, and I am sure they would all be +extremely grateful. + + Where the East wind is brewed fresh and fresh every morning, + And the balmy night-breezes blow straight from the Pole, + I heard a destroyer sing: "What an enjoyable life does one + lead on the North Sea Patrol! + + "To blow things to bits is our business (and Fritz's), + Which means there are mine-fields wherever you stroll. + Unless you've particular wish to die quick, you'll avoid steering + close to the North Sea Patrol. + + "We warn from disaster the mercantile master + Who takes in high dudgeon our life-saving role, + For every one's grousing at docking and dowsing + The marks and the lights on the North Sea Patrol." + + [Twelve verses omitted.] + + So swept but surviving, half drowned but still driving, + I watched her head out through the swell off the shoal, + And I heard her propellers roar: "Write to poor fellers + Who run such a Hell as the North Sea Patrol!" + + + + +PATROLS + +II + + +The great basins were crammed with craft of kinds never known before +on any Navy List. Some were as they were born, others had been +converted, and a multitude have been designed for special cases. The +Navy prepares against all contingencies by land, sea, and air. It was +a relief to meet a batch of comprehensible destroyers and to drop +again into the little mouse-trap ward-rooms, which are as +large-hearted as all Our oceans. The men one used to know as +destroyer-lieutenants ("born stealing") are serious Commanders and +Captains to-day, but their sons, Lieutenants in command and +Lieutenant-Commanders, do follow them. The sea in peace is a hard +life; war only sketches an extra line or two round the young mouths. +The routine of ships always ready for action is so part of the blood +now that no one notices anything except the absence of formality and +of the "crimes" of peace. What Warrant Officers used to say at length +is cut down to a grunt. What the sailor-man did not know and expected +to have told him, does not exist. He has done it all too often at sea +and ashore. + +I watched a little party working under a leading hand at a job which, +eighteen months ago, would have required a Gunner in charge. It was +comic to see his orders trying to overtake the execution of them. +Ratings coming aboard carried themselves with a (to me) new +swing--not swank, but consciousness of adequacy. The high, dark +foc'sles which, thank goodness, are only washed twice a week, +received them and their bags, and they turned-to on the instant as a +man picks up his life at home. Like the submarine crew, they come to +be a breed apart--double-jointed, extra-toed, with brazen bowels and +no sort of nerves. + +It is the same in the engine-room, when the ships come in for their +regular looking-over. Those who love them, which you would never guess +from the language, know exactly what they need, and get it without +fuss. Everything that steams has her individual peculiarity, and the +great thing is, at overhaul, to keep to it and not develop a new one. +If, for example, through some trick of her screws not synchronising, a +destroyer always casts to port when she goes astern, do not let any +zealous soul try to make her run true, or you will have to learn her +helm all over again. And it is vital that you should know exactly what +your ship is going to do three seconds before she does it. Similarly +with men. If any one, from Lieutenant-Commander to stoker, changes his +personal trick or habit--even the manner in which he clutches his chin +or caresses his nose at a crisis--the matter must be carefully +considered in this world where each is trustee for his neighbour's +life and, vastly more important, the corporate honour. + +"What are the destroyers doing just now?" I asked. + +"Oh--running about--much the same as usual." + +The Navy hasn't the least objection to telling one everything that it +is doing. Unfortunately, it speaks its own language, which is +incomprehensible to the civilian. But you will find it all in "The +Channel Pilot" and "The Riddle of the Sands." + +It is a foul coast, hairy with currents and rips, and mottled with +shoals and rocks. Practically the same men hold on here in the same +ships, with much the same crews, for months and months. A most senior +officer told me that they were "good boys"--on reflection, "quite good +boys"--but neither he nor the flags on his chart explained how they +managed their lightless, unmarked navigations through black night, +blinding rain, and the crazy, rebounding North Sea gales. They +themselves ascribe it to Joss that they have not piled up their ships +a hundred times. + +"I expect it must be because we're always dodging about over the same +ground. One gets to smell it. We've bumped pretty hard, of course, but +we haven't expended much up to date. You never know your luck on +patrol, though." + + +THE NATURE OF THE BEAST + +Personally, though they have been true friends to me, I loathe +destroyers, and all the raw, racking, ricochetting life that goes with +them--the smell of the wet "lammies" and damp wardroom cushions; the +galley-chimney smoking out the bridge; the obstacle-strewn deck; and +the pervading beastliness of oil, grit, and greasy iron. Even at +moorings they shiver and sidle like half-backed horses. At sea they +will neither rise up and fly clear like the hydroplanes, nor dive and +be done with it like the submarines, but imitate the vices of both. A +scientist of the lower deck describes them as: "Half switchback, half +water-chute, and Hell continuous." Their only merit, from a landsman's +point of view, is that they can crumple themselves up from stem to +bridge and (I have seen it) still get home. But one does not breathe +these compliments to their commanders. Other destroyers may be--they +will point them out to you--poisonous bags of tricks, but their own +command--never! Is she high-bowed? That is the only type which +over-rides the seas instead of smothering. Is she low? Low bows glide +through the water where those collier-nosed brutes smash it open. Is +she mucked up with submarine-catchers? They rather improve her trim. +No other ship has them. Have they been denied to her? Thank Heaven, +_we_ go to sea without a fish-curing plant on deck. Does she roll, +even for her class? She is drier than Dreadnoughts. Is she permanently +and infernally wet? Stiff; sir--stiff: the first requisite of a +gun-platform. + + +"SERVICE AS REQUISITE" + +Thus the Caesars and their fortunes put out to sea with their subs and +their sad-eyed engineers, and their long-suffering signallers--I do +not even know the technical name of the sin which causes a man to be +born a destroyer-signaller in this life--and the little yellow shells +stuck all about where they can be easiest reached. The rest of their +acts is written for the information of the proper authorities. It +reads like a page of Todhunter. But the masters of merchant-ships +could tell more of eyeless shapes, barely outlined on the foam of +their own arrest, who shout orders through the thick gloom alongside. +The strayed and anxious neutral knows them when their searchlights pin +him across the deep, or their syrens answer the last yelp of his as +steam goes out of his torpedoed boilers. They stand by to catch and +soothe him in his pyjamas at the gangway, collect his scattered +lifeboats, and see a warm drink into him before they turn to hunt the +slayer. The drifters, punching and reeling up and down their ten-mile +line of traps; the outer trawlers, drawing the very teeth of Death +with water-sodden fingers, are grateful for their low, guarded +signals; and when the Zeppelin's revealing star-shell cracks darkness +open above him, the answering crack of the invisible destroyers' guns +comforts the busy mine-layers. Big cruisers talk to them, too; and, +what is more, they talk back to the cruisers. Sometimes they draw +fire--pinkish spurts of light--a long way off, where Fritz is trying +to coax them over a mine-field he has just laid; or they steal on +Fritz in the midst of his job, and the horizon rings with barking, +which the inevitable neutral who saw it all reports as "a heavy fleet +action in the North Sea." The sea after dark can be as alive as the +woods of summer nights. Everything is exactly where you don't expect +it, and the shyest creatures are the farthest away from their holes. +Things boom overhead like bitterns, or scutter alongside like hares, +or arise dripping and hissing from below like otters. It is the +destroyer's business to find out what their business may be through +all the long night, and to help or hinder accordingly. Dawn sees them +pitch-poling insanely between head-seas, or hanging on to bridges that +sweep like scythes from one forlorn horizon to the other. A +homeward-bound submarine chooses this hour to rise, very +ostentatiously, and signals by hand to a lieutenant in command. (They +were the same term at Dartmouth, and same first ship.) + +"What's he sayin'? Secure that gun, will you? 'Can't hear oneself +speak," The gun is a bit noisy on its mountings, but that isn't the +reason for the destroyer-lieutenant's short temper. + +"'Says he's goin' down, sir," the signaller replies. What the +submarine had spelt out, and everybody knows it, was: "Cannot approve +of this extremely frightful weather. Am going to bye-bye." + +"Well!" snaps the lieutenant to his signaller, "what are you grinning +at?" The submarine has hung on to ask if the destroyer will "kiss her +and whisper good-night." A breaking sea smacks her tower in the middle +of the insult. She closes like an oyster, but--just too late. _Habet!_ +There must be a quarter of a ton of water somewhere down below, on its +way to her ticklish batteries. + +"What a wag!" says the signaller, dreamily. "Well, 'e can't say 'e +didn't get 'is little kiss." + +The lieutenant in command smiles. The sea is a beast, but a just +beast. + + +RACIAL UNTRUTHS + +This is trivial enough, but what would you have? If Admirals will not +strike the proper attitudes, nor Lieutenants emit the appropriate +sentiments, one is forced back on the truth, which is that the men at +the heart of the great matters in our Empire are, mostly, of an even +simplicity. From the advertising point of view they are stupid, but +the breed has always been stupid in this department. It may be due, +as our enemies assert, to our racial snobbery, or, as others hold, to +a certain God-given lack of imagination which saves us from being +over-concerned at the effects of our appearances on others. Either +way, it deceives the enemies' people more than any calculated lie. +When you come to think of it, though the English are the worst +paper-work and _viva voce_ liars in the world, they have been +rigorously trained since their early youth to live and act lies for +the comfort of the society in which they move, and so for their own +comfort. The result in this war is interesting. + +It is no lie that at the present moment we hold all the seas in the +hollow of our hands. For that reason we shuffle over them shame-faced +and apologetic, making arrangements here and flagrant compromises +there, in order to give substance to the lie that we have dropped +fortuitously into this high seat and are looking round the world for +some one to resign it to. Nor is it any lie that, had we used the +Navy's bare fist instead of its gloved hand from the beginning, we +could in all likelihood have shortened the war. That being so, we +elected to dab and peck at and half-strangle the enemy, to let him go +and choke him again. It is no lie that we continue on our inexplicable +path animated, we will try to believe till other proof is given, by a +cloudy idea of alleviating or mitigating something for somebody--not +ourselves. [Here, of course, is where our racial snobbery comes in, +which makes the German gibber. I cannot understand why he has not +accused us to our Allies of having secret commercial understandings +with him.] For that reason, we shall finish the German eagle as the +merciful lady killed the chicken. It took her the whole afternoon, and +then, you will remember, the carcase had to be thrown away. + +Meantime, there is a large and unlovely water, inhabited by plain men +in severe boats, who endure cold, exposure, wet, and monotony almost +as heavy as their responsibilities. Charge them with heroism--but that +needs heroism, indeed! Accuse them of patriotism, they become ribald. +Examine into the records of the miraculous work they have done and are +doing. They will assist you, but with perfect sincerity they will make +as light of the valour and fore-thought shown as of the ends they have +gained for mankind. The Service takes all work for granted. It knew +long ago that certain things would have to be done, and it did its +best to be ready for them. When it disappeared over the sky-line for +manoeuvres it was practising--always practising; trying its men and +stuff and throwing out what could not take the strain. That is why, +when war came, only a few names had to be changed, and those chiefly +for the sake of the body, not of the spirit. And the Seniors who hold +the key to our plans and know what will be done if things happen, and +what lines wear thin in the many chains, they are of one fibre and +speech with the Juniors and the lower deck and all the rest who come +out of the undemonstrative households ashore. "Here is the situation +as it exists now," say the Seniors. "This is what we do to meet it. +Look and count and measure and judge for yourself, and then you will +know." + +It is a safe offer. The civilian only sees that the sea is a vast +place, divided between wisdom and chance. He only knows that the +uttermost oceans have been swept clear, and the trade-routes purged, +one by one, even as our armies were being convoyed along them; that +there was no island nor key left unsearched on any waters that might +hide an enemy's craft between the Arctic Circle and the Horn. He only +knows that less than a day's run to the eastward of where he stands, +the enemy's fleets have been held for a year and four months, in order +that civilisation may go about its business on all our waters. + + + + +TALES OF "THE TRADE" + +(1916) + + + + +"THE TRADE" + + They bear, in place of classic names, + Letters and numbers on their skin. + They play their grisly blindfold games + In little boxes made of tin. + Sometimes they stalk the Zeppelin, + Sometimes they learn where mines are laid + Or where the Baltic ice is thin. + That is the custom of "The Trade." + + Few prize-courts sit upon their claims. + They seldom tow their targets in. + They follow certain secret aims + Down under, far from strife or din. + When they are ready to begin + No flag is flown, no fuss is made + More than the shearing of a pin. + That is the custom of "The Trade." + + The Scout's quadruple funnel flames + A mark from Sweden to the Swin, + The Cruiser's thundrous screw proclaims + Her comings out and goings in: + But only whiffs of paraffin + Or creamy rings that fizz and fade + Show where the one-eyed Death has been. + That is the custom of "The Trade." + + Their feats, their fortunes and their fames + Are hidden from their nearest kin; + No eager public backs or blames, + No journal prints the yarns they spin + (The Censor would not let it in!) + When they return from run or raid. + Unheard they work, unseen they win. + That is the custom of "The Trade." + + + + +I + +SOME WORK IN THE BALTIC + + +No one knows how the title of "The Trade" came to be applied to the +Submarine Service. Some say that the cruisers invented it because they +pretend that submarine officers look like unwashed chauffeurs. Others +think it sprang forth by itself, which means that it was coined by the +Lower Deck, where they always have the proper names for things. +Whatever the truth, the Submarine Service is now "the trade"; and if +you ask them why, they will answer: "What else could you call it? The +Trade's 'the trade,' of course." + +It is a close corporation; yet it recruits its men and officers from +every class that uses the sea and engines, as well as from many +classes that never expected to deal with either. It takes them; they +disappear for a while and return changed to their very souls, for the +Trade lives in a world without precedents, of which no generation has +had any previous experience--a world still being made and enlarged +daily. It creates and settles its own problems as it goes along, and +if it cannot help itself no one else can. So the Trade lives in the +dark and thinks out inconceivable and impossible things which it +afterwards puts into practice. + +It keeps books, too, as honest traders should. They are almost as bald +as ledgers, and are written up, hour by hour, on a little sliding +table that pulls out from beneath the commander's bunk. In due time +they go to my Lords of the Admiralty, who presently circulate a few +carefully watered extracts for the confidential information of the +junior officers of the Trade, that these may see what things are done +and how. The juniors read but laugh. They have heard the stories, with +all the flaming detail and much of the language, either from a chief +actor while they perched deferentially on the edge of a mess-room +fender, or from his subordinate, in which case they were not so +deferential, or from some returned member of the crew present on the +occasion, who, between half-shut teeth at the wheel, jerks out what +really happened. There is very little going on in the Trade that the +Trade does not know within a reasonable time. But the outside world +must wait until my Lords of the Admiralty release the records. Some of +them have been released now. + + +SUBMARINE AND ICE-BREAKER + +Let us take, almost at random, an episode in the life of H.M. +Submarine E9. It is true that she was commanded by Commander Max +Horton, but the utter impersonality of the tale makes it as though the +boat herself spoke. (Also, never having met or seen any of the +gentlemen concerned in the matter, the writer can be impersonal too.) +Some time ago, E9 was in the Baltic, in the deeps of winter, where +she used to be taken to her hunting grounds by an ice-breaker. +Obviously a submarine cannot use her sensitive nose to smash heavy ice +with, so the broad-beamed pushing chaperone comes along to see her +clear of the thick harbour and shore ice. In the open sea apparently +she is left to her own devices. In company of the ice-breaker, then, +E9 "proceeded" (neither in the Senior nor the Junior Service does any +one officially "go" anywhere) to a "certain position." + +Here--it is not stated in the book, but the Trade knows every aching, +single detail of what is left out--she spent a certain time in testing +arrangements and apparatus, which may or may not work properly when +immersed in a mixture of block-ice and dirty ice-cream in a +temperature well towards zero. This is a pleasant job, made the more +delightful by the knowledge that if you slip off the superstructure +the deadly Baltic chill will stop your heart long before even your +heavy clothes can drown you. Hence (and this is not in the book +either) the remark of the highly trained sailor-man in these latitudes +who, on being told by his superior officer in the execution of his +duty to go to Hell, did insubordinately and enviously reply: "D'you +think I'd be here if I could?" Whereby he caused the entire personnel, +beginning with the Commander, to say "Amen," or words to that effect. +E9 evidently made things work. + +Next day she reports: "As circumstances were favourable decided to +attempt to bag a destroyer." Her "certain position" must have been +near a well-used destroyer-run, for shortly afterwards she sees three +of them, but too far off to attack, and later, as the light is +failing, a fourth destroyer towards which she manoeuvres. +"Depth-keeping," she notes, "very difficult owing to heavy swell." An +observation balloon on a gusty day is almost as stable as a submarine +"pumping" in a heavy swell, and since the Baltic is shallow, the +submarine runs the chance of being let down with a whack on the +bottom. None the less, E9 works her way to within 600 yards of the +quarry; fires and waits just long enough to be sure that her torpedo +is running straight, and that the destroyer is holding her course. +Then she "dips to avoid detection." The rest is deadly simple: "At the +correct moment after firing, 45 to 50 seconds, heard the unmistakable +noise of torpedo detonating." Four minutes later she rose and "found +destroyer had disappeared." Then, for reasons probably connected with +other destroyers, who, too, may have heard that unmistakable sound, +she goes to bed below in the chill dark till it is time to turn +homewards. When she rose she met storm from the north and logged it +accordingly. "Spray froze as it struck, and bridge became a mass of +ice. Experienced considerable difficulty in keeping the conning-tower +hatch free from ice. Found it necessary to keep a man continuously +employed on this work. Bridge screen immovable, ice six inches thick +on it. Telegraphs frozen." In this state she forges ahead till +midnight, and any one who pleases can imagine the thoughts of the +continuous employee scraping and hammering round the hatch, as well as +the delight of his friends below when the ice-slush spattered down the +conning-tower. At last she considered it "advisable to free the boat +of ice, so went below." + + +"AS REQUISITE" + +In the Senior Service the two words "as requisite" cover everything +that need not be talked about. E9 next day "proceeded as requisite" +through a series of snowstorms and recurring deposits of ice on the +bridge till she got in touch with her friend the ice-breaker; and in +her company ploughed and rooted her way back to the work we know. +There is nothing to show that it was a near thing for E9, but somehow +one has the idea that the ice-breaker did not arrive any too soon for +E9's comfort and progress. (But what happens in the Baltic when the +ice-breaker does not arrive?) + +That was in winter. In summer quite the other way, E9 had to go to bed +by day very often under the long-lasting northern light when the +Baltic is as smooth as a carpet, and one cannot get within a mile and +a half of anything with eyes in its head without being put down. There +was one time when E9, evidently on information received, took up "a +certain position" and reported the sea "glassy." She had to suffer in +silence, while three heavily laden German ships went by; for an attack +would have given away her position. Her reward came next day, when she +sighted (the words run like Marryat's) "enemy squadron coming up fast +from eastward, proceeding inshore of us." They were two heavy +battleships with an escort of destroyers, and E9 turned to attack. She +does not say how she crept up in that smooth sea within a quarter of a +mile of the leading ship, "a three-funnel ship, of either the +Deutschland or Braunschweig class," but she managed it, and fired both +bow torpedoes at her. + +"No. 1 torpedo was seen and heard to strike her just before foremost +funnel: smoke and _debris_ appeared to go as high as masthead." That +much E9 saw before one of the guardian destroyers ran at her. "So," +says she, "observing her I took my periscope off the battleship." This +was excusable, as the destroyer was coming up with intent to kill and +E9 had to flood her tanks and get down quickly. Even so, the destroyer +only just missed her, and she struck bottom in 43 feet. "But," says +E9, who, if she could not see, kept her ears open, "at the correct +interval (the 45 or 50 seconds mentioned in the previous case) the +second torpedo was heard to explode, though not actually seen." E9 +came up twenty minutes later to make sure. The destroyer was waiting +for her a couple of hundred yards away, and again E9 dipped for the +life, but "just had time to see one large vessel approximately four or +five miles away." + +Putting courage aside, think for a moment of the mere drill of it +all--that last dive for that attack on the chosen battleship; the eye +at the periscope watching "No. 1 torpedo" get home; the rush of the +vengeful destroyer; the instant orders for flooding everything; the +swift descent which had to be arranged for with full knowledge of the +shallow sea-floors waiting below, and a guess at the course that might +be taken by the seeking bows above, for assuming a destroyer to draw +10 feet and a submarine on the bottom to stand 25 feet to the top of +her conning-tower, there is not much clearance in 43 feet salt water, +specially if the boat jumps when she touches bottom. And through all +these and half a hundred other simultaneous considerations, imagine +the trained minds below, counting, as only torpedo-men can count, the +run of the merciless seconds that should tell when that second shot +arrived. Then "at the correct interval" as laid down in the table of +distances, the boom and the jar of No. 2 torpedo, the relief, the +exhaled breath and untightened lips; the impatient waiting for a +second peep, and when that had been taken and the eye at the periscope +had reported _one_ little nigger-boy in place of two on the waters, +perhaps cigarettes, &c., while the destroyer sickled about at a +venture overhead. + +Certainly they give men rewards for doing such things, but what reward +can there be in any gift of Kings or peoples to match the enduring +satisfaction of having done them, not alone, but with and through and +by trusty and proven companions? + + +DEFEATED BY DARKNESS + +E1, also a Baltic boat, her Commander F.N. Laurence, had her +experiences too. She went out one summer day and late--too late--in +the evening sighted three transports. The first she hit. While she was +arranging for the second, the third inconsiderately tried to ram her +before her sights were on. So it was necessary to go down at once and +waste whole minutes of the precious scanting light. When she rose, the +stricken ship was sinking and shortly afterwards blew up. The other +two were patrolling near by. It would have been a fair chance in +daylight, but the darkness defeated her and she had to give up the +attack. + +It was E1 who during thick weather came across a squadron of +battle-cruisers and got in on a flanking ship--probably the _Moltke_. +The destroyers were very much on the alert, and she had to dive at +once to avoid one who only missed her by a few feet. Then the fog shut +down and stopped further developments. Thus do time and chance come to +every man. + +The Trade has many stories, too, of watching patrols when a boat must +see chance after chance go by under her nose and write--merely +write--what she has seen. Naturally they do not appear in any +accessible records. Nor, which is a pity, do the authorities release +the records of glorious failures, when everything goes wrong; when +torpedoes break surface and squatter like ducks; or arrive full square +with a clang and burst of white water and--fail to explode; when the +devil is in charge of all the motors, and clutches develop play that +would scare a shore-going mechanic bald; when batteries begin to give +off death instead of power, and atop of all, ice or wreckage of the +strewn seas racks and wrenches the hull till the whole leaking bag of +tricks limps home on six missing cylinders and one ditto propeller, +_plus_ the indomitable will of the red-eyed husky scarecrows in +charge. + +There might be worse things in this world for decent people to read +than such records. + + + + +II + +BUSINESS IN THE SEA OF MARMARA + + +This war is like an iceberg. We, the public, only see an eighth of it +above water. The rest is out of sight and, as with the berg, one +guesses its extent by great blocks that break off and shoot up to the +surface from some underlying out-running spur a quarter of a mile +away. So with this war sudden tales come to light which reveal +unsuspected activities in unexpected quarters. One takes it for +granted such things are always going on somewhere, but the actual +emergence of the record is always astonishing. + +Once upon a time, there were certain E type boats who worked the Sea +of Marmara with thoroughness and humanity; for the two, in English +hands, are compatible. The road to their hunting-grounds was strewn +with peril, the waters they inhabited were full of eyes that gave them +no rest, and what they lost or expended in wear and tear of the chase +could not be made good till they had run the gauntlet to their base +again. The full tale of their improvisations and "makee-does" will +probably never come to light, though fragments can be picked up at +intervals in the proper places as the men concerned come and go. The +Admiralty gives only the bones, but those are not so dry, of the +boat's official story. + +When E14, Commander E. Courtney-Boyle, went to her work in the Sea of +Marmara, she, like her sister, "proceeded" on her gas-engine up the +Dardanelles; and a gas-engine by night between steep cliffs has been +described by the Lower-deck as a "full brass band in a railway +cutting." So a fort picked her up with a searchlight and missed her +with artillery. She dived under the minefield that guarded the +Straits, and when she rose at dawn in the narrowest part of the +channel, which is about one mile and a half across, all the forts +fired at her. The water, too, was thick with steamboat patrols, out of +which E14 selected a Turkish gunboat and gave her a torpedo. She had +just time to see the great column of water shoot as high as the +gunboat's mast when she had to dip again as "the men in a small +steamboat were leaning over trying to catch hold of the top of my +periscope." + + +"SIX HOURS OF BLIND DEATH" + +This sentence, which might have come out of a French exercise book, is +all Lieutenant-Commander Courtney-Boyle sees fit to tell, and that +officer will never understand why one taxpayer at least demands his +arrest after the war till he shall have given the full tale. Did he +sight the shadowy underline of the small steamboat green through the +deadlights? Or did she suddenly swim into his vision from behind, and +obscure, without warning, his periscope with a single brown clutching +hand? Was she alone, or one of a mob of splashing, shouting small +craft? He may well have been too busy to note, for there were patrols +all around him, a minefield of curious design and undefined area +somewhere in front, and steam trawlers vigorously sweeping for him +astern and ahead. And when E14 had burrowed and bumped and scraped +through six hours of blind death, she found the Sea of Marmara +crawling with craft, and was kept down almost continuously and grew +hot and stuffy in consequence. Nor could she charge her batteries in +peace, so at the end of another hectic, hunted day of starting them up +and breaking off and diving--which is bad for the temper--she decided +to quit those infested waters near the coast and charge up somewhere +off the traffic routes. + +This accomplished, after a long, hot run, which did the motors no +good, she went back to her beat, where she picked up three destroyers +convoying a couple of troopships. But it was a glassy calm and the +destroyers "came for me." She got off a long-range torpedo at one +transport, and ducked before she could judge results. She apologises +for this on the grounds that one of her periscopes had been +damaged--not, as one would expect, by the gentleman leaning out of the +little steamboat, but by some casual shot--calibre not specified--the +day before. "And so," says E14, "I could not risk my remaining one +being bent." However, she heard a thud, and the depth-gauges--those +great clock-hands on the white-faced circles--"flicked," which is +another sign of dreadful certainty down under. When she rose again she +saw a destroyer convoying one burning transport to the nearest beach. +That afternoon she met a sister-boat (now gone to Valhalla), who told +her that she was almost out of torpedoes, and they arranged a +rendezvous for next day, but "before we could communicate we had to +dive, and I did not see her again." There must be many such meetings +in the Trade, under all skies--boat rising beside boat at the point +agreed upon for interchange of news and materials; the talk shouted +aloud with the speakers' eyes always on the horizon and all hands +standing by to dive, even in the middle of a sentence. + + +ANNOYING PATROL SHIPS + +E14 kept to her job, on the edge of the procession of traffic. Patrol +vessels annoyed her to such an extent that "as I had not seen any +transports lately I decided to sink a patrol-ship as they were always +firing on me." So she torpedoed a thing that looked like a mine-layer, +and must have been something of that kidney, for it sank in less than +a minute. A tramp-steamer lumbering across the dead flat sea was +thoughtfully headed back to Constantinople by firing rifles ahead of +her. "Under fire the whole day," E14 observes philosophically. The +nature of her work made this inevitable. She was all among the +patrols, which kept her down a good deal and made her draw on her +batteries, and when she rose to charge, watchers ashore burned +oil-flares on the beach or made smokes among the hills according to +the light. In either case there would be a general rush of patrolling +craft of all kinds, from steam launches to gunboats. Nobody loves the +Trade, though E14 did several things which made her popular. She let +off a string of very surprised dhows (they were empty) in charge of a +tug which promptly fled back to Constantinople; stopped a couple of +steamers full of refugees, also bound for Constantinople, who were +"very pleased at being allowed to proceed" instead of being +lusitaniaed as they had expected. Another refugee-boat, fleeing from +goodness knows what horror, she chased into Rodosto Harbour, where, +though she could not see any troops, "they opened a heavy rifle fire +on us, hitting the boat several times. So I went away and chased two +more small tramps who returned towards Constantinople." + +Transports, of course, were fair game, and in spite of the necessity +she was under of not risking her remaining eye, E14 got a big one in +a night of wind and made another hurriedly beach itself, which then +opened fire on her, assisted by the local population. "Returned fire +and proceeded," says E14. The diversion of returning fire is one much +appreciated by the lower-deck as furnishing a pleasant break in what +otherwise might be a monotonous and odoriferous task. There is no +drill laid down for this evolution, but etiquette and custom prescribe +that on going up the hatch you shall not too energetically prod the +next man ahead with the muzzle of your rifle. Likewise, when +descending in quick time before the hatch closes, you are requested +not to jump directly on the head of the next below. Otherwise you act +"as requisite" on your own initiative. + +When she had used up all her torpedoes E14 prepared to go home by the +way she had come--there was no other--and was chased towards Gallipoli +by a mixed pack composed of a gunboat, a torpedo-boat, and a tug. +"They shepherded me to Gallipoli, one each side of me and one astern, +evidently expecting me to be caught by the nets there." She walked +very delicately for the next eight hours or so, all down the Straits, +underrunning the strong tides, ducking down when the fire from the +forts got too hot, verifying her position and the position of the +minefield, but always taking notes of every ship in sight, till +towards teatime she saw our Navy off the entrance and "rose to the +surface abeam of a French battleship who gave us a rousing cheer." She +had been away, as nearly as possible, three weeks, and a kind +destroyer escorted her to the base, where we will leave her for the +moment while we consider the performance of E11 (Lieutenant-Commander +M.E. Nasmith) in the same waters at about the same season. + +E11 "proceeded" in the usual way, to the usual accompaniments of +hostile destroyers, up the Straits, and meets the usual difficulties +about charging-up when she gets through. Her wireless naturally takes +this opportunity to give trouble, and E11 is left, deaf and dumb, +somewhere in the middle of the Sea of Marmara, diving to avoid hostile +destroyers in the intervals of trying to come at the fault in her +aerial. (Yet it is noteworthy that the language of the Trade, though +technical, is no more emphatic or incandescent than that of top-side +ships.) + +Then she goes towards Constantinople, finds a Turkish torpedo-gunboat +off the port, sinks her, has her periscope smashed by a six-pounder, +retires, fits a new top on the periscope, and at 10.30 A.M.--they must +have needed it--pipes "All hands to bathe." Much refreshed, she gets +her wireless linked up at last, and is able to tell the authorities +where she is and what she is after. + + +MR. SILAS Q. SWING + +At this point--it was off Rodosto--enter a small steamer which does +not halt when requested, and so is fired at with "several rounds" from +a rifle. The crew, on being told to abandon her, tumble into their +boats with such haste that they capsize two out of three. +"Fortunately," says E11, "they are able to pick up everybody." You can +imagine to yourself the confusion alongside, the raffle of odds and +ends floating out of the boats, and the general parti-coloured +hurrah's-nest all over the bright broken water. What you cannot +imagine is this: "An American gentleman then appeared on the upper +deck who informed us that his name was Silas Q. Swing, of the _Chicago +Sun_, and that he was pleased to make our acquaintance. He then +informed us that the steamer was proceeding to Chanak and he wasn't +sure if there were any stores aboard." If anything could astonish the +Trade at this late date, one would almost fancy that the apparition of +Silas Q. Swing ("very happy to meet you, gentlemen") might have +started a rivet or two on E11's placid skin. But she never even +quivered. She kept a lieutenant of the name of D'Oyley Hughes, an +expert in demolition parties; and he went aboard the tramp and +reported any quantity of stores--a six-inch gun, for instance, lashed +across the top of the forehatch (Silas Q. Swing must have been an +unobservant journalist), a six-inch gun-mounting in the forehold, +pedestals for twelve-pounders thrown in as dunnage, the afterhold full +of six-inch projectiles, and a scattering of other commodities. They +put the demolition charge well in among the six-inch stuff, and she +took it all to the bottom in a few minutes, after being touched off. + +"Simultaneously with the sinking of the vessel," the E11 goes on, +"smoke was observed to the eastward." It was a steamer who had seen +the explosion and was running for Rodosto. E11 chased her till she +tied up to Rodosto pier, and then torpedoed her where she lay--a +heavily laden store-ship piled high with packing-cases. The water was +shallow here, and though E11 bumped along the bottom, which does not +make for steadiness of aim, she was forced to show a good deal of her +only periscope, and had it dented, but not damaged by rifle-fire from +the beach. As she moved out of Rodosto Bay she saw a paddle-boat +loaded with barbed wire, which stopped on the hail, but "as we ranged +alongside her, attempted to ram us, but failed owing to our superior +speed." Then she ran for the beach "very skilfully," keeping her stern +to E11 till she drove ashore beneath some cliffs. The demolition-squad +were just getting to work when "a party of horsemen appeared on the +cliffs above and opened a hot fire on the conning tower." E11 got out, +but owing to the shoal water it was some time before she could get +under enough to fire a torpedo. The stern of a stranded paddle-boat is +no great target and the thing exploded on the beach. Then she +"recharged batteries and proceeded slowly on the surface towards +Constantinople." All this between the ordinary office hours of 10 +A.M. and 4 P.M. + +Her next day's work opens, as no pallid writer of fiction dare begin, +thus: "Having dived unobserved into Constantinople, observed, etc." +Her observations were rather hampered by cross-tides, mud, and +currents, as well as the vagaries of one of her own torpedoes which +turned upside down and ran about promiscuously. It hit something at +last, and so did another shot that she fired, but the waters by +Constantinople Arsenal are not healthy to linger in after one has +scared up the whole sea-front, so "turned to go out." Matters were a +little better below, and E11 in her perilous passage might have been a +lady of the harem tied up in a sack and thrown into the Bosporus. She +grounded heavily; she bounced up 30 feet, was headed down again by a +manoeuvre easier to shudder over than to describe, and when she came +to rest on the bottom found herself being swivelled right round the +compass. They watched the compass with much interest. "It was +concluded, therefore, that the vessel (E11 is one of the few who +speaks of herself as a 'vessel' as well as a 'boat') was resting on +the shoal under the Leander Tower, and was being turned round by the +current." So they corrected her, started the motors, and "bumped +gently down into 85 feet of water" with no more knowledge than the +lady in the sack where the next bump would land them. + + +THE PREENING PERCH + +And the following day was spent "resting in the centre of the Sea of +Marmara." That was their favourite preening perch between operations, +because it gave them a chance to tidy the boat and bathe, and they +were a cleanly people both in their methods and their persons. When +they boarded a craft and found nothing of consequence they "parted +with many expressions of good will," and E11 "had a good wash." She +gives her reasons at length; for going in and out of Constantinople +and the Straits is all in the day's work, but going dirty, you +understand, is serious. She had "of late noticed the atmosphere in the +boat becoming very oppressive, the reason doubtless being that there +was a quantity of dirty linen aboard, and also the scarcity of fresh +water necessitated a limit being placed on the frequency of personal +washing." Hence the centre of the Sea of Marmara; all hands playing +overside and as much laundry work as time and the Service allowed. One +of the reasons, by the way, why we shall be good friends with the Turk +again is that he has many of our ideas about decency. + +In due time E11 went back to her base. She had discovered a way of +using unspent torpedoes twice over, which surprised the enemy, and she +had as nearly as possible been cut down by a ship which she thought +was running away from her. Instead of which (she made the discovery at +three thousand yards, both craft all out) the stranger steamed +straight at her. "The enemy then witnessed a somewhat spectacular dive +at full speed from the surface to 20 feet in as many seconds. He then +really did turn tail and was seen no more." Going through the Straits +she observed an empty troopship at anchor, but reserved her torpedoes +in the hope of picking up some battleships lower down. Not finding +these in the Narrows, she nosed her way back and sank the trooper, +"afterwards continuing journey down the Straits." Off Kilid Bahr +something happened; she got out of trim and had to be fully flooded +before she could be brought to her required depth. It might have been +whirlpools under water, or--other things. (They tell a story of a boat +which once went mad in these very waters, and for no reason +ascertainable from within plunged to depths that contractors do not +allow for; rocketed up again like a swordfish, and would doubtless +have so continued till she died, had not something she had fouled +dropped off and let her recover her composure.) + +An hour later: "Heard a noise similar to grounding. Knowing this to be +impossible in the water in which the boat then was, I came up to 20 +feet to investigate, and observed a large mine preceding the periscope +at a distance of about 20 feet, which was apparently hung up by its +moorings to the port hydroplane." Hydroplanes are the fins at bow and +stern which regulate a submarine's diving. A mine weighs anything from +hundredweights to half-tons. Sometimes it explodes if you merely think +about it; at others you can batter it like an empty sardine-tin and +it submits meekly; but at no time is it meant to wear on a hydroplane. +They dared not come up to unhitch it, "owing to the batteries ashore," +so they pushed the dim shape ahead of them till they got outside Kum +Kale. They then went full astern, and emptied the after-tanks, which +brought the bows down, and in this posture rose to the surface, when +"the rush of water from the screws together with the sternway gathered +allowed the mine to fall clear of the vessel." + +Now a fool, said Dr. Johnson, would have tried to describe that. + + + + +III + +RAVAGES AND REPAIRS + + +Before we pick up the further adventures of H.M. Submarine E14 and her +partner E11, here is what you might call a cutting-out affair in the +Sea of Marmara which E12 (Lieutenant-Commander K.M. Bruce) put through +quite on the old lines. + +E12's main motors gave trouble from the first, and she seems to have +been a cripple for most of that trip. She sighted two small steamers, +one towing two, and the other three, sailing vessels; making seven +keels in all. She stopped the first steamer, noticed she carried a lot +of stores, and, moreover, that her crew--she had no boats--were all on +deck in life-belts. Not seeing any gun, E12 ran up alongside and told +the first lieutenant to board. The steamer then threw a bomb at E12, +which struck, but luckily did not explode, and opened fire on the +boarding-party with rifles and a concealed 1-in. gun. E12 answered +with her six-pounder, and also with rifles. The two sailing ships in +tow, very properly, tried to foul E12's propellers and "also opened +fire with rifles." + +It was as Orientally mixed a fight as a man could wish: The first +lieutenant and the boarding-party engaged on the steamer, E12 foul of +the steamer, and being fouled by the sailing ships; the six-pounder +methodically perforating the steamer from bow to stern; the steamer's +1-in. gun and the rifles from the sailing ships raking everything and +everybody else; E12's coxswain on the conning-tower passing up +ammunition; and E12's one workable motor developing "slight defects" +at, of course, the moment when power to manoeuvre was vital. + +The account is almost as difficult to disentangle as the actual mess +must have been. At any rate, the six-pounder caused an explosion in +the steamer's ammunition, whereby the steamer sank in a quarter of an +hour, giving time--and a hot time it must have been--for E12 to get +clear of her and to sink the two sailing ships. She then chased the +second steamer, who slipped her three tows and ran for the shore. E12 +knocked her about a good deal with gun-fire as she fled, saw her drive +on the beach well alight, and then, since the beach opened fire with a +gun at 1500 yards, went away to retinker her motors and write up her +log. She approved of her first lieutenant's behaviour "under very +trying circumstances" (this probably refers to the explosion of the +ammunition by the six-pounder which, doubtless, jarred the +boarding-party) and of the cox who acted as ammunition-hoist; and of +the gun's crew, who "all did very well" under rifle and small-gun fire +"at a range of about ten yards." But she never says what she really +said about her motors. + + +A BRAWL AT A PIER + +Now we will take E14 on various work, either alone or as flagship of a +squadron composed of herself and Lieutenant-Commander Nasmith's boat, +E11. Hers was a busy midsummer, and she came to be intimate with all +sort of craft--such as the two-funnelled gunboat off Sar Kioi, who +"fired at us, and missed as usual"; hospital ships going back and +forth unmolested to Constantinople; "the gunboat which fired at me on +Sunday," and other old friends, afloat and ashore. + +When the crew of the Turkish brigantine full of stores got into their +boats by request, and then "all stood up and cursed us," E14 did not +lose her temper, even though it was too rough to lie alongside the +abandoned ship. She told Acting Lieutenant R.W. Lawrence, of the Royal +Naval Reserve, to swim off to her, which he did, and after a "cursory +search"--Who can be expected to Sherlock Holmes for hours with nothing +on?--set fire to her "with the aid of her own matches and paraffin +oil." + +Then E14 had a brawl with a steamer with a yellow funnel, blue top and +black band, lying at a pier among dhows. The shore took a hand in the +game with small guns and rifles, and, as E14 manoeuvred about the +roadstead "as requisite" there was a sudden unaccountable explosion +which strained her very badly. "I think," she muses, "I must have +caught the moorings of a mine with my tail as I was turning, and +exploded it. It is possible that it might have been a big shell +bursting over us, but I think this unlikely, as we were 30 feet at the +time." She is always a philosophical boat, anxious to arrive at the +reason of facts, and when the game is against her she admits it +freely. + +There was nondescript craft of a few hundred tons, who "at a distance +did not look very warlike," but when chased suddenly played a couple +of six-pounders and "got off two dozen rounds at us before we were +under. Some of them were only about 20 yards off." And when a wily +steamer, after sidling along the shore, lay up in front of a town she +became "indistinguishable from the houses," and so was safe because we +do not loewestrafe open towns. + +Sailing dhows full of grain had to be destroyed. At one rendezvous, +while waiting for E11, E14 dealt with three such cases and then "towed +the crews inshore and gave them biscuits, beef, and rum and water, as +they were rather wet." Passenger steamers were allowed to proceed, +because they were "full of people of both sexes," which is an +unkultured way of doing business. + +Here is another instance of our insular type of mind. An empty dhow is +passed which E14 was going to leave alone, but it occurs to her that +the boat looks "rather deserted," and she fancies she sees two heads +in the water. So she goes back half a mile, picks up a couple of badly +exhausted men, frightened out of their wits, gives them food and +drink, and puts them aboard their property. Crews that jump overboard +have to be picked up, even if, as happened in one case, there are +twenty of them and one of them is a German bank manager taking a +quantity of money to the Chanak Bank. Hospital ships are carefully +looked over as they come and go, and are left to their own devices; +but they are rather a nuisance because they force E14 and others to +dive for them when engaged in stalking warrantable game. There were a +good many hospital ships, and as far as we can make out they all +played fair. E11 boarded one and "reported everything satisfactory." + + +STRANGE MESSMATES + +A layman cannot tell from the reports which of the duties demanded the +most work--whether the continuous clearing out of transports, dhows, +and sailing ships, generally found close to the well-gunned and +attentive beach, or the equally continuous attacks on armed vessels of +every kind. Whatever else might be going on, there was always the +problem how to arrange for the crews of sunk ships. If a dhow has no +small boats, and you cannot find one handy, you have to take the crew +aboard, where they are horribly in the way, and add to the +oppressiveness of the atmosphere--like "the nine people, including two +very old men," whom E14 made honorary members of her mess for several +hours till she could put them ashore after dark. Oddly enough she +"could not get anything out of them." Imagine nine bewildered Moslems +suddenly decanted into the reeking clamorous bowels of a fabric +obviously built by Shaitan himself, and surrounded by--but our people +are people of the Book and not dog-eating Kaffirs, and I will wager a +great deal that that little company went ashore in better heart and +stomach than when they were passed down the conning-tower hatch. + +Then there were queer amphibious battles with troops who had to be +shelled as they marched towards Gallipoli along the coast roads. E14 +went out with E11 on this job, early one morning, each boat taking her +chosen section of landscape. Thrice E14 rose to fire, thinking she +saw the dust of feet, but "each time it turned out to be bullocks." +When the shelling was ended "I think the troops marching along that +road must have been delayed and a good many killed." The Turks got up +a field-gun in the course of the afternoon--your true believer never +hurries--which out-ranged both boats, and they left accordingly. + +The next day she changed billets with E11, who had the luck to pick up +and put down a battleship close to Gallipoli. It turned out to be the +_Barbarossa_. Meantime E14 got a 5000-ton supply ship, and later had +to burn a sailing ship loaded with 200 bales of leaf and cut +tobacco--Turkish tobacco! Small wonder that E11 "came alongside that +afternoon and remained for an hour"--probably making cigarettes. + + +REFITTING UNDER DIFFICULTIES + +Then E14 went back to her base. She had a hellish time among the +Dardanelles nets; was, of course, fired at by the forts, just missed a +torpedo from the beach, scraped a mine, and when she had time to take +stock found electric mine-wires twisted round her propellers and all +her hull scraped and scored with wire marks. But that, again, was only +in the day's work. The point she insisted upon was that she had been +for seventy days in the Sea of Marmara with no securer base for refit +than the centre of the same, and during all that while she had not had +"any engine-room defect which has not been put right by the +engine-room staff of the boat." The commander and the third officer +went sick for a while; the first lieutenant got gastro-enteritis and +was in bed (if you could see that bed!) "for the remainder of our stay +in the Sea of Marmara," but "this boat has never been out of running +order." The credit is ascribed to "the excellence of my chief +engine-room artificer, James Hollier Hague, O.N. 227715," whose name +is duly submitted to the authorities "for your consideration for +advancement to the rank of warrant officer." + +Seventy days of every conceivable sort of risk, within and without, in +a boat which is all engine-room, except where she is sick-bay; twelve +thousand miles covered since last overhaul and "never out of running +order"--thanks to Mr. Hague. Such artists as he are the kind of +engine-room artificers that commanders intrigue to get hold of--each +for his own boat--and when the tales are told in the Trade, their +names, like Abou Ben Adhem's, lead all the rest. + +I do not know the exact line of demarcation between engine-room and +gunnery repairs, but I imagine it is faint and fluid. E11, for +example, while she was helping E14 to shell a beached steamer, smashed +half her gun-mounting, "the gun-layer being thrown overboard, and the +gun nearly following him." However, the mischief was repaired in the +next twenty-four hours, which, considering the very limited deck space +of a submarine, means that all hands must have been moderately busy. +One hopes that they had not to dive often during the job. + +But worse is to come. E2 (Commander D. Stocks) carried an externally +mounted gun which, while she was diving up the Dardanelles on +business, got hung up in the wires and stays of a net. She saw them +through the conning-tower scuttles at a depth of 80 ft--one wire +hawser round the gun, another round the conning-tower, and so on. +There was a continuous crackling of small explosions overhead which +she thought were charges aimed at her by the guard-boats who watch the +nets. She considered her position for a while, backed, got up steam, +barged ahead, and shore through the whole affair in one wild surge. +Imagine the roof of a navigable cottage after it has snapped telegraph +lines with its chimney, and you will get a small idea of what happens +to the hull of a submarine when she uses her gun to break wire hawsers +with. + + +TROUBLE WITH A GUN + +E2 was a wet, strained, and uncomfortable boat for the rest of her +cruise. She sank steamers, burned dhows; was worried by torpedo-boats +and hunted by Hun planes; hit bottom freely and frequently; silenced +forts that fired at her from lonely beaches; warned villages who might +have joined in the game that they had better keep to farming; shelled +railway lines and stations; would have shelled a pier, but found there +was a hospital built at one end of it, "so could not bombard"; came +upon dhows crowded with "female refugees" which she "allowed to +proceed," and was presented with fowls in return; but through it all +her chief preoccupation was that racked and strained gun and mounting. +When there was nothing else doing she reports sourly that she "worked +on gun." As a philosopher of the lower deck put it: "'Tisn't what you +blanky _do_ that matters, it's what you blanky _have_ to do." In other +words, worry, not work, kills. + +E2's gun did its best to knock the heart out of them all. She had to +shift the wretched thing twice; once because the bolts that held it +down were smashed (the wire hawser must have pretty well pulled it off +its seat), and again because the hull beneath it leaked on pressure. +She went down to make sure of it. But she drilled and tapped and +adjusted, till in a short time the gun worked again and killed +steamers as it should. Meanwhile, the whole boat leaked. All the +plates under the old gun-position forward leaked; she leaked aft +through damaged hydroplane guards, and on her way home they had to +keep the water down by hand pumps while she was diving through the +nets. Where she did not leak outside she leaked internally, tank +leaking into tank, so that the petrol got into the main fresh-water +supply and the men had to be put on allowance. The last pint was +served out when she was in the narrowest part of the Narrows, a place +where one's mouth may well go dry of a sudden. + +Here for the moment the records end. I have been at some pains not to +pick and choose among them. So far from doctoring or heightening any +of the incidents, I have rather understated them; but I hope I have +made it clear that through all the haste and fury of these multiplied +actions, when life and death and destruction turned on the twitch of a +finger, not one life of any non-combatant was wittingly taken. They +were carefully picked up or picked out, taken below, transferred to +boats, and despatched or personally conducted in the intervals of +business to the safe, unexploding beach. Sometimes they part from +their chaperones "with many expressions of good will," at others they +seem greatly relieved and rather surprised at not being knocked on the +head after the custom of their Allies. But the boats with a hundred +things on their minds no more take credit for their humanity than +their commanders explain the feats for which they won their respective +decorations. + + + + +DESTROYERS AT JUTLAND + +(1916) + + "Have you news of my boy Jack?" + _Not this tide._ + "When d'you think that he'll come back?" + _Not with this wind blowing, and this tide._ + + "Has any one else had word of him?" + _Not this tide. + For what is sunk will hardly swim, + Not with this wind blowing and this tide._ + + "Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?" + _None this tide, + Nor any tide, + Except he didn't shame his kind + Not even with that wind blowing and that tide._ + + _Then hold your head up all the more, + This tide, + And every tide, + Because he was the son you bore, + And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!_ + + + + +I + +STORIES OF THE BATTLE + +CRIPPLE AND PARALYTIC + + +There was much destroyer-work in the Battle of Jutland. The actual +battle field may not have been more than twenty thousand square miles, +but the incidental patrols, from first to last, must have covered many +times that area. Doubtless the next generation will comb out every +detail of it. All we need remember is there were many squadrons of +battleships and cruisers engaged over the face of the North Sea, and +that they were accompanied in their dread comings and goings by +multitudes of destroyers, who attacked the enemy both by day and by +night from the afternoon of May 31 to the morning of June 1, 1916. We +are too close to the gigantic canvas to take in the meaning of the +picture; our children stepping backward through the years may get the +true perspective and proportions. + +To recapitulate what every one knows. + +The German fleet came out of its North Sea ports, scouting ships +ahead; then destroyers, cruisers, battle-cruisers, and, last, the main +battle fleet in the rear. It moved north, parallel with the coast of +stolen Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland. Our fleets were already out; +the main battle fleet (Admiral Jellicoe) sweeping down from the north, +and our battle-cruiser fleet (Admiral Beatty) feeling for the enemy. +Our scouts came in contact with the enemy on the afternoon of May 31 +about 100 miles off the Jutland coast, steering north-west. They +satisfied themselves he was in strength, and reported accordingly to +our battle-cruiser fleet, which engaged the enemy's battle-cruisers at +about half-past three o'clock. The enemy steered south-east to rejoin +their own fleet, which was coming up from that quarter. We fought him +on a parallel course as he ran for more than an hour. + +Then his battle-fleet came in sight, and Beatty's fleet went about and +steered north-west in order to retire on our battle-fleet, which was +hurrying down from the north. We returned fighting very much over the +same waters as we had used in our slant south. The enemy up till now +had lain to the eastward of us, whereby he had the advantage in that +thick weather of seeing our hulls clear against the afternoon light, +while he himself worked in the mists. We then steered a little to the +north-west bearing him off towards the east till at six o'clock Beatty +had headed the enemy's leading ships and our main battle-fleet came in +sight from the north. The enemy broke back in a loop, first eastward, +then south, then south-west as our fleet edged him off from the land, +and our main battle-fleet, coming up behind them, followed in their +wake. Thus for a while we had the enemy to westward of us, where he +made a better mark; but the day was closing and the weather +thickened, and the enemy wanted to get away. At a quarter past eight +the enemy, still heading south-west, was covered by his destroyers in +a great screen of grey smoke, and he got away. + + +NIGHT AND MORNING + +As darkness fell, our fleets lay between the enemy and his home ports. +During the night our heavy ships, keeping well clear of possible +mine-fields, swept down south to south and west of the Horns Reef, so +that they might pick him up in the morning. When morning came our main +fleet could find no trace of the enemy to the southward, but our +destroyer-flotillas further north had been very busy with enemy ships, +apparently running for the Horns Reef Channel. It looks, then, as if +when we lost sight of the enemy in the smoke screen and the darkness +he had changed course and broken for home astern our main fleets. And +whether that was a sound manoeuvre or otherwise, he and the still +flows of the North Sea alone can tell. + +But how is a layman to give any coherent account of an affair where a +whole country's coast-line was background to battle covering +geographical degrees? The records give an impression of illimitable +grey waters, nicked on their uncertain horizons with the smudge and +blur of ships sparkling with fury against ships hidden under the curve +of the world. One sees these distances maddeningly obscured by walking +mists and weak fogs, or wiped out by layers of funnel and gun smoke, +and realises how, at the pace the ships were going, anything might be +stumbled upon in the haze or charge out of it when it lifted. One +comprehends, too, how the far-off glare of a great vessel afire might +be reported as a local fire on a near-by enemy, or _vice versa_; how a +silhouette caught, for an instant, in a shaft of pale light let down +from the low sky might be fatally difficult to identify till too late. +But add to all these inevitable confusions and misreckonings of time, +shape, and distance, charges at every angle of squadrons through and +across other squadrons; sudden shifts of the centres of the fights, +and even swifter restorations; wheelings, sweepings, and regroupments +such as accompany the passage across space of colliding universes. +Then blanket the whole inferno with the darkness of night at full +speed, and--see what you can make of it. + + +THREE DESTROYERS + +A little time after the action began to heat up between our +battle-cruisers and the enemy's, eight or ten of our destroyers opened +the ball for their branch of the service by breaking up the attack of +an enemy light cruiser and fifteen destroyers. Of these they accounted +for at least two destroyers--some think more--and drove the others +back on their battle-cruisers. This scattered that fight a good deal +over the sea. Three of our destroyers held on for the enemy's +battle-fleet, who came down on them at ranges which eventually grew +less than 3000 yards. Our people ought to have been lifted off the +seas bodily, but they managed to fire a couple of torpedoes apiece +while the range was diminishing. They had no illusions. Says one of +the three, speaking of her second shot, which she loosed at fairly +close range, "This torpedo was fired because it was considered very +unlikely that the ship would escape disablement before another +opportunity offered." But still they lived--three destroyers against +all a battle-cruiser fleet's quick-firers, as well as the fire of a +batch of enemy destroyers at 600 yards. And they were thankful for +small mercies. "The position being favourable," a third torpedo was +fired from each while they yet floated. + +At 2500 yards, one destroyer was hit somewhere in the vitals and +swerved badly across her next astern, who "was obliged to alter course +to avoid a collision, thereby failing to fire a fourth torpedo." Then +that next astern "observed signal for destroyers' recall," and went +back to report to her flotilla captain--alone. Of her two companions, +one was "badly hit and remained stopped between the lines." The other +"remained stopped, but was afloat when last seen." Ships that "remain +stopped" are liable to be rammed or sunk by methodical gun-fire. That +was, perhaps, fifty minutes' work put in before there was any really +vicious "edge" to the action, and it did not steady the nerves of the +enemy battle-cruisers any more than another attack made by another +detachment of ours. + +"What does one do when one passes a ship that 'remains stopped'?" I +asked of a youth who had had experience. + +"Nothing special. They cheer, and you cheer back. One doesn't think +about it till afterwards. You see, it may be your luck in another +minute." + + +LUCK + +There were many other torpedo attacks in all parts of the battle that +misty afternoon, including a quaint episode of an enemy light cruiser +who "looked as if she were trying" to torpedo one of our +battle-cruisers while the latter was particularly engaged. A destroyer +of ours, returning from a special job which required delicacy, was +picking her way back at 30 knots through batches of enemy +battle-cruisers and light cruisers with the idea of attaching herself +to the nearest destroyer-flotilla and making herself useful. It +occurred to her that as she "was in a most advantageous position for +repelling enemy's destroyers endeavouring to attack, she could not do +better than to remain on the 'engaged bow' of our battle-cruiser." So +she remained and considered things. + +There was an enemy battle-cruiser squadron in the offing; with several +enemy light cruisers ahead of that squadron, and the weather was +thickish and deceptive. She sighted the enemy light cruiser, "class +uncertain," only a few thousand yards away, and "decided to attack her +in order to frustrate her firing torpedoes at our Battle Fleet." (This +in case the authorities should think that light cruiser wished to buy +rubber.) So she fell upon the light cruiser with every gun she had, at +between two and four thousand yards, and secured a number of hits, +just the same as at target practice. While thus occupied she sighted +out of the mist a squadron of enemy battle-cruisers that had worried +her earlier in the afternoon. Leaving the light cruiser, she closed to +what she considered a reasonable distance of the newcomers, and let +them have, as she thought, both her torpedoes. She possessed an active +Acting Sub-Lieutenant, who, though officers of that rank think +otherwise, is not very far removed from an ordinary midshipman of the +type one sees in tow of relatives at the Army and Navy Stores. He sat +astride one of the tubes to make quite sure things were in order, and +fired when the sights came on. + +_But_, at that very moment, a big shell hit the destroyer on the side +and there was a tremendous escape of steam. Believing--since she had +seen one torpedo leave the tube before the smash came--believing that +both her tubes had been fired, the destroyer turned away "at greatly +reduced speed" (the shell reduced it), and passed, quite reasonably +close, the light cruiser whom she had been hammering so faithfully +till the larger game appeared. Meantime, the Sub-Lieutenant was +exploring what damage had been done by the big shell. He discovered +that only _one_ of the two torpedoes had left the tubes, and +"observing enemy light cruiser beam on and apparently temporarily +stopped," he fired the providential remainder at her, and it hit her +below the conning-tower and well and truly exploded, as was witnessed +by the Sub-Lieutenant himself, the Commander, a leading signalman, and +several other ratings. Luck continued to hold! The Acting +Sub-Lieutenant further reported that "we still had three torpedoes +left and at the same time drew my attention to enemy's line of +battleships." They rather looked as if they were coming down with +intent to assault. So the Sub-Lieutenant fired the rest of the +torpedoes, which at least started off correctly from the shell-shaken +tubes, and must have crossed the enemy's line. When torpedoes turn up +among a squadron, they upset the steering and distract the attention +of all concerned. Then the destroyer judged it time to take stock of +her injuries. Among other minor defects she could neither steam, +steer, nor signal. + + +TOWING UNDER DIFFICULTIES + +Mark how virtue is rewarded! Another of our destroyers an hour or so +previously had been knocked clean out of action, before she had done +anything, by a big shell which gutted a boiler-room and started an oil +fire. (That is the drawback to oil.) She crawled out between the +battleships till she "reached an area of comparative calm" and +repaired damage. She says: "The fire having been dealt with it was +found a mat kept the stokehold dry. My only trouble now being lack of +speed, I looked round for useful employment, and saw a destroyer in +great difficulties, so closed her." That destroyer was our paralytic +friend of the intermittent torpedo-tubes, and a grateful ship she was +when her crippled sister (but still good for a few knots) offered her +a tow, "under very trying conditions with large enemy ships +approaching." So the two set off together, Cripple and Paralytic, with +heavy shells falling round them, as sociable as a couple of lame +hounds. Cripple worked up to 12 knots, and the weather grew vile, and +the tow parted. Paralytic, by this time, had raised steam in a boiler +or two, and made shift to get along slowly on her own, Cripple +hirpling beside her, till Paralytic could not make any more headway in +that rising sea, and Cripple had to tow her once more. Once more the +tow parted. So they tied Paralytic up rudely and effectively with a +cable round her after bollards and gun (presumably because of strained +forward bulkheads) and hauled her stern-first, through heavy seas, at +continually reduced speeds, doubtful of their position, unable to +sound because of the seas, and much pestered by a wind which backed +without warning, till, at last, they made land, and turned into the +hospital appointed for brave wounded ships. Everybody speaks well of +Cripple. Her name crops up in several reports, with such compliments +as the men of the sea use when they see good work. She herself speaks +well of her Lieutenant, who, as executive officer, "took charge of the +fire and towing arrangements in a very creditable manner," and also of +Tom Battye and Thomas Kerr, engine-room artificer and stoker petty +officer, who "were in the stokehold at the time of the shell striking, +and performed cool and prompt decisive action, although both suffering +from shock and slight injuries." + + +USEFUL EMPLOYMENT + +Have you ever noticed that men who do Homeric deeds often describe +them in Homeric language? The sentence "I looked round for useful +employment" is worthy of Ulysses when "there was an evil sound at the +ships of men who perished and of the ships themselves broken at the +same time." + +Roughly, very roughly, speaking, our destroyers enjoyed three phases +of "prompt decisive action"--the first, a period of daylight attacks +(from 4 to 6 P.M.) such as the one I have just described, while the +battle was young and the light fairly good on the afternoon of May 31; +the second, towards dark, when the light had lessened and the enemy +were more uneasy, and, I think, in more scattered formation; the +third, when darkness had fallen, and the destroyers had been strung +out astern with orders to help the enemy home, which they did all +night as opportunity offered. One cannot say whether the day or the +night work was the more desperate. From private advices, the young +gentlemen concerned seem to have functioned with efficiency either +way. As one of them said: "After a bit, you see, we were all pretty +much on our own, and you could really find out what your ship could +do." + +I will tell you later of a piece of night work not without merit. + + + + +II + +THE NIGHT HUNT + +RAMMING AN ENEMY CRUISER + + +As I said, we will confine ourselves to something quite sane and +simple which does not involve more than half-a-dozen different +reports. + +When the German fleet ran for home, on the night of May 31, it seems +to have scattered--"starred," I believe, is the word for the +evolution--in a general _sauve qui peut_, while the Devil, livelily +represented by our destroyers, took the hindmost. Our flotillas were +strung out far and wide on this job. One man compared it to hounds +hunting half a hundred separate foxes. + +I take the adventures of several couples of destroyers who, on the +night of May 31, were nosing along somewhere towards the +Schleswig-Holstein coast, ready to chop any Hun-stuff coming back to +earth by that particular road. The leader of one line was Gehenna, and +the next two ships astern of her were Eblis and Shaitan, in the order +given. There were others, of course, but with the exception of one +Goblin they don't come violently into this tale. There had been a good +deal of promiscuous firing that evening, and actions were going on all +round. Towards midnight our destroyers were overtaken by several +three-and four-funnel German ships (cruisers they thought) hurrying +home. At this stage of the game anybody might have been +anybody--pursuer or pursued. The Germans took no chances, but switched +on their searchlights and opened fire on Gehenna. Her acting +sub-lieutenant reports: "A salvo hit us forward. I opened fire with +the after-guns. A shell then struck us in a steam-pipe, and I could +see nothing but steam. But both starboard torpedo-tubes were fired." + +Eblis, Gehenna's next astern, at once fired a torpedo at the second +ship in the German line, a four-funnelled cruiser, and hit her between +the second funnel and the mainmast, when "she appeared to catch fire +fore and aft simultaneously, heeled right over to starboard, and +undoubtedly sank." Eblis loosed off a second torpedo and turned aside +to reload, firing at the same time to distract the enemy's attention +from Gehenna, who was now ablaze fore and aft. Gehenna's acting +sub-lieutenant (the only executive officer who survived) says that by +the time the steam from the broken pipe cleared he found Gehenna +stopped, nearly everybody amidships killed or wounded, the +cartridge-boxes round the guns exploding one after the other as the +fires took hold, and the enemy not to be seen. Three minutes or less +did all that damage. Eblis had nearly finished reloading when a shot +struck the davit that was swinging her last torpedo into the tube and +wounded all hands concerned. Thereupon she dropped torpedo work, fired +at an enemy searchlight which winked and went out, and was closing in +to help Gehenna when she found herself under the noses of a couple of +enemy cruisers. "The nearer one," he says, "altered course to ram me +apparently." The Senior Service writes in curiously lawyer-like +fashion, but there is no denying that they act quite directly. "I +therefore put my helm hard aport and the two ships met and rammed each +other, port bow to port bow." There could have been no time to think +and, for Eblis's commander on the bridge, none to gather information. +But he had observant subordinates, and he writes--and I would humbly +suggest that the words be made the ship's motto for evermore--he +writes, "Those aft noted" that the enemy cruiser had certain marks on +her funnel and certain arrangements of derricks on each side which, +quite apart from the evidence she left behind her, betrayed her class. +Eblis and she met. Says Eblis: "I consider I must have considerably +damaged this cruiser, as 20 feet of her side plating was left in my +foc'sle." Twenty feet of ragged rivet-slinging steel, razoring and +reaping about in the dark on a foc'sle that had collapsed like a +concertina! It was very fair plating too. There were side-scuttle +holes in it--what we passengers would call portholes. But it might +have been better, for Eblis reports sorrowfully, "by the thickness of +the coats of paint (duly given in 32nds of the inch) she would not +appear to have been a very new ship." + + +A FUGITIVE ON FIRE + +New or old, the enemy had done her best. She had completely demolished +Eblis's bridge and searchlight platform, brought down the mast and the +fore-funnel, ruined the whaler and the dinghy, split the foc'sle open +above water from the stem to the galley which is abaft the bridge, and +below water had opened it up from the stem to the second bulkhead. She +had further ripped off Eblis's skin-plating for an amazing number of +yards on one side of her, and had fired a couple of large-calibre +shells into Eblis at point-blank range, narrowly missing her vitals. +Even so, Eblis is as impartial as a prize-court. She reports that the +second shot, a trifle of eight inches, "may have been fired at a +different time or just after colliding." But the night was yet young, +and "just after getting clear of this cruiser an enemy battle-cruiser +grazed past our stern at high speed" and again the judgmatic mind--"I +think she must have intended to ram us." She was a large +three-funnelled thing, her centre funnel shot away and "lights were +flickering under her foc'sle as if she was on fire forward." Fancy the +vision of her, hurtling out of the dark, red-lighted from within, and +fleeing on like a man with his throat cut! + +[As an interlude, all enemy cruisers that night were not keen on +ramming. They wanted to get home. A man I know who was on another part +of the drive saw a covey bolt through our destroyers; and had just +settled himself for a shot at one of them when the night threw up a +second bird coming down full speed on his other beam. He had bare +time to jink between the two as they whizzed past. One switched on her +searchlight and fired a whole salvo at him point blank. The heavy +stuff went between his funnels. She must have sighted along her own +beam of light, which was about a thousand yards. + +"How did you feel?" I asked. + +"I was rather sick. It was my best chance all that night, and I had to +miss it or be cut in two." + +"What happened to the cruisers?" + +"Oh, they went on, and I heard 'em being attended to by some of our +fellows. They didn't know what they were doing, or they couldn't have +missed me sitting, the way they did.] + + +THE CONFIDENTIAL BOOKS + +After all that Eblis picked herself up, and discovered that she was +still alive, with a dog's chance of getting to port. But she did not +bank on it. That grand slam had wrecked the bridge, pinning the +commander under the wreckage. By the time he had extricated himself +he "considered it advisable to throw overboard the steel chest and +dispatch-box of confidential and secret books." These are never +allowed to fall into strange hands, and their proper disposal is the +last step but one in the ritual of the burial service of His Majesty's +ships at sea. Gehenna, afire and sinking, out somewhere in the dark, +was going through it on her own account. This is her Acting +Sub-Lieutenant's report: "The confidential books were got up. The +First Lieutenant gave the order: 'Every man aft,' and the confidential +books were thrown overboard. The ship soon afterwards heeled over to +starboard and the bows went under. The First Lieutenant gave the +order: 'Everybody for themselves.' The ship sank in about a minute, +the stern going straight up into the air." + +But it was not written in the Book of Fate that stripped and battered +Eblis should die that night as Gehenna died. After the burial of the +books it was found that the several fires on her were manageable, +that she "was not making water aft of the damage," which meant +two-thirds of her were, more or less, in commission, and, best of all, +that three boilers were usable in spite of the cruiser's shells. So +she "shaped course and speed to make the least water and the most +progress towards land." On the way back the wind shifted eight points +without warning--it was this shift, if you remember, that so +embarrassed Cripple and Paralytic on their homeward crawl--and, what +with one thing and another, Eblis was unable to make port till the +scandalously late hour of noon on June 2, "the mutual ramming having +occurred about 11.40 P.M. on May 31." She says, this time without any +legal reservation whatever, "I cannot speak too highly of the courage, +discipline, and devotion of the officers and ship's company." + +Her recommendations are a Compendium of Godly Deeds for the Use of +Mariners. They cover pretty much all that man may be expected to do. +There was, as there always is, a first lieutenant who, while his +commander was being extricated from the bridge wreckage, took charge +of affairs and steered the ship first from the engine-room, or what +remained of it, and later from aft, and otherwise manoeuvred as +requisite, among doubtful bulkheads. In his leisure he "improvised +means of signalling," and if there be not one joyous story behind that +smooth sentence I am a Hun! + + +THE ART OF IMPROVISING + +They all improvised like the masters of craft they were. The chief +engine-room artificer, after he had helped to put out fires, +improvised stops to the gaps which were left by the carrying away of +the forward funnel and mast. He got and kept up steam "to a much +higher point than would have appeared at all possible," and when the +sea rose, as it always does if you are in trouble, he "improvised +pumping and drainage arrangements, thus allowing the ship to steam at +a good speed on the whole." There could not have been more than 40 +feet of hole. + +The surgeon--a probationer--performed an amputation single-handed in +the wreckage by the bridge, and by his "wonderful skill, resource, and +unceasing care and devotion undoubtedly saved the lives of the many +seriously wounded men." That no horror might be lacking, there was "a +short circuit among the bridge wreckage for a considerable time." The +searchlight and wireless were tangled up together, and the electricity +leaked into everything. + +There were also three wise men who saved the ship whose names must not +be forgotten. They were Chief Engine-room Artificer Lee, Stoker Petty +Officer Gardiner, and Stoker Elvins. When the funnel carried away it +was touch and go whether the foremost boiler would not explode. These +three "put on respirators and kept the fans going till all fumes, +etc., were cleared away." To each man, you will observe, his own +particular Hell which he entered of his own particular initiative. + +Lastly, there were the two remaining Quartermasters--mutinous dogs, +both of 'em--one wounded in the right hand and the other in the left, +who took the wheel between them all the way home, thus improvising one +complete Navy-pattern Quartermaster, and "refused to be relieved +during the whole thirty-six hours before the ship returned to port." +So Eblis passes out of the picture with "never a moan or complaint +from a single wounded man, and in spite of the rough weather of June +1st they all remained cheery." They had one Hun cruiser, torpedoed, to +their credit, and strong evidence abroad that they had knocked the end +out of another. + +But Gehenna went down, and those of her crew who remained hung on to +the rafts that destroyers carry till they were picked up about the +dawn by Shaitan, third in the line, who, at that hour, was in no shape +to give much help. Here is Shaitan's tale. She saw the unknown +cruisers overtake the flotilla, saw their leader switch on +searchlights and open fire as she drew abreast of Gehenna, and at +once fired a torpedo at the third German ship. Shaitan could not see +Eblis, her next ahead, for, as we know, Eblis after firing her +torpedoes had hauled off to reload. When the enemy switched his +searchlights off Shaitan hauled out too. It is not wholesome for +destroyers to keep on the same course within a thousand yards of big +enemy cruisers. + +She picked up a destroyer of another division, Goblin, who for the +moment had not been caught by the enemy's searchlights and had +profited by this decent obscurity to fire a torpedo at the hindmost of +the cruisers. Almost as Shaitan took station behind Goblin the latter +was lighted up by a large ship and heavily fired at. The enemy fled, +but she left Goblin out of control, with a grisly list of casualties, +and her helm jammed. Goblin swerved, returned, and swerved again; +Shaitan astern tried to clear her, and the two fell aboard each other, +Goblin's bows deep in Shaitan's fore-bridge. While they hung thus, +locked, an unknown destroyer rammed Shaitan aft, cutting off several +feet of her stern and leaving her rudder jammed hard over. As complete +a mess as the Personal Devil himself could have devised, and all due +to the merest accident of a few panicky salvoes. Presently the two +ships worked clear in a smother of steam and oil, and went their +several ways. Quite a while after she had parted from Shaitan, Goblin +discovered several of Shaitan's people, some of them wounded, on her +own foc'sle, where they had been pitched by the collision. Goblin, +working her way homeward on such boilers as remained, carried on a +one-gun fight at a few cables' distance with some enemy destroyers, +who, not knowing what state she was in, sheered off after a few +rounds. Shaitan, holed forward and opened up aft, came across the +survivors from Gehenna clinging to their raft, and took them aboard. +Then some of our destroyers--they were thick on the sea that +night--tried to tow her stern-first, for Goblin had cut her up badly +forward. But, since Shaitan lacked any stern, and her rudder was +jammed hard across where the stern should have been, the hawsers +parted, and, after leave asked of lawful authority, across all that +waste of waters, they sank Shaitan by gun-fire, having first taken all +the proper steps about the confidential books. Yet Shaitan had had her +little crumb of comfort ere the end. While she lay crippled she saw +quite close to her a German cruiser that was trailing homeward in the +dawn gradually heel over and sink. + +This completes my version of the various accounts of the four +destroyers directly concerned for a few hours, on one minute section +of one wing of our battle. Other ships witnessed other aspects of the +agony and duly noted them as they went about their business. One of +our battleships, for instance, made out by the glare of burning +Gehenna that the supposed cruiser that Eblis torpedoed was a German +battleship of a certain class. So Gehenna did not die in vain, and we +may take it that the discovery did not unduly depress Eblis's wounded +in hospital. + + +ASKING FOR TROUBLE + +The rest of the flotilla that the four destroyers belonged to had +their own adventures later. One of them, chasing or being chased, saw +Goblin out of control just before Goblin and Shaitan locked, and +narrowly escaped adding herself to that triple collision. Another +loosed a couple of torpedoes at the enemy ships who were attacking +Gehenna, which, perhaps, accounts for the anxiety of the enemy to +break away from that hornets' nest as soon as possible. Half a dozen +or so of them ran into four German battleships, which they set about +torpedoing at ranges varying from half a mile to a mile and a half. It +was asking for trouble and they got it; but they got in return at +least one big ship, and the same observant battleship of ours who +identified Eblis's bird reported _three_ satisfactory explosions in +half an hour, followed by a glare that lit up all the sky. One of the +flotilla, closing on what she thought was the smoke of a sister in +difficulties, found herself well in among the four battleships. "It +was too late to get away," she says, so she attacked, fired her +torpedo, was caught up in the glare of a couple of searchlights, and +pounded to pieces in five minutes, not even her rafts being left. She +went down with her colours flying, having fought to the last available +gun. + +Another destroyer who had borne a hand in Gehenna's trouble had her +try at the four battleships and got in a torpedo at 800 yards. She saw +it explode and the ship take a heavy list. "Then I was chased," which +is not surprising. She picked up a friend who could only do 20 knots. +They sighted several Hun destroyers who fled from them; then dropped +on to four Hun destroyers all together, who made great parade of +commencing action, but soon afterwards "thought better of it, and +turned away." So you see, in that flotilla alone there was every +variety of fight, from the ordered attacks of squadrons under control, +to single ship affairs, every turn of which depended on the second's +decision of the men concerned; endurance to the hopeless end; bluff +and cunning; reckless advance and red-hot flight; clear vision and as +much of blank bewilderment as the Senior Service permits its children +to indulge in. That is not much. When a destroyer who has been dodging +enemy torpedoes and gun-fire in the dark realises about midnight that +she is "following a strange British flotilla, having lost sight of my +own," she "decides to remain with them," and shares their fortunes and +whatever language is going. + +If lost hounds could speak when they cast up next day, after an +unchecked night among the wild life of the dark, they would talk much +as our destroyers do. + + The doorkeepers of Zion, + They do not always stand + In helmet and whole armour, + With halberds in their hand; + But, being sure of Zion, + And all her mysteries, + They rest awhile in Zion, + Sit down and smile in Zion; + Ay, even jest in Zion, + In Zion, at their ease. + + The gatekeepers of Baal, + They dare not sit or lean, + But fume and fret and posture + And foam and curse between; + For being bound to Baal, + Whose sacrifice is vain, + Their rest is scant with Baal, + They glare and pant for Baal, + They mouth and rant for Baal, + For Baal in their pain. + + But we will go to Zion, + By choice and not through dread, + With these our present comrades + And those our present dead; + And, being free of Zion + In both her fellowships, + Sit down and sup in Zion-- + Stand up and drink in Zion + Whatever cup in Zion + Is offered to our lips! + + + + +III + +THE MEANING OF "JOSS" + +A YOUNG OFFICER'S LETTER + + +As one digs deeper into the records, one sees the various temperaments +of men revealing themselves through all the formal wording. One +commander may be an expert in torpedo-work, whose first care is how +and where his shots went, and whether, under all circumstances of +pace, light, and angle, the best had been achieved. Destroyers do not +carry unlimited stocks of torpedoes. It rests with commanders whether +they shall spend with a free hand at first or save for night-work +ahead--risk a possible while he is yet afloat, or hang on coldly for a +certainty. So in the old whaling days did the harponeer bring up or +back off his boat till some shift of the great fish's bulk gave him +sure opening at the deep-seated life. + +And then comes the question of private judgment. "I thought so-and-so +would happen. Therefore, I did thus and thus." Things may or may not +turn out as anticipated, but that is merely another of the million +chances of the sea. Take a case in point. A flotilla of our destroyers +sighted six (there had been eight the previous afternoon) German +battleships of Kingly and Imperial caste very early in the morning of +the 1st June, and duly attacked. At first our people ran parallel to +the enemy, then, as far as one can make out, headed them and swept +round sharp to the left, firing torpedoes from their port or left-hand +tubes. Between them they hit a battleship, which went up in flame and +_debris_. But one of the flotilla had not turned with the rest. She +had anticipated that the attack would be made on another quarter, and, +for certain technical reasons, she was not ready. When she was, she +turned, and single-handed--the rest of the flotilla having finished +and gone on--carried out two attacks on the five remaining +battleships. She got one of them amidships, causing a terrific +explosion and flame above the masthead, which signifies that the +magazine has been touched off. She counted the battleships when the +smoke had cleared, and there were but four of them. She herself was +not hit, though shots fell close. She went her way, and, seeing +nothing of her sisters, picked up another flotilla and stayed with it +till the end. Do I make clear the maze of blind hazard and wary +judgment in which our men of the sea must move? + + +SAVED BY A SMOKE SCREEN + +Some of the original flotilla were chased and headed about by cruisers +after their attack on the six battleships, and a single shell from +battleship or cruiser reduced one of them to such a condition that she +was brought home by her sub-lieutenant and a midshipman. Her captain, +first lieutenant, gunner, torpedo coxswain, and both signalmen were +either killed or wounded; the bridge, with charts, instruments, and +signalling gear went; all torpedoes were expended; a gun was out of +action, and the usual cordite fires developed. Luckily, the engines +were workable. She escaped under cover of a smoke-screen, which is an +unbearably filthy outpouring of the densest smoke, made by increasing +the proportion of oil to air in the furnace-feed. It rolls forth from +the funnels looking solid enough to sit upon, spreads in a +searchlight-proof pat of impenetrable beastliness, and in still +weather hangs for hours. But it saved that ship. + +It is curious to note the subdued tone of a boy's report when by some +accident of slaughter he is raised to command. There are certain +formalities which every ship must comply with on entering certain +ports. No fully-striped commander would trouble to detail them any +more than he would the aspect of his Club porter. The young 'un puts +it all down, as who should say: "I rang the bell, wiped my feet on the +mat, and asked if they were at home." He is most careful of the port +proprieties, and since he will be sub. again to-morrow, and all his +equals will tell him exactly how he ought to have handled her, he +almost apologises for the steps he took--deeds which ashore might be +called cool or daring. + +The Senior Service does not gush. There are certain formulae +appropriate to every occasion. One of our destroyers, who was knocked +out early in the day and lay helpless, was sighted by several of her +companions. One of them reported her to the authorities, but, being +busy at the time, said he did not think himself justified in hampering +himself with a disabled ship in the middle of an action. It was not as +if she was sinking either. She was only holed foreward and aft, with a +bad hit in the engine-room, and her steering-gear knocked out. In this +posture she cheered the passing ships, and set about repairing her +hurts with good heart and a smiling countenance. She managed to get +under some sort of way at midnight, and next day was taken in tow by a +friend. She says officially, "his assistance was invaluable, as I had +no oil left and met heavy weather." + +What actually happened was much less formal. Fleet destroyers, as a +rule, do not worry about navigation. They take their orders from the +flagship, and range out and return, on signal, like sheep-dogs whose +fixed point is their shepherd. Consequently, when they break loose on +their own they may fetch up rather doubtful of their whereabouts--as +this injured one did. After she had been so kindly taken in tow, she +inquired of her friend ("Message captain to captain")--"Have you any +notion where we are?" The friend replied, "I have not, but I will find +out." So the friend waited on the sun with the necessary implements, +which luckily had not been smashed, and in due time made: "Our +observed position at this hour is thus and thus." The tow, +irreverently, "Is it? Didn't know you were a navigator." The friend, +with hauteur, "Yes; it's rather a hobby of mine." The tow, "Had no +idea it was as bad as all that; but I'm afraid I'll have to trust you +this time. Go ahead, and be quick about it." They reached a port, +correctly enough, but to this hour the tow, having studied with the +friend at a place called Dartmouth, insists that it was pure Joss. + + +CONCERNING JOSS + +And Joss, which is luck, fortune, destiny, the irony of Fate or +Nemesis, is the greatest of all the Battle-gods that move on the +waters. As I will show you later, knowledge of gunnery and a delicate +instinct for what is in the enemy's minds may enable a destroyer to +thread her way, slowing, speeding, and twisting between the heavy +salvoes of opposing fleets. As the dank-smelling waterspouts rise and +break, she judges where the next grove of them will sprout. If her +judgment is correct, she may enter it in her report as a little +feather in her cap. But it is Joss when the stray 12-inch shell, +hurled by a giant at some giant ten miles away, falls on her from +Heaven and wipes out her and her profound calculations. This was seen +to happen to a Hun destroyer in mid-attack. While she was being +laboriously dealt with by a 4-inch gun something immense took her, +and--she was not. + +Joss it is, too, when the cruiser's 8-inch shot, that should have +raked out your innards from the forward boiler to the ward-room stove, +deflects miraculously, like a twig dragged through deep water, and, +almost returning on its track, skips off unbursten and leaves you +reprieved by the breadth of a nail from three deaths in one. Later, a +single splinter, no more, may cut your oil-supply pipes as dreadfully +and completely as a broken wind-screen in a collision cuts the +surprised motorist's throat. Then you must lie useless, fighting +oil-fires while the precious fuel gutters away till you have to ask +leave to escape while there are yet a few tons left. One ship who was +once bled white by such a piece of Joss, suggested it would be better +that oil-pipes should be led along certain lines which she sketched. +As if that would make any difference to Joss when he wants to show +what he can do! + +Our sea-people, who have worked with him for a thousand wettish years, +have acquired something of Joss's large toleration and humour. He +causes ships in thick weather, or under strain, to mistake friends for +enemies. At such times, if your heart is full of highly organised +hate, you strafe frightfully and efficiently till one of you perishes, +and the survivor reports wonders which are duly wirelessed all over +the world. But if you worship Joss, you reflect, you put two and two +together in a casual insular way, and arrive--sometimes both parties +arrive--at instinctive conclusions which avoid trouble. + + +AN AFFAIR IN THE NORTH SEA + +Witness this tale. It does not concern the Jutland fight, but another +little affair which took place a while ago in the North Sea. It was +understood that a certain type of cruiser of ours would _not_ be +taking part in a certain show. Therefore, if anyone saw cruisers very +like them he might blaze at them with a clear conscience, for they +would be Hun-boats. And one of our destroyers--thick weather as +usual--spied the silhouettes of cruisers exactly like our own stealing +across the haze. Said the Commander to his Sub., with an inflection +neither period, exclamation, nor interrogation-mark can +render--"That--is--them." + +Said the Sub. in precisely the same tone--"That is them, sir." "As my +Sub.," said the Commander, "your observation is strictly in accord +with the traditions of the Service. Now, as man to man, what _are_ +they?" "We-el," said the Sub., "since you put it that way, I'm d----d +if _I'd_ fire." And they didn't, and they were quite right. The +destroyer had been off on another job, and Joss had jammed the latest +wireless orders to her at the last moment. But Joss had also put it +into the hearts of the boys to save themselves and others. + +I hold no brief for the Hun, but honestly I think he has not lied as +much about the Jutland fight as people believe, and that when he +protests he sank a ship, he _did_ very completely sink a ship. I am +the more confirmed in this belief by a still small voice among the +Jutland reports, musing aloud over an account of an unaccountable +outlying brawl witnessed by one of our destroyers. The voice suggests +that what the destroyer saw was one German ship being sunk by another. +Amen! + +Our destroyers saw a good deal that night on the face of the waters. +Some of them who were working in "areas of comparative calm" submit +charts of their tangled courses, all studded with notes along the +zigzag--something like this:-- + +8 P.M.--_Heard explosion to the N.W._ (A neat arrow-head points that +way.) Half an inch farther along, a short change of course, and the +word _Hit_ explains the meaning of--"_Sighted enemy cruiser engaged +with destroyers._" Another twist follows. "9.30 P.M.--_Passed +wreckage. Engaged enemy destroyers port beam opposite courses._" A +long straight line without incident, then a tangle, and--_Picked up +survivors So-and-So_. A stretch over to some ship that they were +transferred to, a fresh departure, and another brush with "_Single +destroyer on parallel course. Hit. 0.7 A.M.--Passed bows enemy cruiser +sticking up. 0.18.--Joined flotilla for attack on battleship +squadron._" So it runs on--one little ship in a few short hours +passing through more wonders of peril and accident than all the old +fleets ever dreamed. + + +A "CHILD'S" LETTER + +In years to come naval experts will collate all those diagrams, and +furiously argue over them. A lot of the destroyer work was inevitably +as mixed as bombing down a trench, as the scuffle of a polo match, or +as the hot heaving heart of a football scrum. It is difficult to +realise when one considers the size of the sea, that it is that very +size and absence of boundary which helps the confusion. To give an +idea, here is a letter (it has been quoted before, I believe, but it +is good enough to repeat many times), from a nineteen-year-old child +to his friend aged seventeen (and minus one leg), in a hospital: + +"I'm so awfully sorry you weren't in it. It was rather terrible, but a +wonderful experience, and I wouldn't have missed it for anything, but, +by Jove, it isn't a thing one wants to make a habit of. + +"I must say it is very different from what I expected. I expected to +be excited, but was not a bit. It's hard to express what we did feel +like, but you know the sort of feeling one has when one goes in to bat +at cricket, and rather a lot depends upon your doing well, and you are +waiting for the first ball. Well, it's very much the same as that. Do +you know what I mean? A sort of tense feeling, not quite knowing what +to expect. One does not feel the slightest bit frightened, and the +idea that there's a chance of you and your ship being scuppered does +not enter one's head. There are too many other things to think +about." + +Follows the usual "No ship like our ship" talkee, and a note of where +she was at the time. + +"Then they ordered us to attack, so we bustled off full bore. Being +navigator, also having control of all the guns, I was on the bridge +all the time, and remained for twelve hours without leaving it at all. +When we got fairly close I sighted a good-looking Hun destroyer, which +I thought I'd like to strafe. You know, it's awful fun to know that +you can blaze off at a real ship, and do as much damage as you like. +Well, I'd just got their range on the guns, and we'd just fired one +round, when some more of our destroyers coming from the opposite +direction got between us and the enemy and completely blanketed us, so +we had to stop, which was rather rot. Shortly afterwards they recalled +us, so we bustled back again. How any destroyer got out of it is +perfectly wonderful. + +"Literally there were hundreds of progs (shells falling) all round us, +from a 15-inch to a 4-inch, and you know what a big splash a 15-inch +bursting in the water does make. We got washed through by the spray. +Just as we were getting back, a whole salvo of big shells fell just in +front of us and short of our big ships. The skipper and I did rapid +calculations as to how long it would take them to reload, fire again, +time of flight, etc., as we had to go right through the spot. We came +to the conclusion that, as they were short a bit, they would probably +go up a bit, and (they?) didn't, but luckily they altered deflection, +and the next fell right astern of us. Anyhow, we managed to come out +of that row without the ship or a man on board being touched. + + +WHAT THE BIG SHIPS STAND + +"It's extraordinary the amount of knocking about the big ships can +stand. One saw them hit, and they seemed to be one mass of flame and +smoke, and you think they're gone, but when the smoke clears away they +are apparently none the worse and still firing away. But to see a +ship blow up is a terrible and wonderful sight; an enormous volume of +flame and smoke almost 200 feet high and great pieces of metal, etc., +blown sky-high, and then when the smoke clears not a sign of the ship. +We saw one other extraordinary sight. Of course, you know the North +Sea is very shallow. We came across a Hun cruiser absolutely on end, +his stern on the bottom and his bow sticking up about 30 feet in the +water; and a little farther on a destroyer in precisely the same +position. + +"I couldn't be certain, but I rather think I saw your old ship +crashing along and blazing away, but I expect you have heard from some +of your pals. But the night was far and away the worse time of all. It +was pitch dark, and, of course, absolutely no lights, and the firing +seems so much more at night, as you could see the flashes lighting up +the sky, and it seemed to make much more noise, and you could see +ships on fire and blowing up. Of course _we_ showed absolutely no +lights. One expected to be surprised any moment, and eventually we +were. We suddenly found ourselves within 1000 yards of two or three +big Hun cruisers. They switched on their searchlights and started +firing like nothing on earth. Then they put their searchlights on us, +but for some extraordinary reason did not fire on us. As, of course, +we were going full speed we lost them in a moment, but I must say, +that I, and I think everybody else, thought that that was the end, but +one does not feel afraid or panicky. I think I felt rather cooler then +than at any other time. I asked lots of people afterwards what they +felt like, and they all said the same thing. It all happens in a few +seconds; one hasn't time to think; but never in all my life have I +been so thankful to see daylight again--and I don't think I ever want +to see another night like that--it's such an awful strain. One does +not notice it at the time, but it's the reaction afterwards. + +"I never noticed I was tired till I got back to harbour, and then we +all turned in and absolutely slept like logs. We were seventy-two +hours with little or no sleep. The skipper was perfectly wonderful. He +never left the bridge for a minute for twenty-four hours, and was on +the bridge or in the chart-house the whole time we were out (the +chart-house is an airy dog-kennel that opens off the bridge) and I've +never seen anybody so cool and unruffled. He stood there smoking his +pipe as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening. + +"One quite forgot all about time. I was relieved at 4 A.M., and on +looking at my watch found I had been up there nearly twelve hours, and +then discovered I was rather hungry. The skipper and I had some cheese +and biscuits, ham sandwiches, and water on the bridge, and then I went +down and brewed some cocoa and ship's biscuit." + + Not in the thick of the fight, + Not in the press of the odds, + Do the heroes come to their height + Or we know the demi-gods. + + That stands over till peace. + We can only perceive + Men returned from the seas, + Very grateful for leave. + + They grant us sudden days + Snatched from their business of war. + We are too close to appraise + What manner of men they are. + + And whether their names go down + With age-kept victories, + Or whether they battle and drown + Unreckoned is hid from our eyes. + + They are too near to be great, + But our children shall understand + When and how our fate + Was changed, and by whose hand. + + Our children shall measure their worth. + We are content to be blind, + For we know that we walk on a new-born earth + With the saviours of mankind. + + + + +IV + +THE MINDS OF MEN + +HOW IT IS DONE + + +What mystery is there like the mystery of the other man's job--or what +world so cut off as that which he enters when he goes to it? The +eminent surgeon is altogether such an one as ourselves, even till his +hand falls on the knob of the theatre door. After that, in the +silence, among the ether fumes, no man except his acolytes, and they +won't tell, has ever seen his face. So with the unconsidered curate. +Yet, before the war, he had more experience of the business and detail +of death than any of the people who contemned him. His face also, as +he stands his bedside-watches--that countenance with which he shall +justify himself to his Maker--none have ever looked upon. Even the +ditcher is a priest of mysteries at the high moment when he lays out +in his mind his levels and the fall of the water that he alone can +draw off clearly. But catch any of these men five minutes after they +have left their altars, and you will find the doors are shut. + +Chance sent me almost immediately after the Jutland fight a Lieutenant +of one of the destroyers engaged. Among other matters, I asked him if +there was any particular noise. + +"Well, I haven't been in the trenches, of course," he replied, "but I +don't think there could have been much more noise than there was." + +This bears out a report of a destroyer who could not be certain +whether an enemy battleship had blown up or not, saying that, in that +particular corner, it would have been impossible to identify anything +less than the explosion of a whole magazine. + +"It wasn't exactly noise," he reflected. "Noise is what you take in +from outside. This was _inside_ you. It seemed to lift you right out +of everything." + +"And how did the light affect one?" I asked, trying to work out a +theory that noise and light produced beyond known endurance form an +unknown anaesthetic and stimulant, comparable to, but infinitely more +potent than, the soothing effect of the smoke-pall of ancient battles. + +"The lights were rather curious," was the answer. "I don't know that +one noticed searchlights particularly, unless they meant business; but +when a lot of big guns loosed off together, the whole sea was lit up +and you could see our destroyers running about like cockroaches on a +tin soup-plate." + +"Then is black the best colour for our destroyers? Some commanders +seem to think we ought to use grey." + +"Blessed if _I_ know," said young Dante. "Everything shows black in +that light. Then it all goes out again with a bang. Trying for the +eyes if you are spotting." + + +SHIP DOGS + +"And how did the dogs take it?" I pursued. There are several +destroyers more or less owned by pet dogs, who start life as the +chance-found property of a stoker, and end in supreme command of the +bridge. + +"Most of 'em didn't like it a bit. They went below one time, and +wanted to be loved. They knew it wasn't ordinary practice." + +"What did Arabella do?" I had heard a good deal of Arabella. + +"Oh, Arabella's _quite_ different. Her job has always been to look +after her master's pyjamas--folded up at the head of the bunk, you +know. She found out pretty soon the bridge was no place for a lady, so +she hopped downstairs and got in. You know how she makes three little +jumps to it--first, on to the chair; then on the flap-table, and then +up on the pillow. When the show was over, there she was as usual." + +"Was she glad to see her master?" + +"_Ra-ather._ Arabella was the bold, gay lady-dog _then_!" + +Now Arabella is between nine and eleven and a half inches long. + +"Does the Hun run to pets at all?" + +"I shouldn't say so. He's an unsympathetic felon--the Hun. But he +might cherish a dachshund or so. We never picked up any ships' pets +off him, and I'm sure we should if there had been." + +That I believed as implicitly as the tale of a destroyer attack some +months ago, the object of which was to flush Zeppelins. It succeeded, +for the flotilla was attacked by several. Right in the middle of the +flurry, a destroyer asked permission to stop and lower dinghy to pick +up ship's dog which had fallen overboard. Permission was granted, and +the dog was duly rescued. "Lord knows what the Hun made of it," said +my informant. "He was rumbling round, dropping bombs; and the dinghy +was digging out for all she was worth, and the Dog-Fiend was swimming +for Dunkirk. It must have looked rather mad from above. But they +saved the Dog-Fiend, and then everybody swore he was a German spy in +disguise." + + +THE FIGHT + +"And--about this Jutland fight?" I hinted, not for the first time. + +"Oh, that was just a fight. There was more of it than any other fight, +I suppose, but I expect all modern naval actions must be pretty much +the same." + +"But what does one _do_--how does one feel?" I insisted, though I knew +it was hopeless. + +"One does one's job. Things are happening all the time. A man may be +right under your nose one minute--serving a gun or something--and the +next minute he isn't there." + +"And one notices that at the time?" + +"Yes. But there's no time to keep _on_ noticing it. You've got to +carry on somehow or other, or your show stops. I tell you what one +_does_ notice, though. If one goes below for anything, or has to pass +through a flat somewhere, and one sees the old wardroom clock ticking, +or a photograph pinned up, or anything of that sort, one notices +_that_. Oh yes, and there was another thing--the way a ship seemed to +blow up if you were far off her. You'd see a glare, then a blaze, and +then the smoke--miles high, lifting quite slowly. Then you'd get the +row and the jar of it--just like bumping over submarines. Then, a long +while after p'raps, you run through a regular rain of bits of burnt +paper coming down on the decks--like showers of volcanic ash, you +know." The door of the operating-room seemed just about to open, but +it shut again. + +"And the Huns' gunnery?" + +"That was various. Sometimes they began quite well, and went to pieces +after they'd been strafed a little; but sometimes they picked up +again. There was one Hun-boat that got no end of a hammering, and it +seemed to do her gunnery good. She improved tremendously till we sank +her. I expect we'd knocked out some scientific Hun in the controls, +and he'd been succeeded by a man who knew how." + +It used to be "Fritz" last year when they spoke of the enemy. Now it +is Hun or, as I have heard, "Yahun," being a superlative of Yahoo. In +the Napoleonic wars we called the Frenchmen too many names for any one +of them to endure; but this is the age of standardisation. + +"And what about our Lower Deck?" I continued. + +"They? Oh, they carried on as usual. It takes a lot to impress the +Lower Deck when they're busy." And he mentioned several little things +that confirmed this. They had a great deal to do, and they did it +serenely because they had been trained to carry on under all +conditions without panicking. What they did in the way of running +repairs was even more wonderful, if that be possible, than their +normal routine. + +The Lower Deck nowadays is full of strange fish with unlooked-for +accomplishments, as in the recorded case of two simple seamen of a +destroyer who, when need was sorest, came to the front as trained +experts in first-aid. + +"And now--what about the actual Hun losses at Jutland?" I ventured. + +"You've seen the list, haven't you?" + +"Yes, but it occurred to me--that they might have been a shade +under-estimated, and I thought perhaps--" + +A perfectly plain asbestos fire-curtain descended in front of the +already locked door. It was none of his business to dispute the drive. +If there were any discrepancies between estimate and results, one +might be sure that the enemy knew about them, which was the chief +thing that mattered. + +It was, said he, Joss that the light was so bad at the hour of the +last round-up when our main fleet had come down from the north and +shovelled the Hun round on his tracks. _Per contra_, had it been any +other kind of weather, the odds were the Hun would not have ventured +so far. As it was, the Hun's fleet had come out and gone back again, +none the better for air and exercise. We must be thankful for what we +had managed to pick up. But talking of picking up, there was an +instance of almost unparalleled Joss which had stuck in his memory. A +soldier-man, related to one of the officers in one of our ships that +was put down, had got five days' leave from the trenches which he +spent with his relative aboard, and thus dropped in for the whole +performance. He had been employed in helping to spot, and had lived up +a mast till the ship sank, when he stepped off into the water and swam +about till he was fished out and put ashore. By that time, the tale +goes, his engine-room-dried khaki had shrunk half-way up his legs and +arms, in which costume he reported himself to the War Office, and +pleaded for one little day's extension of leave to make himself +decent. "Not a bit of it," said the War Office. "If you choose to +spend your leave playing with sailor-men and getting wet all over, +that's _your_ concern. You will return to duty by to-night's boat." +(This may be a libel on the W.O., but it sounds very like them.) "And +he had to," said the boy, "but I expect he spent the next week at +Headquarters telling fat generals all about the fight." + +"And, of course, the Admiralty gave _you_ all lots of leave?" + +"Us? Yes, heaps. We had nothing to do except clean down and oil up, +and be ready to go to sea again in a few hours." + +That little fact was brought out at the end of almost every +destroyer's report. "Having returned to base at such and such a time, +I took in oil, etc., and reported ready for sea at ---- o'clock." When +you think of the amount of work a ship needs even after peace +manoeuvres, you can realise what has to be done on the heels of an +action. And, as there is nothing like housework for the troubled soul +of a woman, so a general clean-up is good for sailors. I had this from +a petty officer who had also passed through deep waters. "If you've +seen your best friend go from alongside you, and your own officer, and +your own boat's crew with him, and things of that kind, a man's best +comfort is small variegated jobs which he is damned for continuous." + + +THE SILENT NAVY + +Presently my friend of the destroyer went back to his stark, desolate +life, where feelings do not count, and the fact of his being cold, +wet, sea-sick, sleepless, or dog-tired had no bearing whatever on his +business, which was to turn out at any hour in any weather and do or +endure, decently, according to ritual, what that hour and that weather +demanded. It is hard to reach the kernel of Navy minds. The unbribable +seas and mechanisms they work on and through have given them the +simplicity of elements and machines. The habit of dealing with swift +accident, a life of closest and strictest association with their own +caste as well as contact with all kinds of men all earth over, have +added an immense cunning to those qualities; and that they are from +early youth cut out of all feelings that may come between them and +their ends, makes them more incomprehensible than Jesuits, even to +their own people. What, then, must they be to the enemy? + +Here is a Service which prowls forth and achieves, at the lowest, +something of a victory. How far-reaching a one only the war's end will +reveal. It returns in gloomy silence, broken by the occasional hoot of +the long-shore loafer, after issuing a bulletin which though it may +enlighten the professional mind does not exhilarate the layman. +Meantime the enemy triumphs, wirelessly, far and wide. A few frigid +and perfunctory-seeming contradictions are put forward against his +resounding claims; a Naval expert or two is heard talking "off"; the +rest is silence. Anon, the enemy, after a prodigious amount of +explanation which not even the neutrals seem to take any interest in, +revises his claims, and, very modestly, enlarges his losses. Still no +sign. After weeks there appears a document giving our version of the +affair, which is as colourless, detached, and scrupulously impartial +as the findings of a prize-court. It opines that the list of enemy +losses which it submits "give the minimum in regard to numbers though +it is possibly not entirely accurate in regard to the particular class +of vessel, especially those that were sunk during the night attacks." +Here the matter rests and remains--just like our blockade. There is an +insolence about it all that makes one gasp. + +Yet that insolence springs naturally and unconsciously as an oath, out +of the same spirit that caused the destroyer to pick up the dog. The +reports themselves, and tenfold more the stories not in the reports, +are charged with it, but no words by any outsider can reproduce just +that professional tone and touch. A man writing home after the fight, +points out that the great consolation for not having cleaned up the +enemy altogether was that "anyhow those East Coast devils"--a +fellow-squadron, if you please, which up till Jutland had had most of +the fighting--"were not there. They missed that show. We were as +cock-ahoop as a girl who had been to a dance that her sister has +missed." + +This was one of the figures in that dance: + +"A little British destroyer, her midships rent by a great shell meant +for a battle-cruiser; exuding steam from every pore; able to go ahead +but not to steer; unable to get out of anybody's way, likely to be +rammed by any one of a dozen ships; her syren whimpering: 'Let me +through! Make way!'; her crew fallen in aft dressed in life-belts +ready for her final plunge, and cheering wildly as it might have been +an enthusiastic crowd when the King passes." + +Let us close on that note. We have been compassed about so long and so +blindingly by wonders and miracles; so overwhelmed by revelations of +the spirit of men in the basest and most high; that we have neither +time to keep tally of these furious days, nor mind to discern upon +which hour of them our world's fate hung. + + + + +THE NEUTRAL + + Brethren, how shall it fare with me + When the war is laid aside, + If it be proven that I am he + For whom a world has died? + + If it be proven that all my good, + And the greater good I will make, + Were purchased me by a multitude + Who suffered for my sake? + + That I was delivered by mere mankind + Vowed to one sacrifice, + And not, as I hold them, battle-blind, + But dying with opened eyes? + + That they did not ask me to draw the sword + When they stood to endure their lot, + What they only looked to me for a word, + And I answered I knew them not? + + If it be found, when the battle clears, + Their death has set me free, + Then how shall I live with myself through the years + Which they have bought for me? + + Brethren, how must it fare with me, + Or how am I justified, + If it be proven that I am he + For whom mankind has died; + If it be proven that I am he + Who being questioned denied? + + + +THE END + + + +_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_. + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea Warfare, by Rudyard Kipling + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA WARFARE *** + +***** This file should be named 17689.txt or 17689.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/6/8/17689/ + +Produced by Thierry Alberto, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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