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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Merchantmen-at-Arms, by David W. Bone
+
+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: Merchantmen-at-Arms
+       THE BRITISH MERCHANTS' SERVICE IN THE WAR
+
+Author: David W. Bone
+
+Illustrator: Muirhead Bone
+
+Release Date: April 11, 2010 [EBook #31953]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MERCHANTMEN-AT-ARMS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tor Martin Kristiansen and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive) In memory of Thomas A. Noster,
+American Merchant Marine, from June 29, 1942-August 15,
+1945.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Merchantmen-at-Arms
+
+[Illustration: _Frontispiece_ MERCHANTMEN AT GUN PRACTICE]
+
+
+
+
+Merchantmen-at-Arms
+
+THE BRITISH MERCHANTS' SERVICE IN THE WAR
+
+BY DAVID W. BONE
+
+DRAWINGS BY MUIRHEAD BONE
+
+[Illustration]
+
+          LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS
+          1919
+
+
+          _All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+          TO
+
+          ALGERNON C. F. HENDERSON
+
+          AS REPRESENTING A SYMPATHETIC AND UNDERSTANDING
+          GOVERNANCE IN AN IMPORTANT SECTION
+          OF THE BRITISH MERCHANTS'
+          SEA SERVICE
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  PART I
+
+                                            PAGE
+      I THE MERCHANTS' SERVICE
+          OUR FOUNDATION                       3
+          THE STRUCTURE                       14
+
+     II OUR RELATIONS WITH THE NAVY
+          JOINING FORCES                      21
+          AT SEA                              26
+          OUR WAR STAFF                       30
+
+    III THE LONGSHORE VIEW                    44
+
+     IV CONNECTION WITH THE STATE
+          TRINITY HOUSE, OUR ALMA MATER       53
+          THE BOARD OF TRADE                  61
+
+      V MANNING                               67
+
+
+  PART II
+
+     VI THE COASTAL SERVICES
+          THE HOME TRADE                      77
+          PILOTS                              87
+          LIGHTSHIPS                          91
+
+    VII 'THE PRICE O' FISH'                   97
+
+   VIII THE RATE OF EXCHANGE                 103
+
+     IX INDEPENDENT SAILINGS                 110
+
+      X BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK           116
+
+     XI ON SIGNALS AND WIRELESS              120
+
+    XII TRANSPORT SERVICES                   125
+          INTERLUDE                          132
+          'THE MAN-O'-WAR'S 'ER 'USBAND'     134
+
+   XIII THE SALVAGE SECTION
+          THE TIDEMASTERS                    141
+          A DAY ON THE SHOALS                147
+          THE DRY DOCK                       156
+
+    XIV ON CAMOUFLAGE--AND SHIPS' NAMES      163
+
+     XV FLAGS AND BROTHERHOOD OF THE SEA     169
+
+
+  PART III
+
+    XVI THE CONVOY SYSTEM                    177
+
+   XVII OUTWARD BOUND                        184
+
+  XVIII RENDEZVOUS                           190
+
+    XIX CONFERENCE                           198
+
+     XX THE SAILING
+          FOG, AND THE TURN OF THE TIDE      205
+          'IN EXECUTION OF PREVIOUS ORDERS'  212
+
+    XXI THE NORTH RIVER                      217
+
+   XXII HOMEWARDS
+          THE ARGONAUTS                      224
+          ON OCEAN PASSAGE                   230
+          'ONE LIGHT ON ALL FACES'           236
+
+  XXIII 'DELIVERING THE GOODS'               244
+
+   XXIV CONCLUSION: 'M N'                    252
+
+
+  APPENDIX                                   255
+
+  INDEX                                      257
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                    PAGE
+
+  MERCHANTMEN AT GUN PRACTICE              _Frontispiece_
+
+  THE CLYDE FROM THE TOWER OF THE CLYDE TRUST
+        BUILDINGS                                      xi
+
+  GRAVESEND: A MERCHANTMAN OUTWARD BOUND                3
+
+  THE BRIDGE OF A MERCHANTMAN                           7
+
+  THE OLD AND THE NEW: THE _MARGARET_ OF DUBLIN
+        AND R.M.S. _TUSCANIA_                          15
+
+  IN A MERCHANTMAN--BOMB-THROWER PRACTICE              21
+
+  A BRITISH SUBMARINE DETAILED FOR INSTRUCTION OF
+        MERCHANT OFFICERS                              31
+
+  THE D.A.M.S. GUNWHARF AT GLASGOW                     33
+
+  INSTRUCTIONAL ANTI-SUBMARINE COURSE FOR MERCHANT
+        OFFICERS AT GLASGOW                            39
+
+  THE LOSS OF A LINER                                  44
+
+  THE MERSEY FROM THE LIVER BUILDINGS, LIVERPOOL       49
+
+  THE MASTER OF THE GULL LIGHTSHIP WRITING THE LOG     53
+
+  AT GRAVESEND: PILOTS AWAITING AN INWARD-BOUND
+        CONVOY                                         59
+
+  TRANSPORTS LEAVING SOUTHAMPTON ON THE NIGHT
+        PASSAGE TO FRANCE                              67
+
+  LIVERPOOL: MERCHANTMEN SIGNING ON FOR OVERSEA
+        VOYAGES                                        69
+
+  THE RULER OF PILOTS AT DEAL                          77
+
+  A HEAVILY ARMED COASTING BARGE                       83
+
+  THE LAMPMAN OF THE GULL LIGHTSHIP                    93
+
+  MINESWEEPERS GOING OUT                               97
+
+  SOUTHAMPTON WATER                                   103
+
+  'OUT-BOATS' IN A MERCHANTMAN                        105
+
+  FIREMEN STANDING BY TO RELIEVE THE WATCH            111
+
+  QUEEN'S DOCK, GLASGOW                               116
+
+  THE BRIDGE-BOY REPAIRING FLAGS                      121
+
+  A TRANSPORT EMBARKING TROOPS FOR FRANCE             125
+
+  TRANSPORTS IN SOUTHAMPTON DOCKS                     129
+
+  THE _LEVIATHAN_ DOCKING AT LIVERPOOL                135
+
+  SALVAGE VESSELS OFF YARMOUTH, ISLE OF WIGHT         141
+
+  IN A SALVAGE VESSEL: OVERHAULING THE INSULATION
+        OF THE POWER LEADS                            145
+
+  A TORPEDOED MERCHANTMAN ON THE SHOALS: SALVAGE
+        OFFICERS MAKING A SURVEY                      151
+
+  A TORPEDOED SHIP IN DRY DOCK                        157
+
+  DAZZLE                                              163
+
+  AN APPRENTICE IN THE MERCHANTS' SERVICE             171
+
+  A STANDARD SHIP AT SEA                              177
+
+  BUILDING A STANDARD SHIP                            179
+
+  THE THAMES ESTUARY IN WAR-TIME                      184
+
+  DROPPING THE PILOT                                  187
+
+  EXAMINATION SERVICE PATROL BOARDING AN INCOMING
+        STEAMER                                       190
+
+  DAWN: CONVOY PREPARING TO PUT TO SEA                193
+
+  EVENING: PLYMOUTH HOE                               198
+
+  A CONVOY CONFERENCE                                 201
+
+  THE OLD HARBOUR, PLYMOUTH                           205
+
+  CONVOY SAILING FROM PLYMOUTH SOUND                  207
+
+  INWARD BOUND                                        217
+
+  A TRANSPORT LOADING                                 219
+
+  A CONVOY IN THE ATLANTIC                            224
+
+  THE BOWS OF THE _KASHMIR_ DAMAGED BY COLLISION      227
+
+  THE MAYFLOWER QUAY, THE BARBICAN, PLYMOUTH          233
+
+  EVENING: THE MERSEY FROM THE LANDING-STAGE          241
+
+  THE STEERSMAN                                       243
+
+  THE WORK OF A TORPEDO                               244
+
+  TRANSPORTS DISCHARGING IN LIVERPOOL DOCKS           245
+
+  TROOP TRANSPORTS DISEMBARKING AT THE
+        LANDING-STAGE, LIVERPOOL                      249
+
+  'M N'                                               252
+
+[Illustration: THE CLYDE FROM THE TOWER OF THE CLYDE TRUST BUILDINGS]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+WRITTEN largely between the shipping crisis of 1917 and the surrender of
+German undersea arms at Harwich on November 20, 1918, this book is an
+effort to record a seaman's impressions of the trial through which the
+Merchants' Service has come in the war.
+
+It is necessarily halting and incomplete. The extent of the subject is
+perhaps beyond the safe traverse of a mariner's dead reckoning. Policies
+of governmental control and of the economics of our management do not
+come within the scope of the book except as text to the diary of
+seafaring. Out at sea it is not easy to keep the right proportions in
+forming an opinion of measures devised on a grand scale, and of the
+operation of which we see only a small part. Our slender thread of
+communication with longshore happenings is often broken, and
+understanding is warped by conjecture.
+
+In pride of his ancient trade, the seaman may perceive an importance and
+vital instrumentality in the ships and their voyages that may not be so
+evident to the landsman. By this is the mariner constantly impressed:
+that, without the merchant's enterprise on the sea--the adventure of his
+finance, his ships, his gear, his men--the armed and enlisted resources
+of the State could not have prevailed in averting disaster and defeat.
+
+The unique experiences of individual seamen--the trials of seafaring
+under less favourable circumstances than was the writer's good
+fortune--the plaints and grievances of our internal affairs--are but
+lightly sketched. Many brother seamen may feel that the harassing and
+often despairing case of the average tramp steamer has not adequately
+been dealt with; that--in "Outward Bound," as an instance--the writer
+presents a tranquil and idyllic picture which cannot be accepted as
+typical. The bitter hardship of proceeding on a voyage under war
+conditions, with the same small crew that was found inadequate in
+peace-time, is hardly suggested; the extent of the work to be overtaken
+is perhaps camouflaged in that description of setting out. Reality would
+more frequently show a vessel being hurried out of dock on the top of
+the tide, putting to sea into heavy weather, with the hatchways open
+over hasty stowage, and all the litter of a week's harbour disroutine
+standing to be cleared by a raw and semi-mutinous crew.
+
+Criticism on these grounds is just: but it was ever the seaman's custom
+to dismiss heavy weather--when it was past and gone--and recall only the
+fine days of smooth sailing. If the hard times of our strain and
+labouring are not wholly over, at least we have fallen in with a more
+favouring wind from the land. Conditions in the Merchants' Service are
+vastly improved since Germany challenged our right to pass freely on our
+lawful occasions. Relations between the owner and the seamen are less
+strained. Remuneration for sea-service is now more adequate. The sullen
+atmosphere of harsh treatment on the one hand, and grudging service on
+the other, has been cleared away by the hurricane threat to our common
+interests.
+
+Throughout the book there are some few extracts--all indicated by
+quotation marks--from the works of modern authors. The writer wishes to
+acknowledge their use and to mention the following: "Trinity House," by
+Walter H. Mayo; "The Sea," by F. Whymper; "The Merchant Seamen in War,"
+by L. Cope Cornford; "Fleets behind the Fleet," by W. Macneile Dixon;
+"North Sea Fishers and Fighters" and "Fishermen in Wartime," both by
+Walter Wood; the pages of the _Nautical Magazine_.
+
+The grateful thanks of writer and artist are tendered to Rear-Admiral
+Sir Douglas Brownrigg, Chief Naval Censor, and to Lord Beaverbrook and
+Mr. Arnold Bennett, of the Ministry of Information, for facilities and
+kindly assistance in preparation of the work. The writer's indebtedness
+to his Owners for encouragement and for generous leave of absence
+(without which the book could not have been written) is especially
+acknowledged.
+
+Mr. Muirhead Bone's drawings reproduced in this book were executed
+during the war for the Ministry of Information with the co-operation of
+the Admiralty. They are now in the possession of the Imperial War
+Museum. With the exception of the illustrations on pages 44, 224, and
+252, these drawings were made on the spot.
+
+                                                      DAVID W. BONE
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+[Illustration: GRAVESEND: A MERCHANTMAN OUTWARD BOUND]
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE MERCHANTS' SERVICE
+
+
+OUR FOUNDATION
+
+ALTHOUGH sea-interest of to-day finds an expression somewhat trite and
+familiar, the spell of the ships and the romance of voyaging drew an
+instant and wondering recognition from the older chroniclers. With a
+sure sense of right emphasis, yet observing an austere simplicity, they
+preserved for us an eloquent and adequate impression of the vital power
+of the ships. One outstanding fact remains constantly impressed in their
+records--that our island gates are set fast on the limits of tide-mark,
+leaving no way out but by passage of the misty sea-line; there is no
+gangway to a foreign field other than the planking of our vessels.
+
+Grandeur of the fleets, the might of sea-ordnance, the intense dramatic
+decision of a landing, stand out in the great pieces the early writers
+and painters designed. Brave kingly figures wind in and out against the
+predominant background of rude hulls and rigging and weathered sails.
+The outline of the ships and the ungainly figures of the mariners are
+definitely placed to impel our thoughts to the distant sea-marches.
+
+Happily for us, the passengers of early days included clerks and learned
+men on their pilgrimages, else we had known but little of bygone ship
+life. With interest narrowed by bounds of the bulwarks, they noted and
+recorded a worthy description. In the mystery of unknown seas, as in
+detail of the sea-tackle and the forms and usages of the ship, they
+penned a perfect register: down to the tunnage of the butts, we know the
+ships--to the 'goun of faldying' and the extent of their lodemanage, we
+recognize the men.
+
+At later date we come on the seaman and his ships recorded and portrayed
+with a loving enthusiasm. Richard Hakluyt--"with great charges and
+infinite cares, after many watchings, toiles and travels, and wearying
+out" of his weak body--sets out for us a wonderful chronicle of the
+shipping to his day. He grew familiarly acquainted with the chiefest
+'Captaines,' the greatest merchants, and the best mariners of our
+nation, and acquired at first hand somewhat more than common knowledge
+of the sea. He saw not only the waving banners of sea-warriors and the
+magnificence of their martial encounters, but lauded victory in far
+voyages, the opening to commerce of distant lands, the hardihood of the
+Merchant Venturers. He realized the value of the seaman to the nation,
+not alone to fight battles on the sea, but as skilful navigators to
+further trade and intercourse. He was not ignorant "that shippes are to
+litle purpose without skillfull Sea-men; and since Sea-men are not bred
+up to perfection of skill in much lesse time than in the time of two
+prentiships; and since no kinde of men of any profession in the
+commonwealth passe their yeres in so great and continuall hazard of
+life; and since of so many, so few grow to gray heires; how needful it
+is that . . . these ought to have a better education, than hitherto they
+have had."
+
+His matchless patience and care and exactitude were only equalled by his
+pride in the doings of the seamen and the merchants. With a joyful
+humility he exults in the hoisting of our banners in the Caspian
+Sea--not as robber marauders, but as peaceful traders under licence and
+ambassade--at the station of an English Ligier in the stately porch of
+the Grand Signior at Constantinople, at consulates at Tripolis and
+Aleppo, in Babylon and Balsara--"and which is more, at English Shippes
+coming to anker in the mighty river of Plate." In script and tabulation
+he glories in the tale of the ships, and sets out the names and stations
+of humble merchant supercargoes with the same meticulous care as the
+rank and titles of the Captain-General of the Armada.
+
+Alas! There was none to set a similarly gifted hand to the further
+course of his lone furrow. Purchas tried, but there was no great love of
+his subject-matter to spread a glamour on the pages. Perhaps the
+magnitude of the task, ever growing and gathering, and the minute and
+unwearying succession of Hakluyt's "Navigations and Traffiques,"
+discouraged and deterred less ardent followers. Of voyages and
+expeditions and discoveries there are volumes enough, but few such
+intimate records as "the Oathe ministered to the servants of the
+Muscovie company," or the instructions given by the Merchant Adventurers
+unto Richard Gibbs, William Biggatt, and John Backhouse, masters of
+their ships, have been written since Hakluyt turned his last page.
+
+As outposts to our field, roving bands on a frontier that rises and
+falls with the tide, the seamen were ever the first to apprehend the
+mutterings of war. With but little needed to set spark to the torch,
+they came in to foreign seaport or littoral with a fine confidence in
+their ships and arms. Truculent perhaps, and overbearing in their pride
+of long voyaging over a mysterious and threatening sea, they were hardly
+the ambassadors to aid settlement of a dispute by frank goodwill and
+prudence. Sailing outwith the confines of ordered government, their
+lawless outlook and freebooting found a ready rejoinder in restraint of
+trade and arbitrary imprisonment. Long wars had their seed in tavern
+brawls, enforcement "to stoope gallant [lower topsail] and vaile their
+bonets" for a puissant king or queen, brought a reckoning of strife and
+bloodshed.
+
+Although military sea-captains, the glory of their victories, the
+worthiness of their ships and appurtenances, figure largely on the pages
+of subsequent sea-history, not a great deal has been written of the
+sailor captains and their mates and crews. Later chroniclers were
+concerned that their subjects should be grand and combatant: there was
+little room in their text for trading ventures, or for such humble
+recitals as the tale and values of hogshead or caisse or bale. A line of
+demarcation was slowly but inevitably ruling a division of our
+sea-forces. The service of the ships, devoted indifferently to
+sea-warfare or oversea trading--as the nation might be at war or
+peace--was in process of adjustment to meet the demands of a new
+sea-attack. The vessels were no longer merely floating platforms from
+which a military leader could direct a plan of rude assault and engage
+the arms of his soldiery, leaving to the masters and seamen the duty of
+handling the way of the ship. A new aristocracy had arisen from the
+decks who saw, in the pull of their sails, a weapon more powerful than
+shock ordnance, and resented the dictation of landsmen on their own
+sea-province. Sea-warfare had become a contest, more of seamanship and
+manoeuvre, less of stunning impact and a weight of military arms.
+
+In division of the ships and their service, it may quite properly be
+claimed that the Merchants' Service remained the parent trunk from
+which the new Navy--a gallant growing limb--drew sap and sustenance,
+perhaps, in turn, improving the growth of the grand old tree. Certainly
+their service was an offshoot, for, since Henry VIII ordered laying of
+the first especial war keel, the sea-battles to the present day have
+been largely joined by the ships and men and furniture of the merchants,
+carrying on in the historic traditional manner of a fight when there was
+fighting to be done, a return to trade and enterprise when the great
+sea-roads were cleared to commerce. Stout old Sir John Hawkins,
+Frobisher, Drake, Davis, Amadas, and Barlow were merchant masters,
+shrewd at a venture, in intervals of, and combination with, their deeds
+of arms. Only a small proportion of State ships were in issue with the
+merchants' men to scourge the great Armada from our shores. Perhaps the
+existence of such a vast reserve in ships and men delayed the progress
+of purely naval construction. Only with the coming of steam was the line
+drawn sharply and definitely--the branch outgrowing the interlock of the
+parent stem.
+
+With partial severance and division of the ships, the seamen--who had
+been for so long of one breed, laying down sail-needle and caulking-iron
+to serve ordnance and hand-cutlass or boarding-pike--had reached a
+parting of the ways, and become naval or mercantile as their habits lay.
+The State war vessels, built and manned and maintained for strictly
+military uses, increased in strength and numbers. Their officers and
+crews developed a new seamanship and discipline that had little
+counterpart on the commercial vessels. For a time the two services
+sailed, if not in company, within sight and hail of one another. On
+occasion they joined to effect glorious issues, but, with the last
+broadside of war, courses were set that quickly swerved the fleets
+apart.
+
+Longer terms of peace gave opportunity for development on lines that
+were as poles apart. The Naval Service perfected and exercised their
+engines of war, and drilled and seasoned their men to automaton-like
+subservience to their plans. A broadening to democratic freedom,
+quickened by familiar intercourse with other nationals, had effect with
+the merchantmen in rousing a reluctance to a resort to arms; they
+desired but a free continuance of trading relations. Although differing
+in their operations and ideals, both services were striving to enhance
+the sea-power of the nation. Thomas Cavendish, Middleton, Monson,
+Hudson, and Baffin--merchant masters--explored the unknown and extended
+a field for mercantile ventures, but that field could have been but
+indifferently maintained if naval power had not been advanced to protect
+the merchantmen in their voyaging.
+
+[Illustration: THE BRIDGE OF A MERCHANTMAN]
+
+As their separation developed, relations grew the more distant between
+the seamen. While certainly protecting the traders from any foreign
+interference, the new Navy did little to effect a community of
+interest with their sea-fellows. Prejudices and distrust grew up. State
+jealousies and trade monopolies formed a confusion of interests and made
+for strained relations between the merchants and the naval chancelleries
+on shore. At sea, the arbitrary exercise of authority by the King's
+officers was opposed by revolutionary instincts for a free sea on the
+part of the merchants' seamen. Forcible impressment to naval service was
+the worst that could befall the traders' men. For want of energy or
+ability to carry through the drudgery of early sea-training, the naval
+officers took toll of the practised commercial seamen as they came in
+from sea. Bitter hardship set wedge to the cleavage. After long and
+perilous voyaging, absent from a home port for perhaps two or three
+years, the homeward-bound sailor had little chance of being allowed a
+term of liberty on shore--a brief landward turn to dissolve the salt
+casing of his bones. Within sound of his own church bells, in sight of
+the windmills and the fields and the home dwelling he had longed for, he
+was haled to hard and rigorous sea-service on vessels of war. The
+records of the East India Company have frequent references to this cruel
+exercise of naval tyranny.
+
+          "On Thursday morning the Directors received the
+          agreeable news of the safe arrival of the
+          _Devonshire_, Captain Prince, from Bengal. . . .
+          Her men have all been impressed by the Men-of-War
+          in the Downs, and other hands were put on board
+          to bring her up to her moorings in the River."
+
+          ". . . On Sunday morning the Purser of the
+          _William_, Captain Petre, arrived in town, who
+          brought advice of the said ship in the Downs,
+          richly laden, on Account of the Turkey Company:
+          the Ships of War in the Downs impressed all her
+          men, and put others on board to bring her up."
+
+          "Notwithstanding the Report spread about, fourteen
+          days ago, that no more sailors would be impressed
+          out of the homeward-bound ships, several ships
+          that arrived last week had all their men taken
+          from them in the Downs."
+
+Serving by turns, as his agility to dodge the gangs was rated, on King's
+ship for a turn, then hauling bowline on a free vessel; forced and
+hunted and impressed, the shipmen had perhaps sorry records to offer the
+historian, then busy with the enthralling chronicles of fleet
+engagements and veiling with glamour the toll of battles. Perhaps it
+was, after all, the better course to preserve a silence on the traders'
+doings and leave to romantic conjecture a continuance of Hakluyt's
+patient story.
+
+Since the date of naval offgrowth, the chronicles have not often turned
+on our commercial path. Lone voyages and encounters with the sea and
+storm are minor enterprises to the sack of cities and the clash of arms
+at sea. Unlike the Naval Service, we merchants' men hold few recorded
+titles to our keystone in the national fabric. The deeds and documents
+may exist, but they are lost to us and forgotten in the files of musty
+ledgers. The fruits of our efforts stand in the balances of commercial
+structure, and are perhaps more enduring than a roll of record. But, if
+we are insistent in our search, we may borrow from the naval charters,
+and read that not all the glory of our sea-history lies with the thunder
+of broadsides and the impact of a close boarding. Engagement with the
+elements--a contest with powers more cruel and implacable than keen
+steel--efforts to further able navigation, the standard of our
+seamanship--drew notable recruits to the humbler sea-life. The small
+crews and less lavish gear on the freighters brought the essentials of
+the sea-trade to each individual of the ship's company. Idlers and
+landsmen learned quickly and bitterly that their only claim to existence
+on a merchant's ship lay in a rapid acquisition of a skill in
+seamanship. The lessons and the threats and enforcements did not come
+wholly from their superiors, to whose tyranny they might expose a sullen
+obstinance, and gain, perhaps, a measure of sympathy from their rude
+sea-fellows. Then--as later, in the keen sailing days of our clipper
+ships--their hardest taskmasters were foremast hands, watchmates, the
+men they lived with and ate with and worked with--bitter critics,
+unpersuadable, who saw only menace and a threat to their own safety in
+the shipping of a man who could not do man's work. On the decks and
+about the spars of a merchant vessel, each man of the few seamen carried
+two lives--his own and a shipmate's--in his ability to 'hand, reef, and
+steer.' There was no place on board for a 'waister,' a 'swabber,'
+longshoreman, or sea labourer. Every man had quickly to prove his
+ability: the unrelenting sea gave time for few essays.
+
+Fertility of resource, dexterity to serve at all duties, skill at
+handling ship and canvas, were the results of sea-ship training. In the
+merchantmen great opportunities offered for advancement in all branches
+of the seaman's art. Long voyaging was better exercise for a progression
+in navigation than the daily pilotage of the war vessels. Blake, in his
+early days as a merchant supercargo, learnt his seafaring on rough
+trading voyages, and his training could not have been other than sound
+to persist, through twenty years shore-dwelling as a merchant at
+Bridgwater, until he was called from his counting-house to command our
+naval forces. Dampier was a tarry foremast hand in his day: whatever we
+may judge of his conduct, we can have nothing but admiration for his
+seamanship. Ill-equipped and short-handed, racked by sea-sores and
+scurvy, his expeditions were unparalleled as a triumph of merchant
+sea-skill. James Cook learned his trade on the grimy hull of an
+east-coast collier--to this day we are working on charts of his masterly
+surveys.
+
+In later years the merit of the trading vessels as sterling sea-schools
+was equally plain. During intervals of combatant service, or as prelude
+to a naval career, training on the merchants' ships was eagerly sought
+by ardent naval seamen who saw the value of its resource in practical
+seamanship, in navigation, and weather knowledge. Great captains did not
+disdain the measure of the instruction. They sent their heirs to sea in
+trading vessels to draw an essence in practice from their sea-cunning.
+Hardy, Foley, and Berry had borne a hand at the sheets and braces, and
+had steered a lading of goods abroad, before they came to high command
+of the King's ships. Who knows what actions in the victories of
+Copenhagen, the Nile, and Trafalgar (hinged on the cast of the winds)
+were governed by Nelson's early sea-lessons, under Master John Rathbone,
+on the decks of a West India merchantman?
+
+For long after, relations and interchange between the two Services were
+not so intimate. Until coming of the Great War, with a mutual
+appreciation, we had little in common. Our friend and peacemaker--the
+influence of seafaring under square sail--languished a while, then died.
+In steam-power, with its growth of development and intricacy of
+application, we found no worthy successor to present as good an office.
+In the long span of a hundred years of sea-peace we grew apart. The gulf
+between the two great Services widened to a breach that only the rigours
+of a world-conflict could reconcile.
+
+As though exhausted by the indefinite sea-campaign of 1812, the Royal
+Navy lay on their oars and saw their commercial sea-fellows forge ahead
+on a course that revolutionized sea-transport and sea-warfare alike. The
+Lords of the Admiralty would listen to no deprecation of their gallant
+old wooden walls: steam propulsion was laughed at. To the Merchants'
+Service they left the risk and the responsibility of venturing afar in
+the rude new ships. In this wise, to us fell the honour of leading the
+State service to a new order of seafaring. Iron hulls and steam
+propulsion came first under our hands. It was not long before our new
+command of the sea was noted. Somewhat grudgingly, the conservative
+sea-mandarins were brought to a knowledge that their torpor was fatal.
+The Navy stirred and lost little time in traversing the leeway. They
+progressed on a path of experiment and probation suited to their needs,
+striving to construct mightier vessels and to forge new and greater
+arms. Exploring every avenue in their quest for aid and material, every
+byway for furtherance of their aims, they drew strange road-fellows
+within their ranks, new workmen to the sea. The engines of their
+adoption called for crafty hands to serve and adjust them. Steam we knew
+in our time and could understand, but auxiliary mechanics outgrew the
+limits of our comprehension; naval practice became a science outwith the
+bounds of our sea-lore, a new trade, whose only likeness to ours lay in
+its service on the same wide sea.
+
+Parted from the need to draw arms, secure in the knowledge of adequate
+naval protection, the Merchants' Service developed their ships and
+tackle in the ways of a free world trade. By shrewd engagement and
+industry in the counting-house, diligence and forethought in the
+building-yards, keen sailing and efficiency on the sea, the structure of
+our maritime supremacy was built up and maintained. Monopolies and
+hindering trade reservations and restrictions barred the way, but
+yielded to the spirit of our progress. Vested interests in seas and
+continents had to be fought and conquered, and there was room and scope
+for lingering combative instincts in the keen competition that arose for
+the world's carrying trade. Other nations came on the free seas, secure
+in the peace our arms had wrought, and entered the lists against us. The
+challenge to our seafaring we met by skill and hardihood--keener and
+more polished arms than the weapons of our sea-fathers. The coming of
+competitors spurred us to sea-deeds in the handling of our ships and
+cargoes, dispatch in the ports, and activity in the yards, that brought
+acknowledged victory to our flag. Every sense and thought that was in us
+was used to further our supremacy. The craft and workmanship of the
+builders and enterprise of the merchants provided us with the most
+beautiful of man's creations on the sea--the square-rigged sailing ship
+of the nineteenth century. With pride we sailed her. We, too, brought
+science to our calling; rude, perhaps, and not readily defined save by a
+long, hard pupilage. Not less than the calibre of the new naval ordnance
+was the measure of our sail spread, not inferior to ironclad hulls the
+speed and beauty of our clippers--we paralleled the roads of their
+strategy by the masterly handling of a cloud in sail. With a regularity
+and precision as noted as our naval sea-brothers' advance in gunfire, we
+served the trade and the mails, and spread the flood of emigration to
+the rise and glory of the Empire.
+
+With the decline of square sail, a new way of seafaring opened to us. In
+the first of our steam pioneering, we took our yards and canvas with us,
+as good part of our sea-kit; a safe provision, as we thought, against
+the inevitable failure we looked for in the new navigation. We were
+conservatively jealous of our gallant top hamper, and scorned the
+promise of a power that only dimly as yet we understood. But--the
+promise held. In a few years we became converts to the new order, in
+which we found a greater security, a more definite reliance, than in the
+angles of our sail plane. There was no longer a need for our precious
+'stand by,' and we unrigged the wind tackle and accepted our new
+shipmate, the marine engineer, as a worthy brother seaman. It was not
+only the spars and the cordage and the sails we put ashore. With all
+the gallant litter we unloaded, condemned to the junk-heap, went a part
+of our seamanship as closely woven to the canvas as the seams our hands
+had sewn.
+
+In steam practice, new problems required to be studied and resolved;
+challenges to our vaunted sea-lore came up that called for radical
+revision of older methods and ideas. Changes, as wide and drastic as the
+evolutions of a decade in sail, were presented in a swift succession of
+as many days. With eyes now turned from aloft to ahead, we retyped our
+seamanship to meet the altered conditions of the veer in our outlook.
+Unhelped, if unhindered, in our efforts, we adapted our calling to the
+sudden and revolutionary innovations in construction and power of the
+new ships. We grew sensible of gaps in our knowledge, of voids in
+education that our earlier handicraft had not revealed. Severed, by
+press of our sea-work, from the facilities for study that now offered
+advancement to the landsman, we sought in alert and constant practice a
+substitute for technical instruction. By step and stride and canter we
+jockeyed each new starter from the shipyards, and studied their paces
+and behaviour on the vexed testing courses of the open sea. If our
+methods were rude in trial, they settled to efficiency in service. We
+paced in step with the rapid developments of the shipwright's art, the
+not less active contrivance of the engineers. We kept no man waiting for
+a sea-controller to his new and untried machine: there was no whistling
+for a pilot on the grounds of our reaches. From oversea dredger and
+frail harbour tug to the magnitude of an _Aquitania_, we were ever ready
+to board her on the launching ways and steer her to the limits of her
+draught.
+
+A Hakluyt of the day would have a full measure for his enthusiasm in the
+shear of our keels on every sea, the flutter of our flags to all the
+winds. By virtue of worthy vessels and good seamanship, the Red Ensign
+was devoted to a world service; by good guardianship and commercial
+rectitude the Merchants' Service held charge of the world's wealth in
+transport--the burden of the ships. All nations put trust in us for
+sea-carriage. The Spanish onion-grower on the slopes of Valencia, the
+Java sugar merchants, the breeders of Plata, looked to their harbours
+for sight of our hulls to load their products. Greek boatmen took
+payment for their cases on a scrap of dingy paper; the tide-labourers of
+the world demanded no earnest of their fees ere setting to work--our
+flag was their guarantor. The incoming of our ships brought throng to
+the quay-sides of far seaports; the outgoing sent the prospering
+merchants to the bank counters, to draw value from our skill in
+navigation, our integrity, and sea-care.
+
+
+THE STRUCTURE
+
+THE avalanche of war found us, if unprepared, not unready. The
+Merchants' Service was in the most efficient state of all its long
+story. Bounteous harvests had set a tide of prosperity to all parts of
+the world. Trade had reached the summit of a register in volume and
+account. The transport of the world's goods was busied as never before.
+With every outward stern wash went a full lading of our manufactures--a
+bulk of coal, a mass of wrought steel; foam at the bows--returning,
+brought exchange in food and raw materials, grist to the mills of our
+toiling artisans--a further provision for continuation of our trading.
+There were no idle keels swinging the tides in harbour for want of
+profitable employment; no seamen lounging on the dockside streets
+awaiting a 'sight' to sign-on for a voyage. Bulk of cargoes exceeded the
+tonnage of the ships, and the riverside shipyards resounded to the busy
+clamour of new construction. Advanced systems of propulsion had emerged
+from tentative stages, were fully tried and proved, and owners were
+adding to their fleets the latest and largest vessels that art of
+shipwrights and skill of the engineers could supply. We were well built
+and well found and well employed in all respects, not unready for any
+part that called us to sea.
+
+On such a stage the gage was thrown. Right on the heels of the courier
+with challenge accepted, went the ships laden with a new and precious
+cargo--our gallant men-at-arms. Before a shot of ours was fired, the
+first blow in the conflict was swung by passage of the ships: throughout
+the length of it, only by the sea-lanes could the shock be maintained.
+
+Viewing the numbers and tonnage of the ships, the roll and character of
+the seamen, we were not uneasy for the sea-front. With the most powerful
+war fleet in the world boarding on the coasts of the enemy, we had
+little to fear. The transports and war-service vessels could be
+adequately safeguarded: the peaceful traders on their lawful occasions
+could trust in international law of the civilized seas, on which no
+destruction may be effected without cause, prefaced by examination. Of
+raiders and detached war units there might be some apprehension, but the
+White Ensign was abroad and watchful--it was impossible that the shafts
+of the enemy could reach us on the sea. For a time we set out on our
+voyages and returned without interference.
+
+[Illustration: THE OLD AND THE NEW
+
+THE _MARGARET_ OF DUBLIN AND R.M.S. _TUSCANIA_]
+
+Anon, an amazing circumstance shocked our blythe assurance. In a new
+warfare, by traverse of a route we thought was barred, the impossible
+became a stern reality! While able, by power of their ships and skill
+and gallantry of the men, to keep the surface naval forces of the
+enemy doomed to ignoble harbour watch, the mightiest war fleet the seas
+had ever carried was impotent wholly to protect us! Our Achilles heel
+was exposed to merciless under-water attack, to a new weapon, deadly in
+precision and difficult to counter or evade. Throwing to the winds all
+shreds of honour and conscionable restraint, all vestiges of a
+sea-respect for non-combatants and neutrals, the pacts and bounds of
+international law--the humane sea-usages that spared women and children
+and stricken wounded--the decivilized German set up the banners of a
+stark piracy, an ocean anarchy, to whose lieutenants the sea-wolves of
+an earlier age were but feeble enervated weaklings.
+
+Piracy, gloried in and undisguised, faced us. Well and definite! We had
+known piracy in the long years of our sea-history: we had dealt with
+their trade to a full settlement at yard-arm or gallows. The course of
+our seafaring was not to be arrested by even the deep roots and deadly
+poison of this not unknown sea-growth: we had scaled the foul barnacles
+and cut the rank weeds before in the course of sea-development. If our
+ways had become peaceful in the long years of unchallenged trading, our
+habits were never less than combatant throughout a life of struggle with
+storm and tide. Not while we had a ship and a man to the helm would we
+be driven from the sea; our hard-won heritage was not to be delivered
+under threat or operation of even the most surpassing frightfulness.
+Jealousy for our seafaring, for our name as sailors, forbade that we
+should skulk in harbour or linger behind the nets and booms. Our work,
+our livelihood, our proud sea-trade, our honour was on the open sea. Our
+pride was this--that, in our action, we would be followed by the
+seafarers of the world. It was for no idle vaunt we boasted our
+supremacy at sea. If we could take first place of the world's seamen in
+time of peace, our station was to lead in war. We put out to sea--the
+neutrals followed. Had we held to port, German orders would have halted
+the sea-traffic of the world. With no shield but our seamanship, no
+weapon but the keenness of our eyes, no power of defence or assault
+other than the swing of a ready helm, we met the pirates on the sea,
+with little pretension in victory and no whining in defeat.
+
+Challenged to stand and submit, the _Vosges_ answered with a cant of the
+helm and hoist of her flag, and stood on her way under a merciless hail
+of shot. Unarmed, outsped, there was little prospect of escape--only, in
+an obstinate sea-pride, lay acceptance of the challenge. With decks
+littered by wreckage and wounded, bridge swept by shrapnel, water making
+through her torn hull, there was no thought to lay-to and droop the flag
+in surrender. When, at length, the ensign was shot away, there were men
+enough to hoist another. In hours their agony was measured, until, in
+despair of completing his foul work, the enemy gave up the contest.
+Reeking of the combat, the _Vosges_ foundered under her wounds. The sea
+took her from her gallant crew, but they had not given up the
+ship--their flag still fluttered at the peak as she went down.
+_Anglo-Californian_ fought a grim, silent fight for four hours, matching
+the intensity of the German gunfire by the dogged quality of her mute
+defiance. _Palm Branch_ turned away from galling fire at short range,
+double-banked the press in the stokehold, and cut and turned on her
+course to confuse the ranges. Her stern was shattered by shell, the
+lifeboats blown away; the apprentice at the wheel stood to his job with
+blood running in his eyes. Fire broke out and added a new terror to the
+situation. There was no flinching. Through it all the engines turned
+steadily, driven to their utmost speed by the engineers and firemen. A
+one-sided affair--a floating hell for seamen to stand by, helpless, and
+take a frightful gruelling! But they stood to it, and came to port.
+
+If, under new and treacherous blows, our hearts beat the faster, there
+was little pause, no stoppage, in the steady coursing of our
+sea-arteries. We fought the menace with the same spirit our old
+sea-fathers knew. Undeterred by the ghastly handicap against us--the
+galling fetters of a policy that kept us unarmed, we pitted our brains
+and seamanship against the murderous mechanics of the enemy. To the new
+under-water attack there were few adequate counter-measures in the
+records of our old seafaring. We revised the standard manual, drew text
+from old games, shield from the cuttlefish, models for our sweeps from
+discarded sea-tackle. Special devices, new plans, stern services were
+called for; we devised, we specialized--our readiness was never more
+instant. Out of our strength we built up a new Service. Instruction and
+equipment came from the Royal Navy, but the men were ours. In the throes
+of our exertions the Merchants' Service repeated a tradition. The stout
+aged tree shot forth another worthy limb--a second Navy--not less ardent
+or resourceful than the first offshoot, now grown to be our guardian.
+
+Our branches twined and interlocked in service of a joint endeavour.
+Under the fierce blast of war we swayed and weighed together in shield
+of our ancient foundation. Within our ranks we had cunning fishers,
+keen, resolute sea-fighters of the banks, to whom the coming of a
+strange mechanical devil-fish offered a new zest to the chase, a famous
+netting. Enrolled to Special Service, they engaged the enemy at his
+doorstep and patrolled the areas of his outset. Undaunted by the odds,
+deterred by no risk or threat, they ranged and searched the sea-channels
+and cleared the lanes for our safe passage. To detect, to warn, to meet
+and counter-charge the submarine in his depths, to safeguard the narrow
+seas from hazard of the mines, was all in the day's work of the
+_Temporary_ R.N.R.
+
+Throughout all the enrolments, the divisions, the changes, and the
+training for new and special duties, there was no easing of the engines:
+we effected our adjustments and allotments under a full head of steam.
+All that the enemy could do could not prevent the steady reinforcement
+of our arms, the passage of our men, the transport of our trade. The
+long lines of our sea-communications remained unbroken, despite our
+losses and the grim spectre of the raft and the open boat. It could not
+be otherwise--and Britain stand. There could be no halt in the
+sea-traffic. Only from abroad could we draw supplies to raise the new
+leaguer of our island garrison; only by way of the sea could we retain
+and renew our strength.
+
+In time the intolerable shackles of inactive resistance were struck from
+our hands. Somewhat tardily we were supplied with weapons of defence and
+instructed in their use and maintainance. We went to school again, under
+tutelage of the Naval Service, and drew a helpful assistance from the
+tale of their courses since we had parted company. We were heartened by
+the new spirit of co-operation with the fighting service. Ungrudgingly
+they lent experts to direct our movement. They turned a stream of their
+inventive talent in the ways of gear and apparatus to protect our ships.
+They shipped our ordnance, and supplied skilled gunners to leaven our
+rude crews. More, they helped to strip the veneer of convention that
+hampered us--our devotion to standard practice in rules and lights and
+equipment. We learned our lessons. Even though the peaceful years had
+lessened our fighting spring, we had lost no aptitude for service of the
+guns in defence of our rights, nor for measure to deceive or evade.
+Armed and alert, we returned to the sea, confident in the discard of a
+weight in our handicap. We could strike back, and with no feeble
+blow--as the pirates soon learned.
+
+There were scores to settle. _Palm Branch_, belying her tranquil name,
+took a payment in full for her shattered stern and the blood running in
+the steersman's eyes. Keen eyes sighted a periscope in time. The helm
+was put over and the white track raced across the stern, missing by
+feet. Baffled in under-water attack, the enemy hove up from his depths
+to open surface fire. He never had opportunity. If look-out was good,
+gun action was as quick and ready in _Palm Branch_. Her first shot
+struck the conning-tower, the second drove home on the submarine, which
+sank. While all eyes were focused on the settling wash and spreading
+scum of oil, a new challenge came and was as speedily accepted. A shell,
+fired by a second submarine at long range, passed over the steamer.
+Slewing round to a new target, the gunners kept up a steady return, shot
+for shot. The submarine dropped farther astern, fearing the probe of a
+bracket: he angled his course to bring both his guns in action. Two
+pieces against the steamer's one! At that, he fared no better. Firing
+continuously, eighty rounds in less than an hour, he registered not one
+hit.
+
+At length _Palm Branch's_ steady, methodical search for the range had
+effect. Her gunners capped the day's fine shooting by a direct hit on
+the submarine's after-gun, shattering the piece. At evens again--the
+U-boat ceased fire and drew off, possibly under threat of British
+patrols approaching at full speed, more probably for the good and
+sufficient reason that he had had enough.
+
+Not all our contests were as happily decided. If--shirking the issue of
+the guns, with no zest for a square fight--the German went to his
+depths, he had still the deadly torpedo to enforce a toll. The toll we
+paid and are paying, but there is no stoppage in the round by which the
+nation is fed and her arms served. The burden is heavy and our losses
+great, but we have not failed. We dare not fail.
+
+[Illustration: IN A MERCHANTMAN--BOMB-THROWER PRACTICE]
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+OUR RELATIONS WITH THE NAVY
+
+
+JOINING FORCES
+
+AFTER an interval of a hundred years, we are come to work together
+again, banded, as in the days of the Armada, to keep the seas against a
+ruthless challenger. In view of a new blood-bond between us, it is
+difficult to write coldly of the causes that have kept us apart. Only by
+preface of an affirmation can it be made possible. Through all our
+differences, prejudices, envies--perhaps jealousies--there ran at least
+one clear unsullied thread--our admiration for the Navy, our glory in
+its strength and power, our belief in its matchless efficiency.
+
+We seamen, naval or mercantile, are a stout unmovable breed. Tenacity to
+our convictions is deeply rooted. The narrow trends of shipboard life
+give licence to a conservatism that out-Herods Herod in intensity,
+unreason--in utter sophistry. We extend this atmosphere to our
+relationships, to the associations with the beach, with other
+sea-services, with other ships--to the absurd pretensions of the other
+watch. "A sailorman afore a landsman, an' a shipmate afore all," may be
+a useful creed, but it engenders a contentious outlook, an intolerance
+difficult to reconcile. In the fo'c'sle, the upholding of a 'last ship'
+may lead to a broken nose; aft, the officers may quarrel, wordily, over
+the grades of their service; ashore, the captain may only reserve his
+confidences for a peer of his tonnage; over all, the distance between
+the Naval and Merchants' Services was immeasurable and complete.
+
+If it was so to this date, it was perhaps more intense in the old days
+when common seafaring had not set as broad a distinction, as widely
+divergent a sea-practice, as our modern services shew. That such a
+contentious atmosphere existed we have ample witness. After experience
+as a merchants' man, Nelson wrote of his re-entry. "I returned a
+practical seaman with a horror of the Royal Navy. . . . It was many
+weeks before I got the least reconciled to a man-o'-war, so deep was the
+prejudice rooted!" We have no such noted record of a merchant seaman
+re-entering from the Navy. Doubtless the laxity and indiscipline he
+might observe would produce a not dissimilar revulsion.
+
+In the years that have elapsed since Nelson wrote, we have had few
+opportunities to compose our differences, to get on better terms with
+one another. The course of naval development took the great war fleets
+hull down on our commercial horizon, beyond casual intercommunication.
+On rare and widely separated occasions we fell into an expedition
+together, but the unchallenged power of the naval forces only served to
+heighten the barriers that stood between us. At the Crimea, in India, on
+the Chinese and Egyptian expeditions, during the Boer War, we were
+important links in the venture, but no more important than the cargoes
+we ferried. There was no call for any service other than our usual
+sea-work. The Navy saw to it that our comings and goings were
+unmolested. We were sea-civilians, purely and simply; there was nothing
+more to be said about it.
+
+If little was said, it was with no good grace we took such a station.
+There were those who saw that seafaring could not thus arbitrarily be
+divided. Other nations were stirring and striving to a naval strength
+and power, drawing aid and personnel from their mercantile services.
+Sea-strength and paramountcy might not wholly come to be measured in
+terms of thickness of the armour-plating--in calibre of the great guns.
+Auxiliary services would be required. The Navy could no more work
+without us than the Army without a Service Corps.
+
+The Royal Naval Reserve came as a link to our intercourse. Certain of
+our shipmates left us for a period of naval training. They came back
+changed in many particulars. They had acquired a social polish, were
+perhaps less 'sailor-like' in their habits. As a rule they were
+discontented with the way of things in their old ships; the quiet rounds
+bored them after the crowded life in a warship. We were frequently
+reminded of how well and differently things were done in _the_ Service.
+Perhaps, in return, we took the wrong line. We made no effort to sift
+their experiences, to find out how we might improve our ways. Often our
+comrade's own particular shrewdness was cited as a reason for the better
+ways of naval practice. We were rather irritated by the note of
+superiority assumed, perhaps somewhat jealous. Had commissions been
+granted on a competitive basis, we might have accepted such a tone, but
+we had our own way of assessing sea-values, and saw no reason why we
+should stand for these new airs. What was in it, what had wrought the
+change, we were never at pains to investigate. It was enough for us to
+note that, though his watch-keeping was certainly improved, our
+re-entered shipmate did not seem to be as efficient as a navigator or
+cargo supervisor as once we had thought him. All his talk of drills and
+guns and station-keeping considered, he seemed to have quite forgotten
+that groundnuts are thirteen hundredweights to the space ton and ought
+not to be stowed near fine goods!
+
+On the other hand, he might reasonably be expected to see his old
+shipmates in a new light. Rude, perhaps. Of limited ideas. Tied to the
+old round of petty bickerings and small intrigues. He would note the
+want of trusty brotherhood. His sojourn among better-educated men may
+have roused his ideas to an appreciation of values that deep-sea life
+had obscured. The lack of the discipline to which he had become
+accustomed would appal and disquiet him. In time he would be worn to the
+rut again, but who can say the same rut? Unconsciously, we were
+influenced by his quieter manners. In self-study we saw faults that had
+been unnoticed before his return. Reviewing our hard sea-life, we
+recalled our exclusion from benefits of instruction that went a-begging
+on the beach. We stirred. There might yet be time to make up the leeway.
+
+The influence of naval training was never very pronounced among the
+seamen and firemen of the Merchants' Service who were attached to the
+R.N.R. Their periods of training were too short for them to be
+permanently influenced by the discipline of the Navy (or our
+indiscipline on their return to us may have blighted a promising
+growth!) On short-term training they were rarely allotted to important
+work. The governing attitude was rather that they should be used as
+auxiliaries, mercantile handymen, in a ship. If there was a stowage of
+stores, cleaning up of bilges, chipping and scaling of iron rust--well,
+here was mercantile Jack, who was used to that kind of work; who better
+for the job? Generally, he returned to his old ways rather tired of Navy
+'fashion' and discipline, and one saw but little influence of his
+temporary service on a cruiser. Usually, he was a good hand, to begin
+with: he sought a post on good ships: with his papers in order we were
+very glad to have him back.
+
+In few other ways did we come in touch with the Navy. At times the
+misfortune of the sea brought us into a naval port for assistance in our
+distress. Certainly, assistance was readily forthcoming, a full measure,
+but in a somewhat cold and formal way that left a rankling impression
+that we were not--well, we were not perhaps desirable acquaintances. The
+naval manner was not unlike that of a courteous prescribing chemist over
+his counter. "Have you had the pain--long?" "Is there any--coughing?" We
+had always the feeling that they were bored by our custom, were anxious
+to get back to the mixing of new pills, to their experiments. We were
+not very sorry when our repairs were completed and we could sail for
+warmer climates.
+
+With the outbreak of war the R.N.R. was instantly mobilized. Their
+outgoing left a sensible gap in our ranks, a more considerable rift than
+we had looked for. Example drew others on their trodden path, our
+mercantile seamen were keen for fighting service; the unheralded torpedo
+had not yet struck home on their own ships. Commissions to a new entry
+of officers were still limited and capricious--the _Hochsee Flotte_ had
+not definitely retired behind the booms at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven, to
+weave a web of murder and assassination. For a short term we sailed on
+our voyages, on a steady round, differing but little from our normal
+peace-time trade.
+
+A short term. The enemy did not leave us long secure in our faith in
+civilized sea-usage. Our trust in International Law received a rude and
+shattering shock from deadly floating mine and racing torpedo. Paralysed
+and impotent to venture a fleet action, the German Navy was to be
+matched not only against the commercial fleets of Britain and her
+Allies, but against every merchant ship, belligerent or neutral. There
+was to be no gigantic clash of sea-arms; action was to be taken on the
+lines of Thuggery. The German chose his opponents as he chose his
+weapons. Assassins' weapons! The knife in the dark--no warning, no
+quarter, sink or swim! The 'sea-civilians' were to be driven from the
+sea by exercise of the most appalling frightfulness and savagery that
+the seas had ever known.
+
+Under such a threat our sea-services were brought together on a rapid
+sheer, a close boarding, in which there was a measure of confusion. It
+could not have been otherwise. The only provision for co-operation, the
+R.N.R. organization, was directed to augment the forces of the Navy:
+there was no anticipation of a circumstance that would sound a recall.
+Our machinery was built and constructed to revolve in one direction; it
+could not instantly be reversed. Into an ordered service, ruled by the
+most minute shades of seniority, the finest influences of precedence and
+tradition, there came a need to fit the mixed alloy of the Merchants'
+Service. Ready, eager, and willing, as both Services were, to devote
+their energies to a joint endeavour, it took time and no small patience
+to resolve the maze and puzzle of the jig-saw. Naval officers detailed
+for our liaison were of varied moulds. Not many of the Active List could
+be spared; our new administrators were mostly recalled from fishing and
+farming to take up special duties for which they had few qualifications
+other than the gold lace on their sleeves. Some were tactful and clever
+in appreciation of other values than a mere readiness to salute, and
+those drew our affection and a ready measure of confidence. Others set
+up plumed Gessler bonnets, to which we were in no mood to bow. Only our
+devotion to the emergency exacted a jerk of our heads. To them we were
+doubtless difficult and trying. Our free ways did not fit into their
+schemes of proper routine. Accustomed to the lines of their own formal
+service, to issuing orders only to their juniors, they had no guide to a
+commercial practice whereby there can be a concerted service without the
+usages of the guard-room. They made things difficult for us without
+easing their own arduous task. They objected to our manners, our
+appearance, to the clothes we wore. Our diffidence was deemed
+truculence: our reluctance to accept a high doctrine of subservience was
+measured as insubordination.
+
+The flames of war made short work of our moods and jealousies,
+prejudices, and dislikes. A new Service grew up, the _Temporary_ R.N.R.,
+in which we were admitted to a share in our own governance and no small
+part in combatant operations at sea. The sea-going section found outlet
+for their energy and free scope for a traditional privateering in their
+individual ventures against the enemy. Patrolling and hunting gave high
+promise for their capacity to work on lines of individual control.
+Minesweeping offered a fair field for the peculiar gifts of seamanship
+that mercantile practice engenders. Commissioned to lone and perilous
+service, they kept the seas in fair weather or foul. Although stationed
+largely in the narrow seas, there were set no limits to the latitude and
+longitude of their employment. The ice of the Arctic knew them--riding
+out the bitter northern gales in their small seaworthy drifters,
+thrashing and pitching in the seaway, to hold a post in the chain of our
+sea-communications. In the Adriatic warmer tides lapped on their scarred
+hulls, but brought no relaxing variance to their keen look-out. For want
+of a match of their own size, they had the undying temerity to call
+three cheers and engage cruiser ordnance with their pipe-stems! A
+service indeed! If but _temporary_ in title, there is permanence in
+their record!
+
+Coincident with our actions on the sea--not alone those of our fighting
+cubs, but also those of our trading seamen--a better feeling came to
+cement our alliance. First in generous enthusiasm for our struggle
+against heavy odds, as they came to understand our difficulties, naval
+officers themselves set about to create a happier atmosphere. We were
+admitted to a voice in the league of our defence. Administration was
+adjusted to meet many of our grievances. Our capacity for controlling
+much of the machinery of our new movements was no longer denied. The
+shreds of old conservatism, the patches of contention and envy were
+scattered by a strong free breeze of reasoned service and joint effort.
+
+We meet the naval man on every turn of the shore-end of our seafaring.
+We have grown to admire him, to like him, to look forward to his coming
+and association in almost the same way that we are pleased at the
+boarding of our favoured pilots. He fits into our new scheme of things
+as readily as the Port Authorities and the Ship's Husband. The plumed
+bonnets are no longer set up to attract our awed regard: by a better way
+than caprice and petulant discourtesy, the naval officer has won a high
+place in our esteem. We have borrowed from his stock to improve our
+store; better methods to control our manning, a more dispassionate
+bearing, a ready subordinance to ensure service. His talk, too. We use
+his phrases. We 'carry on'; we ask the 'drill' for this or that; we
+speak of our sailing orders as 'pictures,' our port-holes are become
+'scuttles.' The enemy is a 'Fritz,' a depth-charge a 'pill,' torpedoes
+are 'mouldies.' In speaking of our ships we now omit the definite
+article. We are getting on famously together.
+
+
+AT SEA
+
+ALTHOUGH our experience of their assured protection is clear and
+definite, our personal acquaintance with the larger vessels of the Navy
+is not intimate. Saving the colliers and the oilers and storeships that
+serve the Fleet, few of us have seen a 'first-rate' on open sea since
+the day the Grand Fleet steered north to battle stations. The strength
+and influence of the distant ships was plain to us in the first days of
+the war even if we had actually no sight of their grey hulls. While we
+were able to proceed on our lawful occasions with not even a warning of
+possible interference, the mercantile ships of the enemy--being
+abroad--had no course but to seek the protection of a neutral port, not
+again to put out to sea under their own colours.
+
+The operation of a threat to shipping--at three thousand miles
+distance--was dramatic in intensity under the light of acute contrast.
+Entering New York a few days after war had been declared, we berthed
+alongside a crack German liner. Her voyage had been abandoned: she lay
+at the pier awaiting events. At the first, we stared at one another
+curiously. Her silent winches and closed hatchways, deserted decks and
+passages, were markedly in contrast to the stir and animation with which
+we set about unloading and preparing for the return voyage. The few
+sullen seamen about her forecastle leant over the bulwarks and noted the
+familiar routine that was no longer theirs. Officers on the bridge-deck
+eyed our movements with interest, despite their apparent unconcern. We
+were respectfully hostile: submarine atrocities had not yet begun. The
+same newsboy served special editions to both ships. The German officers
+grouped together, reading of the fall of Liege. Doubtless they confided
+to one another that they would soon be at sea again. Five days we lay.
+At eight o'clock 'flags,' our bugle-call accompanied the raising of the
+ensign: the red, white, and black was hoisted defiantly at the same
+time. We unloaded, re-loaded, and embarked passengers, and backed out
+into the North River on our way to sea again. The _Fuerst_ ranged to the
+wash of our sternway as we cleared the piers; her hawsers strained and
+creaked, then held her to the bollards of the quay.
+
+Time and again we returned on our regular schedule, to find the German
+berthed across the dock, lying as we had left her, with derricks down
+and her hatchways closed. . . . We noted the signs of neglect growing on
+her; guessed at the indiscipline aboard that inaction would produce. For
+a while her men were set to chipping and painting in the way of a good
+sea-custom, but the days passed with no release and they relaxed
+handwork. Her topsides grew rusty, her once trim and clean paintwork
+took on a grimy tint. Our doings were plain to her officers and crew: we
+were so near that they could read the tallies on the mailbags we
+handled: there were no mails from Germany. Loading operations, that
+included the embarkation of war material, went on by night and day: we
+were busied as never before. The narrow water space between her hull and
+ours was crowded by barges taking and delivering our cargo; the shriek
+of steam-tugs and clangour of their engine-bells advertised our stir and
+activity. On occasion, the regulations of the port obliged the _Fuerst_
+to haul astern, to allow working space for the Merritt-Chapman crane to
+swing a huge piece of ordnance to our decks. There were rumours of a
+concealed activity on the German. "She was coaling silently at night, in
+preparation for a dash to sea.". . . "German spies had their headquarters
+in her." The evening papers had a new story of her secret doings
+whenever copy ran short. All the while she lay quietly at the pier; we
+rated her by her draught marks that varied only with the galley coal she
+burnt.
+
+At regular periods her hopeless outlook was emphasized by our sailings.
+Officers and crew could not ignore the stir that attended our departure.
+They saw the 'blue peter' come fluttering from the masthead, and heard
+our syren roar a warning to the river craft as we backed out. We were
+laden to our marks and the decks were thronged with young Britons
+returning to serve their country. The Fatherland could have no such
+help: the _Fuerst_ could handle no such cargo. For her there could be no
+movement, no canting on the tide and heading under steam for the open
+sea: the distant ships of the Grand Fleet held her in fetters at the
+pier.
+
+While the Battle Fleet opened the oceans to us, we were not wholly safe
+from enemy interference on the high seas in the early stages of the war.
+German commerce raiders were abroad; there was need for a more tangible
+protection to the merchants' ships on the oversea trade routes. The
+older cruisers were sent out on distant patrols. They were our first
+associates of the huge fleet subsequently detailed for our defence and
+assistance. We were somewhat in awe of the naval men at sea on our early
+introduction. The White Ensign was unfamiliar. Armed to the teeth, an
+officer from the cruiser would board us: the bluejackets of his boat's
+crew had each a rifle at hand. "Where were we from . . . where to . . .
+our cargo . . . our passengers?" The lieutenant was sternly courteous; he
+was engaged on important duties: there was no mood of relaxation. He
+returned to his boat and shoved off with not one reassuring grin for the
+passengers lining the rails interested in every row-stroke of his
+whaler. In time we both grew more cordial: we improved upon
+acquaintance. The drudgery and monotony of a lone patrol off a neutral
+coast soon brought about a less punctilious boarding. Our
+_proces-verbal_ had unofficial intervals. "How were things at home? . . .
+Are we getting the men trained quickly? . . . What about the Russians?"
+The boarding lieutenants discovered the key to our affections--the
+secret sign that overloaded their sea-boat with newspapers and fresh
+mess. "A fine ship you've got here, Captain!" We parted company at ease
+and with goodwill. The boat would cast off to the cheers of our
+passengers. The great cruiser, cleared for action with her guns trained
+outboard, would cant in to close her whaler. Often her band assembled on
+the upper deck: the favourite selections were 'Auld Lang Syne' and 'Will
+ye no' come back again'--as she swung off on her weary patrol.
+
+Submarine activities put an end to these meetings on the sea. Except
+while under ocean escort of a cruiser--when our relations by flag signal
+are studied and impersonal--we have now little acquaintance with
+vessels of that class. Counter-measures of the new warfare demand the
+service of smaller vessels. Destroyers and sloops are now our protectors
+and co-workers. With them, we are drawn to a familiar intimacy; we are,
+perhaps, more at ease in their company, dreading no formal routine.
+Admirals are, to us, awesome beings who seclude themselves behind
+gold-corded secretaries: commodores (except those who control our
+convoys) are rarely sea-going, and we come to regard them as
+schoolmasters, tutors who may not be argued with; post-captains in
+command of the larger escorts have the brusque assumption of a
+super-seamanship that takes no note of a limit in manning. The
+commanders and lieutenants of the destroyers and sloops that work with
+us are different; they are more to our mind--we look upon them as
+brother seamen. Like ourselves, they are 'single-ship' men. They are
+neither concerned with serious plans of naval strategy nor overbalanced
+by the forms and usages of great ship routine. While 'the bridge' of a
+cruiser may be mildly scornful upon receipt of an objection to her
+signalled noon position, the destroyer captain is less assured: he is
+more likely to request our estimate of the course and speed. His
+seamanship is comparable to our own. The relatively small crew he
+musters has taught him to be tolerant of an apparent delay in carrying
+out certain operations. In harbour he is frequently berthed among the
+merchantmen, and has opportunity to visit the ships and acquire more
+than a casual knowledge of our gear and appliances. He is ever a welcome
+visitor, frank and manly and candid. Even if there is a dispute as to
+why we turned north instead of south-east 'when that Fritz came up,' and
+we blanked the destroyer's range, there is not the air of superior
+reproof that rankles.
+
+In all our relations with the Navy at sea there was ever little, if any,
+friction. We saw no empty plumed bonnet in the White Ensign. We were
+proud of the companionship and protection of the King's ships. Our ready
+service was never grudged or stinted to the men behind the grey guns;
+succour in our distress was their return. Incidents of our co-operation
+varied, but an unchanging sea-brotherhood was the constant light that
+shone out in small occurrences and deathly events.
+
+Dawn in the Channel, a high south gale and a bitter confused sea. Even
+with us, in a powerful deep-sea transport, the measure of the weather
+was menacing; green seas shattered on board and wrecked our fittings,
+half of the weather boats were gone, others were stove and useless. A
+bitter gale! Under our lee the destroyer of our escort staggered through
+the hurtling masses that burst and curled and swept her fore and aft.
+Her mast and one funnel were gone, the bridge wrecked; a few dangling
+planks at her davits were all that was left of her service boats. She
+lurched and faltered pitifully, as though she had loose water below,
+making through the baulks and canvas that formed a makeshift shield over
+her smashed skylights. In the grey of the murky dawn there was yet
+darkness to flash a message: "_In view of weather probably worse as wind
+has backed, suggest you run for Waterford while chance, leaving us to
+carry on at full speed._" An answer was ready and immediate: "_Reply.
+Thanks. I am instructed escort you to port._"
+
+The Mediterranean. A bright sea and sky disfigured by a ring of curling
+black smoke--a death-screen for the last agonies of a torpedoed
+troopship. Amid her littering entrails she settles swiftly, the stern
+high upreared, the bows deepening in a wash of wreckage. Boats, charged
+to inches of freeboard, lie off, the rowers and their freight still and
+open-mouthed awaiting her final plunge. On rafts and spars, the upturned
+strakes of a lifeboat, remnants of her manning and company grip
+safeguard, but turn eyes on the wreck of their parent hull. Into the
+ring, recking nothing of entangling gear or risk of suction, taking the
+chances of a standing shot from the lurking submarine, a destroyer
+thunders up alongside, brings up, and backs at speed on the sinking
+transport. Already her decks are jammed to a limit, by press of a
+khaki-clad cargo she was never built to carry. This is final, the last
+turn of her engagement. The foundering vessel slips quickly and deeper.
+"Come along, Skipper! You've got 'em all off! You can do no more!
+_Jump!_"
+
+
+OUR WAR STAFF
+
+SOME years before the war we were lying at an East Indian port, employed
+in our regular trade. The military students of the Quetta Staff College
+were in the district, engaged in practical exercise of their staff
+lessons. On a Sunday (our loading being suspended) they boarded us to
+work out in detail a question of troop transport. It was assumed that
+our ship was requisitioned in an emergency, and their problem was to
+estimate the number of men we could carry and to plan arrangement of the
+troop decks. Their inspection was to be minute; down to the sufficiency
+of our pots and pans they were required to investigate and figure out
+the resources of our vessel. The officer students were thirty-four in
+number; at least we counted thirty-four who came to us for clue to the
+mysteries of gross and register and dead-weight tonnage. In parties they
+explored our holds and accommodation, measured in paces for a rough
+survey, and prepared their plans. Their Commandant (a very famous
+soldier to-day) permitted us to be present when the officers were
+assembled and their papers read out and discussed. In general it was
+estimated that the work of alteration and fitting the ship for troops
+would occupy from eight to ten working days. Our quota--of all
+ranks--averaged about eleven hundred men.
+
+[Illustration: A BRITISH SUBMARINE DETAILED FOR INSTRUCTION OF MERCHANT
+OFFICERS]
+
+The work was sound and no small ingenuity was advanced in planning
+adaptations, but the spirit of emergency did not show an evidence in
+their careful papers. The proposed voyage was distinctly stated to be
+from Newhaven to Dieppe, and it seemed to us that the elaborate
+accommodation for a prison, a guard-room, a hospital, were somewhat
+ambitious for a six-hour sea-passage. In conversation with the
+Commandant, we were of opinion that, to a degree, their work and pains
+were rather needless. Carrying passengers (troops and others) was our
+business; a trade in which we had been occupied for some few years. He
+agreed. He regarded their particular exercise in the same light as the
+'herring-and-a-half' problem of the schoolroom: it was good for the
+young braves to learn something of their only gangway to a foreign
+field. "Of course," he said, "if war comes it will be duty for the Navy
+to supervise our sea-transport." We understood that their duty would be
+to safeguard our passage, but we had not thought of supervision in
+outfit. The Commandant was incredulous when we remarked that we had
+never met a naval transport officer, that we knew of no plans to meet
+such an emergency as that submitted to his officers. It was evident that
+his trained soldierly intendance could not contemplate a situation in
+which the seamen of the country had no foreknowledge of a war service;
+it was amazing to him that we were not already drilled for duties that
+might, at any moment, be thrust upon us. Pointing across the dock to
+where two vessels of the Bremen Hansa Line were working in haste to
+catch the tide, he affirmed that they would be better prepared: _their_
+place in mobilization would be detailed, their duties and services made
+clear.
+
+We knew of no plans for our employment in war service; we had no
+position allotted to us in measures for emergency. We were sufficiently
+proud of our seafaring to understand a certain merit in this apparent
+lack of prevision: we took it as in compliment to the efficiency and
+resource with which our sea-trade was credited. Was it not on our
+records that the Isle of Man steamers transported 58,000 people in the
+daylight hours of an August Bank Holiday. A seventy-mile passage.
+Trippers. Less amenable to ordered direction than disciplined troops. A
+day's work, indeed. Unequalled, unbeaten by any record to date in the
+amazing statistics of the war. There was no need for supervision and
+direction: we knew our business, we could pick up the tune as we
+marched.
+
+We did. On the outbreak of war we fell into our places in transport of
+troops and military material with little more ado than in handling our
+peace-time cargoes. The ship on which the Staff students worked their
+problems set out on almost the very route they had planned for her, but
+with no prison or guard-room or hospital, and sixteen hundred troops
+instead of eleven: the time taken to fit her (including discharge of a
+cargo) occupied exactly four days. We saw but little of the naval
+authority.
+
+[Illustration: THE D.A.M.S. GUNWHARF AT GLASGOW]
+
+Later, in our war work, we made the acquaintance of the naval transport
+officer. Generally, he was not intimate with the working of merchant
+ships. His duties were largely those of interpretation. Through him
+Admiralty passed their orders: it devolved on the mercantile shore staff
+of the shipping companies to carry these orders into execution. If, in
+transport services, our marine superintendents and ships' husbands did
+not share in the honours, it was not for want of merit. They could not
+complain of lack of work in the early days of the war when the transport
+officer was serving his apprenticeship to the trade. The absence of a
+keen knowledge and interest in commercial ship-practice at the transport
+office made for complex situations; hesitancies and conflicting
+orders added to the arduous business. Under feverish pressure a ship
+would be unloaded on to quay space already congested, ballast be
+contracted for--and delivered; a swarm of carpenters, working day and
+night, would fit her for carriage of troops. At the eleventh hour some
+one idly fingering a tide-table would discover that the vessel drew too
+much water to cross the bar of her intended port of discharge. (The
+marine superintendent was frequently kept in ignorance of the vessel's
+intended destination.) Telegraph and telephone are handy--"Requisition
+cancelled" is easily passed over the wires! _As you were_ is a simple
+order in official control, but it creates an atmosphere of misdirection
+almost as deadly as German gas. Only our tremendous resources, the sound
+ability of our mercantile superintendents, the industry of the
+contractors and quay staffs, brought order out of chaos and placed the
+vessels in condition for service at disposal of the Admiralty.
+
+Despite all blunders and vacillations our expedition was not unworthy of
+the emergency. How much better we could have done had there been a
+considered scheme of competent control must ever remain a conjecture.
+Four years of war practice have improved on the hasty measures with
+which we met the first immediate call. Sea-transport of troops and
+munitions of war has become a highly specialized business for naval
+directorate and mercantile executant alike. Ripe experience in the
+thundering years has sweetened our relations. The naval transport
+officer has learnt his trade. He is better served. He has now an
+adequate executant staff, recruited largely from the Merchants' Service.
+With liberal assistance he relies less on telegraph and telephone to
+advance his work: our atmosphere is no longer polluted by the miasma of
+indecision, and by the chill airs of the barracks.
+
+Of our Naval War Staff, the transport officer was the first on the
+field, but his duties were only concerned with ships requisitioned for
+semi-naval service. For long we had no national assistance in our purely
+commercial seafaring. Our sea-rulers (if they existed) were unconcerned
+with the judicious employment of mercantile tonnage: some of our finest
+liners were swinging the tides in harbour, rusting at their
+cables--serving as prison hulks for interned enemies. Our service on the
+sea was as lightly held. We made our voyages as in peace-time. We had no
+means of communication with the naval ships at sea other than the
+universally understood International Code of Signals. Any measures we
+took to keep out of the way of enemy war vessels, then abroad, were our
+own. We had no Intelligence Service to advise us in our choice of
+sea-routes, and act as distributors of confidential information. We were
+far too 'jack-easy' in our seafaring: we estimated the enemy's sea-power
+over-lightly.
+
+In time we learned our lesson. Tentative measures were advanced.
+Admiralty, through the Trade Division, took an interest in our
+employment. Orders and advices took long to reach us. These were first
+communicated to the War Risks Associations, who sent them to our owners.
+We received them as part of our sailing orders, rather late to allow of
+considered efforts on our part to conform with their tenor. There was no
+channel of direct communication. When on point of sailing, we projected
+our own routes, recorded them in a sealed memorandum which we left with
+our owners. If we fell overdue Admiralty could only learn of our route
+by application to the holders of the memorandum. A short trial proved
+the need for a better system. Shipping Intelligence Officers were
+appointed at the principal seaports. At this date some small echo of our
+demand for a part in our governance had reached the Admiralty. In
+selecting officers for these posts an effort was made to give us men
+with some understanding of mercantile practice; a number of those
+appointed to our new staff were senior officers of the R.N.R. who were
+conversant with our way of business. (If they did, on occasion, project
+a route for us clean through the Atlantic ice-field in May, they were
+open to accept a criticism and reconsider the voyage.) With them were
+officers of the Royal Navy who had specialized in navigation, a branch
+of our trade that does not differ greatly from naval practice. They
+joined with us in discussion of the common link that held few
+opportunities for strained association. Certainly we took kindly to our
+new directors from the first; we worked in an atmosphere of confidence.
+The earliest officer appointed to the West Coast would blush to know the
+high esteem in which he is held, a regard that (perhaps by virtue of his
+tact and courtesy) was in course extended to his colleagues of a later
+date.
+
+The work of the S.I.O. is varied and extensive. His principal duty is to
+plan and set out our oversea route, having regard to his accurate
+information of enemy activities. All Admiralty instructions as to our
+sea-conduct pass through his hands. He issues our confidential papers
+and is, in general, the channel of our communication with the Naval
+Service. He may be likened to our signal and interlocking expert. On
+receipt of certain advices he orders the arm of the semaphore to be
+thrown up against us. The port is closed to the outward-bound. His
+offices are quickly crowded by masters seeking information for their
+sailings: with post and telephone barred to us in this connection, we
+must make an appearance in person to receive our orders. A tide or two
+may come and go while we wait for passage. We have opportunity, in the
+waiting-room, to meet and become intimate with our fellow-seafarers. It
+is good for the captain of a liner to learn how the captain of a North
+Wales schooner makes his bread, the difficulties of getting decent yeast
+at the salt-ports; how the schooner's boy won't learn ("indeed to
+goodness") the proper way his captain shows him to mix the dough!
+
+On telegraphic advice the arm of the semaphore rattles down. The port is
+open to traffic again. The waiting-room is emptied and we are off to the
+sea, perhaps fortified by the S.I.O.'s confidence that the cause of the
+stoppage has been violently removed from the sea-lines.
+
+Under the pressure of ruthless submarine warfare we were armed for
+defence. Gunnery experts were added to our war complement. A division
+for organization of our ordnance was formed, the Defensively Armed
+Merchant Ships Department of the Admiralty. We do not care for long
+titles; we know this division as the "Dam Ships." Most of the officers
+appointed to this Service are R.N.R. They are perhaps the most familiar
+of the war staff detailed to assist us. Their duties bring them
+frequently on board our ships, where (on our own ground) relations grow
+quickly most intimate and cordial. The many and varied patterns of guns
+supplied for our defence made a considerable shore establishment
+necessary, not alone for the guns and mountings, but for ammunition of
+as many marks as a Geelong wool-bale. In the first stages of our
+war-harnessing, the supply of guns was limited to what could be spared
+from battlefield and naval armament. The range of patterns varied from
+pipe-stems to what was at one time major armament for cruisers; we had
+odd weapons--_soixante-quinze_ and Japanese pieces; even captured German
+field-guns were adapted to our needs in the efforts of the D.A.M.S. to
+arm us. Standardization in mounting and equipment was for long
+impossible. Our outcry for guns was cleverly met by the department. We
+could not wait for weapons to be forged: by working 'double tides' they
+ensured a twenty-four-hour day of service for the guns in issue, by a
+system that our ordnance should not remain idle during our stay in port.
+Incoming ships were boarded in the river, their guns and ammunition
+dismounted and removed to serve the needs of a vessel bound out on the
+same tide. The problem of fitting a 12-pounder on a 4.7 emplacement
+taxed the department's ingenuity and resource, but few ships were held
+in port for failure of their prompt action.
+
+With the near approach to standardization in equipment (a state that
+came with increased production of merchant-ship arms) the division was
+able to reorganize on more settled lines. New types of armament were
+issued to them and there was less adaptation for emplacements to be
+considered. With every ship fitted, the pressure on their resource was
+eased, the new ships being constructed to carry guns as a regular part
+of their equipment. While their activities are now less confused by the
+new methods, there is no reduction in their employment. Other defensive
+apparatus has been placed in their hands for issue and control, and
+their principal port establishments have grown from small temporary
+offices to large well-manned depots. To the surface guns have been added
+howitzers, bomb-throwers, and depth-charges for under-water action:
+smoke-screen fittings and chemicals form a part of their stock in trade:
+they issue mine-sinking rifles, and even control the supply of our
+zigzag clocks. The range of their work is constantly being extended.
+Their duties include inspection to ensure that darkening ship
+regulations may not fail for want of preparation in port. Makeshift
+screening at sea is dangerous.
+
+Their establishments are at the principal seaports, with branch
+connections and transport facilities for reaching the smaller harbours.
+The gun-wharves may not present as splendid a spectacle as the huge
+store-sheds of our naval bases, but they have at least the busy air of
+being well occupied, a brisk appearance of having few 'slow-dealing
+lines' on the shelves. Their permanent staff of armourers and
+constructional experts are able to undertake all but very major repairs
+to the ordnance that comes under their charge. By express
+delivery--heavy motor haulage--they can equip a ship on instant
+requisition with all that is scheduled for her armament: down to the
+waste-box and the gun-layer's sea-boots, they can put a complete
+defensive outfit on the road almost before the clamour of a requesting
+telephone is stilled.
+
+Another of our staff is the officer in charge of our 'Otter'
+installation, an ingenious contrivance to protect us against the menace
+of moored mines. For deadly spheres floating on the surface we have a
+certain measure of defence in exercise of a keen look-out, but our eyes
+avail us not at all in detecting mines under water moored at the level
+of our draught. Our 'Otters' may be likened to blind sea-dolphins,
+trained to protect our flanks, to run silently aside, fend the explosive
+charges from our course, bite the moorings asunder, and throw the
+bobbing spheres to the surface.
+
+The 'Otter' expert is invariably an enthusiast. He claims for his pets
+every virtue. They run true, they bite surely: they can speak, indeed,
+in the complaint of their guide-wires when they are not sympathetically
+governed. While it is true that we curse the awkward 'gadgets' in their
+multitude of tricks, denounce the insistence with which they dive for a
+snug and immovable berth under our bilge keels--those of us who have
+come through a hidden minefield share the expert's affection for the
+shiny fish-like monsters. We cannot see their operation: we have no
+knowledge of our danger till it is past and over, a dark shape with ugly
+outpointing horns, turning and spinning in the seawash of our wake.
+
+[Illustration: INSTRUCTIONAL ANTI-SUBMARINE COURSE FOR MERCHANT OFFICERS
+AT GLASGOW]
+
+Adoption of the convoy system has brought a host to our gangways. Our
+war staff was more than doubled in the few weeks that followed the
+sinister April of 1917. If, at an earlier date, we had reasonable ground
+for complaint that our expert knowledge of our business was
+studiously ignored by the Admiralty, apparently they did not rate our
+ability so lightly when this old form of ship protection was revived.
+The additions to our staff included a large proportion of our own
+officers, withdrawn from posts where their knowledge of merchant-ship
+practice was not of great value. In convoy, measures were called for
+that our ordinary routine had not contemplated. The shore division of
+our new staff aid us in adapting our commercial sea-gear to the more
+instant demands of war service. They 'clear our hawse' from turns and
+twists in the chain of our landward connections. Repairs and
+adjustments, crew troubles, stores--that on a strict ruling may be
+deemed private matters--became public and important when considered as
+vital to the sailing of a convoy. In overseeing the ships at the
+starting-line, indexing and listing the varying classes and powers of
+the vessels, the convoy section have no light task. To the longshore
+division, who compose and arrange the integrals of our convoys, we have
+added a sea-staff of commodores, R.N. and R.N.R., who go to sea with us
+and control the manoeuvres and operations of our ships in station. For
+this, not only a knowledge of squadron movements is required: the ruling
+of a convoy of merchantmen is complicated as much by the range of
+character of individual masters as by the diverse capabilities of the
+ships.
+
+It was not until the spring of 1917 that Admiralty instituted a scheme
+of instruction in anti-submarine measures for officers of the Merchants'
+Service. We were finding the defensive tune difficult to pick up as we
+marched. The German submarine had grown to be a more complete and deadly
+warship. Sinkings had reached an alarming height: a spirit almost of
+fatalism was permeating the sea-actions of some of our Service. Our guns
+were of little avail against under-water attack. Notwithstanding the
+tricks of our zigzag, the torpedoes struck home on our hulls. If our luck
+was 'in,' we came through: if we had bad fortune, well, our luck was 'out'!
+A considerable school--the bold 'make-a-dash-for-it-and-chance-the-ducks'
+section of our fellows--did not wholly conform to naval instructions. In
+many cases zigzag was but cursorily maintained; in darkening ship,
+measures were makeshift and inadequate.
+
+Schools for our instruction were set up at various centres, in
+convenient seaport districts. At the first, attendance was voluntary,
+but it was quickly evident to the Admiralty that certain classes of
+owners would give few facilities to their officers to attend, when they
+might be more profitably employed in keeping gangway or in supervising
+cargo stowage. (The fatalistic spirit was not confined to the seagoers
+among us.) Attendance at the classes of instruction was made compulsory;
+it became part of our qualification for office that we should have
+completed the course.
+
+Although our new schooling occupies but five days, it is intensive in
+its scope and application. The cold print of our official instructions
+has its limitations, and Admiralty circulars are not perhaps famous for
+lucidity. More can be done by a skilled interpreter with a blackboard in
+a few minutes than could be gathered in half an hour's reading. At first
+assembly there is perhaps an atmosphere of boredom. Routine details and
+a programme of operations are hardly welcome to masters accustomed to
+command. In a way, we have condescended to come among our juniors, to
+listen with the mates and second mates to what may be said: we assume,
+perhaps, a detached air of constraint.
+
+It is no small tribute to the lecturer that this feeling rarely persists
+beyond the opening periods. Only the most perversely immovable can
+resist the interest of a practical demonstration. The classes are under
+charge of an officer, R.N., who has had deep-sea experience of enemy
+submarine activities. Often he is of the 'Q-ship' branch, and can
+enliven his lectures with incidents that show us a side of the
+sea-contest with which not many are familiar. If we are informed of the
+deadly advantage of the submarine, we are equally enlightened as to its
+limitations. In a few minutes, by virtue of a plot on the blackboard,
+the vantage of a proper zigzag is made clear and convincing. Points of
+view--in a literal sense--are expounded, and not a few of us recall our
+placing of look-outs and register a better plan. Following the officer
+in charge, a lieutenant of the Submarine Service dissects his vessel on
+the blackboard, carefully detailing the action in states of weather and
+circumstance. The under-water manoeuvres of an attack are plotted out
+and explained in a practical way that no handbook could rival. The
+personal magnetism of the expert rivets our attention; the routine of
+under-seafaring gives us a good inkling of the manner of man we have to
+meet and fight at sea; we are given an insight to the mind-working of
+our unseen opponent--the brain below the periscope is probed and
+examined for our education.
+
+Nothing could be better illustrative of the wide character of our
+seafaring than the range of our muster in the lecture-hall. Every type
+of our trade appears in the class that assembles weekly to attend the
+instructional course. We have no grades of seniority or precedence. We
+are sea-republicans when we come to sit together in class. Hardy
+coasting masters, commanders of Royal Mail Packets, collier mates,
+freighter captains, cross-Channel skippers, we are at ease together in a
+common cause; on one bench in the classroom may be seafarers returned
+from foreign ports as widely distant as Shanghai and Valparaiso.
+
+For instruction in gunnery and the use of special apparatus we come
+under tuition of a type of seaman whom we had not met before. If the
+backbone of the Army is the non-commissioned man, the petty officer of
+the Royal Navy is no less the marrow of his Service. Unfortunately, we
+have no one like him in the Merchants' Service. As Scots is the language
+of marine engines, the South of England accent may be that of the guns.
+That liquid ue! "Metal adapters, genelmen, luek. Metal adapters is made o'
+alueminium bronze. They are bored houet t' take a tuebe, an' threaded on
+th' houetside t' screw into th' base o' th' cartridge case--like this
+'ere. Genelmen, luek. . . ." His intelligent demonstration of the gear
+and working of the types of our armament possesses a peculiar quality,
+as though he is trying hard to reduce his exposition to our level. (As a
+matter of plain fact, he is.)
+
+The instructional course closes on a note of confidence. We learn that
+even 'inexorable circumstance' has an opening to skilled evasion. We go
+afloat for a day and put into practice some measure of our schooling. At
+fire-control, with the guns, we exercise in an atmosphere of din and
+burnt cardboard, aiming at a hit with the fifth shot in sequence of our
+bracket. (An earlier bull's-eye would be bad application of our
+lectures.) A smoke-screen is set up for our benefit, and we turn and
+twist in the artificially produced fumes and vapours in a practical
+demonstration of defence. A sea-going submarine is in attendance and is
+open to our inspection. Her officers augment the class instruction by
+actual showing. Every point in the maze of an under-water attack is
+emphasized by them in an effort to impress us with the virtue of the
+counter-measures advised. It must be hard indeed for the submarine
+enthusiast (and they are all enthusiasts) to lay bare the 'weaknesses'
+of his loved machine. We feel for them almost as if we heard a man,
+under pressure, admit that his last ship was unseaworthy.
+
+[Illustration: THE LOSS OF A LINER]
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE LONGSHORE VIEW
+
+
+EARLY in November 1914, on return from the sea, I was invited to join
+His Majesty's Forces.
+
+". . . An' I can tell you this, mister," said the sergeant . . . "it
+ain't everybody as I asks t' join our corps. . . . Adjutant, 'e ses t'
+me this mornin', 'Looka here, Bates,' 'e ses, 'don't you go for to bring
+none o' them scallywags 'ere! We don't want 'em! We won't 'ave 'em at
+any price,' 'e ses! . . . 'Wot we wants is proper men--men with chests,'
+'e ses!"
+
+I felt somewhat commended; I trimmed more upright in carriage; he was
+certainly a clever recruiter. I told him I had rather important work to
+do. He said, with emphasis, that it must be more than important to keep
+a MAN out of the Army--these days! In sound of shrieking
+newsboys--"_Ant--werp fallen! British falling back!_"--I agreed.
+
+I asked him what he did with the men recruited. He was somewhat
+surprised at my question, but told me that, when trained, they were sent
+across to the Front--he was hoping to _return_ himself in the next
+draft. He thought all this talk was needless, and grew impatient. I
+mentioned that the men couldn't very well swim over there. He glared
+scornfully. "Swim? . . . Swim! . . . 'Ere! Wot th' hell ye gettin' at?
+You gotta hellova lot t' say about it, anyway!"
+
+I explained that my business was that of putting the troops and the guns
+and the gear o' war across; that the drafts couldn't get very far on the
+way without our assistance. He glanced at my soft felt hat, at my
+rainproof coat, my umbrella, my handbag--said, "_Huh_" and went off in
+search of a more promising recruit. His broad back, as he strode off
+swinging his cane, expressed an entire disapproval of my appearance and
+my alleged business.
+
+Good honest sergeant! His course was a clear and straight one. He would
+hold no more truck with one who wouldn't take up a man's job. His "Huh"
+and the swing of his arm said plainly to me, "Takin' th' boys across,
+eh? A ---- fine excuse, . . . a rare ---- trick! Where's yer uniform? Why
+ain't ye in uniform, eh? You can't do me with that story, mister! I'm an
+old Service man, I am. I been out t' India. I been on a troopship. I
+seen all them gold-lace blokes a-pokin' their noses about an' growsin'
+at th' way th' decks wos kep! _Huh!_ A damn slacker, mister! That's wot
+I think o' you!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The sergeant's attitude was not unreasonable. Where was our uniform?
+Where was any evidence of our calling by which one could recognize a
+seaman on shore? A sea-gait, perhaps! But the deep-sea roll has gone out
+since bilge-keels came to steady our vessels! Tattoo marks? These
+cunning personal adornments are now reserved to the Royal Artillery and
+officers of the Indian Army! Tarry hands? Tar is as scarce on a modern
+steamer as strawberries in December! Sea-togs? If there be a preference,
+we have a fondness for blue serge, but blue serges have quite a vogue
+among bankers and merchants and other men of substance! Away from our
+ships and the dockside waterfront, we are not readily recognizable; we
+join the masses of other workers, we become members of the general
+public. As such, we may lay claim to a common liberty, and look at our
+seafaring selves from an average point of longshore view.
+
+. . . The sea? Oh, we know a lot about it! It is in us. We pride
+ourselves, an island race, we have the sea in our blood, we are born to
+it. Circumstances may have brought us to counting-house and ledger, but
+our heart is with the sea. We use, unwittingly, many nautical terms in
+our everyday life. We had been to sea at times, on a business voyage or
+for health or pleasure. We knew the captain and the mates and the
+engineers. The chief steward was a friend, the bos'n or quartermaster
+had shown us the trick of a sheepshank or a reef-knot or a short splice.
+Their ways of it! Port and starboard for left and right, knots for
+miles, eight bells, the watches, and all that! We returned from our
+sea-trip, parted with our good friends, feeling hearty and refreshed. We
+hummed, perhaps, a scrap of a sea-song at the ledgers. We regretted that
+our sea-day had come so quickly to an end. Anyway, we felt that we had
+got to know the sea-people intimately.
+
+But that was on their ground, on the sea and the ship, where they fitted
+to the scheme of things and were as readily understood and appreciated
+as the little round port-holes, the narrow bunks, the cunning tip-up
+washstands, the rails for hand-grip in a storm. Their atmosphere, their
+stories, their habits, were all part of our sea-piece. Taken from their
+heaving decks and the round of a blue horizon, they seemed to go out of
+our reckoning. On shore? Of course they must at times come on shore, but
+somehow one doesn't know much about them there. There are our
+neighbours. . . . Yes! Gudgeon's eldest boy, he is at sea--a mate or a
+purser. He has given over wearing his brass buttons and a badge cap now:
+we see him at long intervals, when he comes home to prepare for
+examinations. A hefty sort of lad--shouldn't think he would do much in
+the way of study; a bit wild perhaps. Then Mrs. Smith's husband. Isn't
+he at sea, a captain or a chief engineer, or something? He comes among
+us occasionally; travels to town, now and then, in our carriage. A
+hearty man--uses rather strong language, though! Has not a great deal to
+say of things--no interest in politics, in the market, in the games.
+Never made very much of him. Don't see him at the clubs. Seems to spend
+all his time at home. At home! Oh yes; wasn't it only the other day his
+small daughter told ours her daddy was _going_ home again on Saturday!
+
+In war, we are learning. There are no more games; contentious politics
+are not for these days; the markets and business are difficult and
+wayward. We are come to see our dependence on the successful voyages of
+Mrs. Smith's husband. His coming among us, from time to time, is proof
+that our links with the world overseas are yet unbroken, that there may
+still be business to transact when we turn up at the office. Strangely,
+in the new clarity of a war vision, we see his broad back in our
+harvest-fields, as we had never noticed it before. He is almost one of
+our staff. He handles our goods, our letters, our gold, our securities,
+our daily bread. His business is now so near to us that----
+
+But no! It cannot properly be done. We recall that there _is_ one way
+for our ready recognition when we come on shore these days. We cannot
+appropriate a longshore point of view, we cannot conceal our seafaring
+and merge into the crowd. There _is_ a mark--our tired eyes, as we come
+off the sea! True, there are now, sadly, many tired eyes on the beach,
+but few carry the distant focus, the peculiar intentness brought about
+by absence of perspective at sea. We cannot adopt a public outlook owing
+to this obliquity in our vision, we are barred by the persistence of
+that vexed perspective in our views on shore.
+
+Still, the point may be raised that only in our actual seafaring are we
+recognized. We are poor citizens, nomads, who have little part with
+settled grooves and communal life on shore. The naval seaman is a known
+figure on the streets. His trim uniform, the cut of his hair, the swing
+of a muscular figure, his high spirits, are all in part with a
+stereotyped conception. He is the sailor; Mercantile Jack has lost his
+tradition in attire and individuality, he has vanished from the herd
+with his high-heeled shoes, coloured silk neckerchief, and sweet-tobacco
+hat.
+
+In the round of shore communications there is exercise for assessing a
+measure of the other man's work: a large proportion of success hinges on
+easy fellowship, on an understanding and acquaintance not only with the
+technics of another's trade, but with his habits and his pursuits. All
+trades, all businesses, all professions have relations, near or distant,
+with the sea, but to them our grades and descriptions are dubious and
+uncertain. For this we are to blame. We are bad advertisers. We are
+content to leave our fraternization with the beach to the far distant
+day when we shall retire from the sea-service, 'swallow the anchor,' and
+settle down to longshore life. We cannot join and rejoin the guilderies
+on shore in the intervals of our voyaging. We preserve a grudging
+silence on our seafaring, perhaps tint what pictures we do present in
+other lights than verity. The necessary aloofness of our calling makes
+for a seclusion in our affairs: we make few efforts to remedy an
+estrangement; in a way, we adopt the disciplinary scourge of the
+flagellants, we glory in our isolation. If we share few of the
+institutions that exist for fellowship ashore, we have made no bid for
+admittance: if the tide of intercourse leaves us stranded, we have put
+out no steering oar on the drift of the flood. We are somewhat
+diffident. Perhaps we are influenced by a certain reputation that is
+still attached to us. Are we the prodigals not yet in the mood to turn
+unto our fathers?
+
+Stout old Doctor Johnson enlarged on the sea-life--of his day--with a
+determination and no small measure of accuracy. "Sir," he said, "a ship
+is worse than a gaol. There is in a gaol better air, better company,
+better conveniency of every kind; and a ship has the additional
+disadvantage of being in danger. When men come to like a sea-life they
+are not fit to live on land. . . . Men go to the sea before they know
+the unhappiness of that way of life; and when they have come to know it,
+they cannot escape from it, because it is then too late to choose
+another profession." At least he admitted the possibility of some of us
+coming to _like_ a sea-life, though his postulate conveyed no high
+opinion of our intelligence in such a preference.
+
+We have travelled far since the worthy Doctor's day. Not all his dicta
+may stand. There is still, perhaps, greater danger in a ship than in
+gaol, but Johnson himself admitted that "the profession of sailors has
+the dignity of danger"! For the rest, our air has become so good that
+invalids are ordered to sea; our conveniences are notably improved, our
+ships the last word in strength and comfort. Our company? Our company
+fits to the heave of our sea. If we have middling men for the trough, we
+have bold gallants for the crest. We draw a wide range to our service.
+The sea can offer a good career to a prizeman: we can still do
+moderately well with the wayward boy, the parents' 'heart-break,' the
+lad with whom nothing can be done on shore. Steam has certainly given a
+new gentility to our seafaring, but it cannot wholly smooth out the
+uneven sea-road. If we lose an amount of polish, of distinguished
+association, of education in our recruitment, we may gain just that
+essence that fits a man for our calling. Our company is, at any rate,
+stout and resolute, and, without that, we had long since been under
+German bondage.
+
+[Illustration: THE MERSEY FROM THE LIVER BUILDINGS, LIVERPOOL]
+
+The war has brought a new prominence to our sea-trade. The public has
+become interested not alone in our sea-ventures, but in our landward
+doings. The astonishing fact of our civilian combatance has drawn a
+recognition that no years of peace could have uncovered. Not least of
+the revelations that the world conflict has imposed is the vital
+importance of the ships. Our naval fleets were ever talked of, read of,
+gloried in, as the spring of our national power, but not many saw the
+core of our sea-strength in the stained hulls of the merchants' ships.
+They were accepted without enthusiasm as an existing trade channel; they
+were there on a round of business and trade, not dissimilar to other
+transport services--the railways, road-carriage, the inland canals, the
+moving-van, the messengers. They were ready to hand for service; so near
+that their vital proportions were not readily apparent. Perhaps the
+greatest compliment the public has paid to the Merchants' Service lay in
+this abstract view. One saw an appreciation, perhaps unspoken, in the
+consternation that greeted the first irregularity in delivery of the
+oversea mails. Then, indeed, the importance of the ships was brought
+sharply home. It was incredible: it was unheard of. Mercantile practice
+and correspondence had outgrown all duplications and weatherly
+precautions; the service was so sure and uninterrupted that no need
+existed for a second string to the bow. Bills of exchange, indents,
+invoices, the mail-letter, had long been confided to sea-carriage on one
+bottom. Pages could be written of the tangled skeins, the complex
+situations, the confusion and congestion that were all brought about by
+extra mileage of an ocean voyage. Fortunes, not alone in hulls and
+cargo, lie with our wreckage on the floor of the channels.
+
+The sea-front suddenly assumed an importance in the general view, as the
+drain on our tonnage left vacant shelves in the bakehouse. Commodities
+that, so common and plentiful, had been lightly valued, were out of
+stock--the ships had not come in! Long queues formed at the shop doors,
+seeking and questioning--their topic, the fortunes of the ships! The
+table was rearranged in keeping with a depleted larder. Anxious eyes
+turned first in the morning to the list of our sea-casualties; the
+ships, what of the ships? The valiant deeds of our armies, the tide and
+toll of battles, could wait a second glance. Not all the gallantry of
+our arms could bring victory if our sea-communications were imperilled
+or restrained; on the due arrival of the ships centred the pivot of our
+operations.
+
+Joined to the fortune of the ships, interest was drawn to the seamen. A
+new concern arose. Who were the mariners who had to face these deadly
+perils to keep our sea-lines unbroken? Were they trained to arms? How
+could they stand to the menace that had so shocked our naval forces?
+Daily the toll rose. Savagery, undreamt of, succeeded mere shipwreck:
+murder, assassination, mutilation became commonplace on the sea. Who
+were the mercantile seamen; of what stock, what generation?
+
+To a degree we were embarrassed at such new attention. The mystery of
+sea-life, we felt, had unbalanced the public view. Our stock, our
+generation, was the same as that of the tailors and the
+candlestick-makers who were standing the enemy on his head on the
+Flanders fields; we differed not greatly from the haberdasher and the
+baby-linen man who drove the Prussian Guard, the proudest soldier in
+Europe, from the reeking shambles of Contalmaison. Indeed, we had
+advantage in our education for a fight. Our training, if not military,
+was at least directed to mass operations in contest with power of the
+elements: torpedo and mine were but additions to the perils of our
+regular trade. If the clerk and the grocer could rise from ordered
+peaceful ways and set the world ringing with his gallantry and heroism,
+we were poltroons indeed to flinch and falter at the familiar conduct of
+our seafaring. We felt that our share in warfare was as nothing to the
+blaze of fury on the battle-fronts, our sea-life was comparative comfort
+in contrast to the grisly horrors of the trenches.
+
+With universal service, opportunity for acquaintance with our life and
+our work was extended beyond the numbers of chance passengers. The
+exodus oversea of the nation's manhood brought the landsman and the
+seaman together as no casual meeting on the streets could have done.
+Millions of our country-men, who had never dreamed of outlook on blue
+water bounded by line of an unbroken horizon, have found themselves
+brought into close contact with us, living our life, assisting in many
+of our duties, facing the same dangers. In such a firm fellowship and
+communion of interest there cannot but be a bond between us that shall
+survive the passage of high-water mark.
+
+[Illustration: THE MASTER OF THE GULL LIGHTSHIP WRITING THE LOG]
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+CONNECTION WITH THE STATE
+
+
+TRINITY HOUSE, OUR ALMA MATER
+
+OF all trades, seafaring ever required a special governance, a unique
+Code of Laws, suited to the seaman's isolation from tribunal and land
+court, to the circumstance of his constant voyaging. On sea, the
+severance from ordered government, from reward as from penalty, was
+irremediable and complete. No common law or enactment could be enforced
+on the wandering sea-tribesmen who owned no settled domicile, who
+responded only to the weight of a stronger arm than their own, who had
+an impenetrable cloak to their doings in the mystery of distant seas.
+The spirit and high heart that had called them to the dangers and
+vicissitudes of a sea-life would not brook tamely the dominance and
+injunction of a power whose authority was, at sea, invisible--and even
+under the land, could carry but little distance beyond high-water mark.
+To the bold self-enterprise of the early sea-venturers, the unconfined
+ocean offered a free field for a standard of strength, for a law of
+might alone. Kings and Princes might rule the boundaries of the land,
+but the sea was for those who could maintain a holding on the troubled
+waters. Were the 'Rectores' not Kings on their own heaving decks, their
+province the round of the horizon, their subjects the vulgar
+'shippe-men,' their slaves the unfortunate weaker seafarers, whom chance
+or the fickle winds had brought within reach of their sea-arms? The
+sea-rovers were difficult to bridle or restrain. _Spurlos versenkt_
+might well have been their motto--as that of later pirates. No trace!
+The sea would tell no tales. They were alone on the breadth of the
+ocean, no ordered protection was within hail, the land lay distant under
+rim of the sea-line. Blue water would wash over the face of robbery and
+crime: the hazards of the sea could well account for a missing ship!
+
+Reverse the setting and the same uncharity could similarly be masked. In
+turn, the humanity the seamen contemned was denied to them. Driven on
+shore, wrecked or foundered on coast or shoal, the laws they scorned
+were powerless to shield or salve the wreckage of their vessels, to save
+their weary sea-scarred bodies. 'No trace' was equally a motto for the
+dwellers on the coast: blue water would wash as freely over their bloody
+evidence, the miserable castaways could be as readily returned to the
+pitiless sea: an equal hazard of the deep could as surely account for
+missing men!
+
+Only special measures could control a situation of such a desperate
+nature, no ordinary governance could effect a settlement; no one but a
+powerful and kingly seafarer could frame an adjustment and post wardens
+to enforce a law for the sea. When Richard Coeur de Lion established
+our first Maritime Code, he had his own rude sea-experience to guide
+him. On perilous voyaging to the Holy Land, he must have given more than
+passing thought to the trials and dangers of his rough mariners. Sharing
+their sea-life and its hardships, he noted the ship-measures and rude
+sea-justice with a discerning and humane appreciation. In all the
+records of our law-making there are few such intimate revelations of a
+minute understanding as his Roles d'Oleron. The practice of to-day
+reflects no small measure of his wisdom; in their basic principles, his
+charges still tincture the complex fabric of our modern Sea Codes.
+Bottomry--the pledging of ship and tackle to procure funds for provision
+or repair; salvage--a just and reasonable apportionment; jettison--the
+sharing of another's loss for a common good; damage to ship or
+cargo--the account of liability: many of his ordinances stand unaltered
+in substance, if varied and amplified in detail.
+
+The spirit of these mediaeval Shipping Acts was devoted as well to
+restrain the lawless doings of the seamen as to check the inhuman
+plunderings of the coast dwellers. The rights and duties of master and
+man were clearly defined: in the schedule of penalties, the master's
+forfeit was enhanced, as his was assumed to be the better intelligence.
+For barratry and major sea-crimes, the penalty was death and
+dismemberment. All pilots who wrecked their charges for benefit of the
+lords of the sea-coast were to be hung on a gibbet, and so exhibited to
+all men, near the spot where the vessels they had misdirected were come
+on shore. The lord of the foreshore who connived at their acts was to
+suffer a dire fate. He was to be burned on a stake at his own
+hearthstone, the walls of his mansion to be razed, and the standing
+turned to a market-place for barter of swine! Drastic punishment!
+Doubtless kingly Richard drew abhorrence for the wrecker from his own
+bitter experience on the inhospitable rocky coast of Istria!
+
+Little detail has come down to us of the means adopted to enforce these
+just acts. Of the difficulties of their enforcement we may judge a
+little from the character of the seamen as presented by contemporary
+chronicles. . . .
+
+          "_Full many a draught of wyn had he drawe
+            From Burdeux-ward, whil that the chapman sleep.
+            Of nyce conscience took he no keep.
+            If that he foughte, and hadde the heigher hand,
+            By water he sent hem hoom to every land._"
+
+. . . Thus Chaucer; but Chaucer was a Collector of Customs, and would
+possibly assess the stolen draught of Bordeaux as a greater crime than
+throwing prisoners overboard! From evidence of the date, Richard's
+shipping laws seem to have been but lightly regarded by the lords of the
+foreshore. In the reign of King John, wrecking had become a practice so
+common that prescriptive rights to the litter of the beaches was
+included in manorial charters, despite the Role that . . . "the pieces
+of the ship still to belong to the original owners, notwithstanding any
+custom to the contrary . . . and any participators of the said wrecks,
+whether they be bishops, prelates, or clerks, shall be deposed and
+deprived of their benefices, and if lay people they are to incur the
+penalties previously recited."
+
+It was surely by more than mere chance the churchmen were thus specially
+indicted! Perhaps it was by a temporal as well as a spiritual measure
+that Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, strove to remove a
+reproach to the Church. He founded a Guild of sea-samaritans, a
+Corporation
+
+          "of godly disposed men, who, for the actual
+          suppression of evil disposed persons bringing
+          ships to destruction by the shewing forth of false
+          beacons, do bind themselves together in the Love
+          of our Lord Christ, in the name of the Masters and
+          Fellows of Trinity Guild to succour from the
+          dangers of the sea all who are beset upon the
+          coasts of England, to feed them when ahungered and
+          athirst, to bind up their wounds, and to build and
+          light proper beacons for the guidance of
+          mariners."
+
+An earnest and compassionate Charter: a merciful and honourable
+Commission.
+
+In this wise was formed our Alma Mater, the ancient guild of shipmen and
+mariners of England. Subsequent charters advanced their titles as they
+enlarged their duties and charges. In 1514, Henry VIII confirmed their
+foundation under style of . . . "Master, Wardens, and Accistants of the
+Guild or Fraternity of the Most Glorious and Undivided Trinity, and of
+St. Clement, in the Parish of Deptford Strond, in the County of Kent."
+Some years later, the 'accistants' were subdivided as Elder and Younger
+Brethren, the Foundation being familiarly referred to as the Corporation
+of Trinity House.
+
+In early days, their efforts were directed in charity to stricken
+seafarers, in humane dispensation, in erection and maintenance of
+sea-marks, in training and provision of competent sea and coast
+pilots--a line of endeavour directed by the Godly Primate, in his
+Commission. Beacons were built on dangerous points of the coast, keepers
+appointed to serve them, watchers detailed to observe the vessels as
+they passed and restrain the activities of the wrecker. The magnitude
+of the task, the difficulties of their office, the powerful
+counter-influences arrayed against their beneficent role, may be judged
+by an incident that occurred as late as little over a hundred and twenty
+years ago. . . . "When Ramsgate Harbour, as a port of refuge from storm
+and stress, was intended, and the business was before Parliament, a
+petition from the Lord of the Manor tended to accelerate matters. He
+represented to the House, while the Bill was depending, that, _as the
+wrecks on the coast belonged to him and formed a considerable part of
+his property, he prayed that the Bill would not pass_!"
+
+Established in charity for the guardianship of the coasts, the Brethren
+of Trinity passed to a supervision of the ships and the seamen. Although
+a closely guarded Corporation, qualifications for entry were simply
+those of sea-knowledge. The business of shipping, if more hazardous and
+difficult on the sea, was less complicated in its landward connections
+than is its modern conduct. The merchants were well content to be guided
+in their affairs by their sea-partners, the men who actually commanded
+and sailed the ships. The voyages, ship construction, refitment and
+victualling were matters that could only be advised by the skilled
+seamen. Jealous for professional advancement, the Brethren of Trinity
+held their ranks open only to skilled master seamen and to kindred
+sea-tradesmen--the shipwrights and rope-makers. While attracting leaders
+and statesmen to the higher and more ornamental offices, control was
+largely vested in the Elder and Younger Brethren--technical advisers,
+competent to understand sea-matters.
+
+In no small measure, the rise and supremacy of our shipping is due to
+their wise direction and control. They were the sole machinery of the
+State for control of the ships and the seaman. Survey and inspection of
+sea-stores, planning and supervision of ship construction, registry and
+measurement of vessels, had their beginning in the orderly efforts of
+the Brethren. Examination of the competence of masters was part of their
+duties--as was their arbitration in crew disputes. They licensed and
+supplied seafarers of all classes to the 'King's Ships,' tested their
+ordnance and examined the ammunition. Their reading of the ancient
+charter of their foundation was wide and liberal in its scope--"_to
+build, and light proper beacons for the guidance of mariners_" was their
+understanding. In construction and equipment and maintenance of
+sea-marks, in licence and efficient service of their coastal pilots,
+they carried out to the letter the text of their covenant; in spirit,
+they understood a guidance that was less material if equally important.
+Their beacons were not alone standing structures of stone and lime, but
+world-marks in precept and ordinance, in study and research. They held
+bright cressets aloft to illuminate the difficult seaways in the paths
+of navigation and science of the seafarer. They placed facilities for
+the study of seamanship before the mariners and sought to advance the
+science of navigation in line with the efforts of our sea-competitors.
+The charts and maps of the day--most of them being rude Dutch draft
+sheets--were improved and corrected, and new surveys of the coastal
+waters were undertaken at charge and patronage of the Brethren. Captain
+Greenville Collins, Hydrographer to Charles II, bears witness to their
+high ideals in presenting to the Corporation the fruits of his seven
+years' labour in survey and charting of the coast. The preface to his
+work is made noteworthy by his reference to the practice of the day--the
+haphazard alterations on the charts that brought many a fine ship to
+grief.
+
+         ". . . I then, as in Duty bound (being a Younger
+         Brother) did acquaint you with it, and most humbly
+         laid the Proposals before you; whereupon you were
+         pleased not only to approve of them, but did most
+         bountifully advance towards the charge of the work.
+         . . . I could heartily wish that it might be so
+         ordered by your Corporation, that all Masters of
+         Ships, both using Foreign and Home Voyages, might
+         be encouraged to bring you in their Journals, and a
+         Person appointed to inspect them; which would be a
+         great Improvement of Navigation, by imparting
+         their Observations and Discoveries of the true Form
+         and Prospect of the Sea Coast . . . and other
+         dangerous Places. . . . And that those Persons who
+         make and sell Sea Charts and Maps, were not allowed
+         to alter them upon the single Report of Mariners,
+         but with your approbation; by which means our Sea
+         Charts would be more correct and the common Scandal
+         of their Badness removed."
+
+
+In all her enactments and activities, our Alma Mater ever preserved a
+worthy pride in her sons. Enthusiasm for a gallant profession, patronage
+for advancement in sea-skill and learning, a keen and studied interest
+in whatever tended to elevate and ennoble the calling of the sea, were
+her inspiring sentiment. Even in wise reproof and cautionary advice, her
+words were tempered by a brave note of pride--as though, under so many
+difficulties and serious dangers, she gloried in our work being worthily
+undertaken. In charge to the seaman, Captain Collins continues his
+kindly preface:
+
+          "It sometimes happens, and that too frequently,
+          that when Ships which have made long and dangerous
+          Voyages, and are come Home richly laden, have been
+          shipwrecked on their native Coast, whereby both
+          Merchants, Owners, and Mariners have been
+          impoverished. All our neighbours will acknowledge,
+          that no Nation abounds more with skilful and
+          experienced Seamen than our own; none meeting a
+          Danger with more Courage and Bravery . . . so a
+          Master of a ship has a very great Charge, and
+          ought to be a sober Man, as well as a skilful
+          Mariner: All Helps of Art, Care, and
+          Circumspection are to be used by him, that the
+          Lives of Mariners (the most useful of their
+          Majesties' Subjects at this juncture) and the
+          Fortunes of honest Merchants under his Care may be
+          preserved."
+
+[Illustration: AT GRAVESEND: PILOTS AWAITING AN INWARD-BOUND CONVOY]
+
+For over three hundred years, our Alma Mater flourished as the spring of
+our seafaring--a noble and venerable Corporation, concerned solely and
+alone with the sea and the ships and the seamen. The Brethren saw only
+one aim for their endeavours--the supremacy of the sea-trade, the
+business by which the nation stood or fell. Nor was theirs an inactive
+part in all the long sea-wars and crises that reacted on our commerce.
+Before a navy existed, the stout old master-seamen of Deptford Strond
+were charged with the sea-defences of the capital. The new naval forces
+came under their control at a later date, and we have the record of an
+efficiency in administration that showed prevision and thought well in
+advance of that of their landward contemporaries. Piracy, privateering,
+the restraints of rulers and princes, were dealt with in their day. At
+critical turns in the courses of our naval conduct, it was to the
+steersmen of Trinity that the Ministers of the State relied for
+prompt and seamanlike action. The 'sea to the seamen' was the rule.
+Adapting their resources to the needs of the day, the Brethren were held
+fast by no conventional restraint. They assisted peaceful developments
+in trade in the quieter years, but could as readily mobilize for war
+service under threat of invasion, or turn their skilled activities to
+removal of the sea-marks to prevent the sailing of a mutinous fleet. In
+the long and stormy history of Trinity House there were many precedents
+to guide the action of the Brethren on the outbreak of war. As guardians
+of the sea-channels and the approaches to our coasts, they manned these
+misty sea-trenches on the outbreak of war in 1914. Weaponless, by
+exercise of a skill in pilotage and a resolution worthy of great
+traditions, the Trinity men have held that menaced line intact. That
+little has been said about their great work is perhaps a tradition of
+their service.
+
+We are parted now. The Merchants' Service is no longer a studied and
+valued interest of the ancient corporation. In an assured position as
+arbiters between the State and the shipping industry, the Trinity
+Brethren could combine a just regard for the merchants' interest with a
+generous and understanding appreciation of the seamen's trials and
+difficulties. If for no other reason than the record of past endeavours,
+they should still control the personnel of the Merchants' Service, in
+regulating the scheme of our education, the scope of our qualification
+for office, the grades of our service, the essence of our sea-conduct.
+But in the fickle doldrums of the period when steam superseded sail as
+our motive power, we drifted apart. Shipping interests have become
+complicated with land ventures, as widely different from them as the
+marine engine is from our former sail plan. In 1850 the Merchants'
+Service was placed under control of the Board of Trade; we were handed
+over to a Board that is no Board--a department of the State with little,
+if any, sea-sentiment, and that is sternly resolved to repress all our
+efforts to regain a voice in the control of our own affairs.
+
+
+THE BOARD OF TRADE
+
+IF we may claim the ancient Corporation of Trinity House as the Alma
+Mater of the Merchants' Service, we may liken our comparatively new
+directorate, the Board of Trade, to our Alma step-Mater--an austere,
+bureaucratic dame, hard-working and earnest, perhaps, but lacking the
+kindly spirit of a sea-tradition. She is utterly out of touch and
+sympathy with a sea-sense--her arms, overstrained perhaps by the
+tremendous burden of charge upon charge that comes to her for
+settlement, are never open to the seamen. Sullenly, we resent her
+dictation as that of a usurper--a lay impropriator of our professional
+heritage. Under her coldly formal direction, we may attend our affairs
+in diligence and prudence, but for us there is no motherly licence; she
+has no pride in our doings (if one counts not the vicious insistence of
+her statistics)--we are only the stepchildren of her adoption, odd men
+of the huge and hybrid family over whom she has been set to cast a
+suspicious, if guardian, eye. While Trinity House was concerned alone
+with the conduct of shipping and sea-affairs, our new controllers of the
+Board of Trade have interests in charge as widely apart as the feeding
+of draught-horses and the examination of a bankrupt cheesemonger. We are
+but a Department. The sea-service of the nation, the key industry of our
+island commerce, is governed by a subdivision in a Ministry that has
+long outgrown the limits of a central and answerable control. Instead of
+settlement by a contained and competent Ministry of Marine, our highly
+technical sea-conduct is ruled for us in queue with longshore affairs,
+sandwiched, perhaps, between horse-racing and the period of the dinner
+table.
+
+          "_The President of the Board of Trade has
+          intimated to the Stewards of the National Hunt
+          Committee that . . . it is not possible to sanction
+          a list of fixtures for the season._"
+
+          "Mr. Peto asked the President of the Board of
+          Trade whether his attention has been called to the
+          decision of Mr. Justice Rowlatt . . . in which
+          judgment was given for the plaintiff company,
+          owners of the steamship X----, sunk in collision,
+          due to steaming without lights."
+
+          "_The President of the Board of Trade announces
+          modifications of the Lighting Order during the
+          present week, one effect being that the
+          prohibition of the serving of meals in hotels
+          after 9.30 p.m. is temporarily suspended._"
+
+Perhaps we were rather spoilt by the pride that was in us when our
+seafaring was ruled by the appreciative Brethren of Trinity, and it may
+be as a repressive measure of discipline the Board of Trade extends no
+particular favour to our sea-trade, and has indeed gone further in being
+at pains to belittle our sea-deeds, and disparage a recognition of our
+status. Our controllers are anxious that their ruling of award and
+reward should suffer no comparison. For gallantry at sea, the grades of
+their recognition may vary from the Silver Medal (delivered, perhaps, as
+in a recent case, with the morning's milk) to a sextant or a pair of
+binoculars.
+
+In 1905 a very gallant rescue was effected by the men of the Liverpool
+steamer _Augustine_. The crew of a Greek vessel were taken from their
+foundering ship in mid-Atlantic under circumstances of great peril. Not
+only was boat service performed in tempestuous weather, but the officers
+of _Augustine_ themselves jumped overboard to try to save the Greek
+seamen, who were too far exhausted to hold on to the life-lines and
+buoys thrown to them. The King of Greece, in recognition of the
+gallantry and humanity displayed, signed a decree conferring on the
+British master and his officers the Gold Decoration of the Redeemer.
+
+A general view would be that this was an award quite appropriate to the
+services rendered, an expression by the Greek Government that they
+wished to place the names of the gallant savers of their seamen on the
+Roll of their Honour. Our Board of Trade objected. Through the Foreign
+Office, they appear to have informed the Greek Government that such
+distinguished awards were unusual and might prove a source of
+dissatisfaction in future cases. Possibly they viewed the appearance of
+a ribbon on the breast of a merchant seaman as an encroachment on the
+rights of their own permanent officials. The awards were not made;
+silver medals were substituted, which Captain Forbes and his officers,
+learning of the Board's action, did not accept. On a later occasion the
+same unsympathetic influence was exercised; the Russian Order of St.
+Stanislaus was withdrawn and replaced by a gold watch and chain!
+
+In supervision of our qualifications as masters and mates, the Board of
+Trade has followed the lines of least resistance. It is true that they
+have established certain standards in navigation and seamanship that we
+must attain in order to hold certificates, but the training to these
+standards has never been an interest of their Department. While our
+shipmate, the marine engineer, has opportunity in his apprenticeship on
+shore to complete his education, we are debarred from the same facility.
+Apprenticed to the sea at from fourteen to sixteen years of age, our
+youth bid good-bye to their school books and enter on a life of freedom
+from scholarly restraint--a 'kindergarten' in which their toys are
+hand-implements of the sea. There is no need to worry; there is no study
+required for four years; a week or two at the crammer's will suffice to
+satisfy the Board of Trade when apprenticeship days were over. And the
+fault does not lie with the 'crammer.' Scholarly and able and competent,
+as most of them are, to impart a better and more thorough instruction,
+the system of leaving all to the voyage's end offers to them no alternative
+but to present the candidate for examination as rapidly as possible.
+Sea-apprentices of late years did not often share in a scheme of instruction
+afloat. Rarely were they carried as complements to a full crew; for the
+most part they were workmen in a scant manning--'greenhorns'--drudges
+to the whim of any grown man. In a rough measure, the standard of such
+seamanship as they _gathered_ was good--else we had been in ill case
+to-day--but it was without method or apprehension--a smattering--the
+only saving grace of which lay in the ready resource that only seafaring
+engenders. The exactions of a busy working sea-life left little leisure
+for self-advancement in study; the short, and ever shortening, intervals
+of a stay in port provided small opportunity for exercise of a helping
+hand from the shore. By deceptive short cuts that gave small
+enlightenment, by rules--largely mnemonic--we passed our tests and
+obtained our certificates. On shore, the landward youth fared better.
+The spirit of the times provided a free and growing opportunity for the
+study of technics and advance of scientific craftsmanship. The Navy took
+full advantage of this tide. The Board of Admiralty saw the futility of
+the old system of sea-training, having regard to the complete alteration
+of the methods in seamanship and navigation. Naval education could no
+longer be compensated by a schedule of bugle-calls and the exactitude of
+a hammock-lashing. Concurrent with a sound sea-training, general
+education was insisted upon. Zealously Admiralty guided their youth on a
+path that led to a culture and appreciation of values, wide in scope, to
+serve their profession. If it was essential, in the national interest,
+that the general education and sea-training of naval officers should be
+so closely supervised, it was surely little less important that that of
+the merchants' officers should receive some measure of attention. But
+for the private efforts of some few shipowners, nothing on the lines of
+a considered scheme was done. No assistance or advice or grant in aid
+was made by the Board of Trade. While drawing to their coffers huge
+sums, accumulations of fines and forfeitures, deserters' wages, fees,
+the unclaimed earnings of deceased seamen, they could afford no
+assistance to guide the youthful seaman through a course of right
+instruction to a better sea-knowledge; they made no advances to place
+our education on a less haphazard basis. It may be cited as an evidence
+of _their_ indifference that a large proportion of unsuccessful
+candidates for the junior certificates fail in a test of _dictation_.
+
+With our entry to the war at sea in 1914, the same indifference was
+manifest. There was no mobilization or registration of merchant seamen
+to aid a scheme of manning and to control the chaos that was very soon
+evident. Despite their intimate knowledge of the gap in our ranks made
+by the calling-up of the Naval Reserve--accentuated by the enlistment of
+merchant seamen in the Navy--the Board of Trade could see no menace to
+the sea-transport service in the military recruitment of our men. It was
+apparently no concern of theirs that we sailed on our difficult voyages
+short-handed, or with weak crews of inefficient landsmen, while so many
+of our skilled seamen and numbers of our sea-officers were marking time
+in the ranks of the infantry. Under pressure of events, it was not until
+November 1915 they took a somewhat hesitating step. This was their
+proclamation; it may be contrasted with Captain Greenville Collins's
+preface.
+
+
+"MAINTENANCE OF BRITISH SHIPPING
+
+          "At the present time the efficient maintenance of
+          our Mercantile Marine is of vital national
+          interest, and captains, officers, engineers, and
+          their crews will be doing as good service for
+          their country by continuing to man British ships
+          as by joining the army.
+
+                   "THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE."
+
+
+"AT the present time"! Possibly our Board was writing in anticipation of
+the completion of the Channel tunnel, or of a date when our men-at-arms
+and their colossal equipment, the food and furnishings of the nation,
+the material aid to our Allies, could be transported by air. "As good
+service"! An equality! An option! Was it a matter of simple balance that
+a seaman on military service was using his hardily acquired
+sea-experience as wisely as in the conduct of his own skilled trade, as
+efficiently as in maintaining the lines of our oversea communications?
+Events at this date were proving that we had no need to go ashore for
+fighting service.
+
+In the first violence of unrestricted submarine warfare, the Board
+advanced little, if any, assistance to the victims of German savagery.
+Their machinery existed only to repatriate torpedoed crews under warrant
+as "distressed British seamen"; they were content to leave destitution,
+hunger--the rags and tatters of a body covering--to be relieved and
+refitted by the charitable efforts of philanthropic Seamen's Societies.
+To them--to the kindly souls who met us at the tide-mark--we give all
+honour and gratitude, but it was surely a shirking of responsibility on
+part of our Board that placed the burden of our maintenance on the
+committee of a Seaman's Bethel. As a tentative measure, our controllers
+advanced a scheme of insurance of effects--a business proposition, of
+which many took advantage. Later, this was altered to a gratuitous
+compensation. Cases occurred in which distressed seamen had a claim
+under both schemes: their foresight was not accounted to them. Although
+proof might be forthcoming of the loss of an outfit that the small
+compensation could not cover, they could claim only on one or the other,
+the insurance or the gratuitous compensation. It was evident that the
+Board derived some measure of assistance from the examiners in
+bankruptcy on their staff.
+
+In certain seaports--notably at Southampton--Sailors' Homes (built and
+endowed for the comfort and accommodation of the merchant seamen) were
+permitted, without protest, to be requisitioned by Admiralty for the
+sole use of their naval ratings. The merchantmen, on service of equal
+importance and equal danger, were turned out to the streets, and our
+Board took no action, registered no complaint.
+
+To await popular clamour was evidently a guiding principle with our
+controllers. Their view was probably that we were private employees in
+trading ventures, that their concern was only to see the sea-law carried
+out. Sea-law, however, was not in question in the case of the master and
+officers of _Augustine_, and, if they could assume the right to
+interfere in that personal matter, they accepted a position as curators
+of the personnel of the Merchants' Service. They cannot complain if our
+understanding of their duties does not agree with theirs. Deliberately,
+they have asserted that our sea-conduct is within their province.
+
+An extraordinary matter is the character and calibre of the Board's
+marine officials. Unquestionably able and personally sympathetic as they
+are, it remains the more incomprehensible that our governance is so
+stupidly controlled. Perhaps their submissions fail of acceptance in the
+councils of a higher control--that has also to decide on horse-racing
+and bankruptcy. Under a less heavily encumbered Ministry, our affairs
+should receive the consideration that is their due. It required but
+little experience of the new sea-warfare to establish our claim to be
+considered a national service with a mission and employment no less
+vital and combatant than that of the enlisted arms. Master and man, we
+have earned the right to no small voice in the control of our own
+affairs. Our sea-interests are large enough to require a separate
+Department of the State, a Ministry of Marine, in which we should have a
+part.
+
+The Board of Trade has failed us, they have proved unworthy of our
+confidence. Quite lately they began to mobilize and register the
+mercantile seamen of the country. _Three years and nine months after the
+outbreak of war, they sounded the 'assembly' of the Merchants' Service._
+Let that be their epitaph!
+
+[Illustration: TRANSPORTS LEAVING SOUTHAMPTON ON THE NIGHT PASSAGE TO
+FRANCE]
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+MANNING
+
+
+SEA-LABOUR cannot be likened to employment on shore. Once signed and
+boarded and to sea, there can be no dismissal and replacement of the men
+such as may be seen any morning at the street gates of a workshop or
+shipyard. Good or bad, we are bound as shipmates for a voyage. Ordinary
+laws and regulations cannot reach us in our sailing; we are given the
+Merchant Shipping Act for our guidance, the longest and wordiest Act on
+the Statute Book, a measure that presupposes a discipline that no longer
+exists. Our ships, in size and power--our complement, in number and
+character--have altered greatly beyond the views of the Act. That
+statute, that in its day may have sufficed to set a standard of law and
+order to the moderate crews of our sailing ships, is utterly inadequate
+to control effectively the large ship's company of our modern steam
+vessels. The men, too, are changed--the sailormen, perhaps, not
+greatly--but, with the thundering evolution of steam-power, we have
+drawn grown men to the fires, ready-made men, uninfluenced by traditions
+of sea-service. We had no hand in their making--in the early years when
+discipline may be inculcated and character be formed. The drudgery and
+uninterest of their heavy work makes for a certain reaction that
+frequently finds its expression in violence and criminal disorder. The
+short voyage system and the grossly inadequate provisions of the Act
+afford no opportunity to guide the reaction in a less vicious direction.
+We hailed as a benefactor to the sea the inventor of single topsails;
+the statistics of our sea-fatalities give a definite date to their
+introduction. Daily we pray for an inventor to emancipate our stokehold
+gangs.
+
+It would be idle to pretend that, as master-seamen, we were not
+disquieted by our manning problem, following upon the outbreak of war.
+While mobilization of the Army Reserve drew men from all industries in a
+proportion that did not affect seriously any one employment, the
+calling-up of the Royal Naval Reserve strained our resources in men to
+the utmost. Seamen, naval or mercantile, are of one great trade: the
+balance of our activities being thrown suddenly and violently to one
+side of our engagement could not fail in disorganizing the other. Added
+to the outgoing of the retained Reserve seamen, recruitment of a new
+Reserve to man Auxiliaries and Special Service vessels was almost
+instantly begun. There were many applicants; the choice naturally fell
+upon our best men remaining. In and after August 1914, we were
+short-handed in the Merchants' Service. We were, indeed more than
+short-handed, for the loss of our steadiest men had effect in removing a
+certain check upon indiscipline. We missed just that influence upon
+which, for want of adequate authoritative powers, we counted to preserve
+some measure of subordinance in our ranks.
+
+Large vessels were most seriously affected. The service of troop
+transport suffered and was delayed. On occasion, there was the amazing
+instance of some 1500 trained and disciplined troops standing by to
+await the sobering-up and return to duty of a body of seamen and
+firemen. Drunkenness is not yet accounted a crime, but the holding up of
+vital reinforcements was no petty fault. Under the Act we were empowered
+to inflict a fine of exactly five shillings on each offender. The
+offence that held 1500 soldiers in check was met by a mulct of two
+half-crowns.
+
+[Illustration: LIVERPOOL: MERCHANTMEN SIGNING ON FOR OVERSEA VOYAGES]
+
+The Army and the Naval Authorities were startled, as at a situation they
+had not contemplated. Masters and officers, if not actually challenged,
+were deemed to be responsible for such a state of insubordination
+among their crews. While such an assumption was, to a degree, unjust, it
+is true that we were not wholly blameless. For the sake of a quiet
+commercial life, we had accepted the difficulties of our manning without
+protest. In this we erred. Had we been an independent and economically
+fearless body, we would, in the days before the war, have refused to
+proceed to sea with any less than the summary powers held by a
+magistrate on shore to enforce law and order in his district. It is true
+that no magisterial powers will prevent drunkenness, but that condition
+on the ships was due directly to the general indiscipline that we were
+unable wholly to control.
+
+The state of affairs called for more than a merely temporary measure,
+but our controllers advanced no settlement--only they devised an
+expedient. The situation was met, not by a firm action that would affect
+all merchant ships and seamen alike, but by a Defence of the Realm
+regulation that operated only when ships were chartered directly by
+Government. The opportunity to make the merchantmen's forecastle a place
+for decent men to earn a living was passed by. While admitting, by their
+concern, that the matter called for redress, Government could only take
+action in cases where their bureaucratic interests were threatened.
+Vessels on purely commercial voyages, including carriage of the mails
+and millions in the nation's securities, were left without the
+regulation: we had to carry on as best we could. It entailed hardship on
+the better-disposed members of our ships' companies: in whatever
+fashion, the work had to be carried on: we taxed our steady men to the
+limit. The effect upon them may be judged when they realized that the
+delinquency of their shipmates, whose duty they had undertaken, was
+assessed at the price of a pound of 'Fair Maid' tobacco.
+
+While the quality of our men was thus affected, we suffered in their
+diminished numbers. Without a protest from our governing body, the Board
+of Trade, the army took a toll of our seamen. Thus early, it was not
+realized that we merchantmen would have to fight for our ships and our
+lives at sea. The drums of field-war set up a note that was heard
+outside of six fathoms of blue water; large numbers of our seamen and
+many ships' officers joined up for military service. There was a certain
+measure of compensation afforded by the industrial situation ashore. As
+the magnitude of the world conflict was realized, nervous employers of
+labour reduced their staffs. All workmen suffered, the building trades
+being perhaps most affected. As needs must, we were open to recruit
+able-bodied men: we had to make seamen, and that quickly. Masons,
+brick-layers, tilers, slaters--they reached tide-mark in their quest for
+employment. We were glad enough to sign them on to make up our
+complements. At the first they were not of great value. Unused to the
+sea and ship-life, they had to be nursed through stormy weather: a
+source of anxiety to the watch-keeper when the seas were up. In time
+they became moderately efficient. As good tradesmen, they had a
+self-respect that could be encouraged: they were not difficult to
+control.
+
+Of these, perhaps 50 per cent. made a second voyage, but not more than
+10 per cent. remained at sea permanently. Their reasons for returning to
+the beach were always the same. Not the hard work or the seas appalled
+them, but the class of men with whom they had to live and work. Some of
+our recruits had other objects in view than a desire for a sea-life. At
+ports abroad, notably in the United States, they deserted. Strict as the
+Federal machinery is for regulating immigration into the United States,
+there appeared to be no keen desire on the part of the authorities to
+embarrass the improper entry of our men. It was not difficult to assign
+a cause for their laxity. Technically, the men were seamen. Our Uncle
+Sam was stirring towards true sea-power--the acquisition of large
+mercantile fleets. The native American could see no prosperous
+commercial career in the forecastle: only from abroad might labour be
+obtained for operation of the ships. We had done the same in our time.
+Desertions were not confined to the landsmen of our crews. A situation
+arose quickly, in which it became profitable for our men to desert
+abroad and re-sign on another ship at an enhanced pay. As though to
+facilitate their breach of agreement, it was not long before the United
+States Seamen's Act came into force. By some international process that
+we seamen are not yet able to understand, this Act became operative on
+every vessel entering an American port. It establishes, for all seamen,
+the 'right to quit.' Strangely, our men did not all abandon ship. Some
+stirring of the patriotism that, later, became pronounced among them
+must have had effect in restraining wholesale disembarkation.
+Short-handed by perhaps an eighth of a full crew, we made our return
+voyages. By shift and expedient, we kept a modest head of steam. The
+loss was almost wholly at the fires. Stewards were set to deck duties
+and the look-out, the released sailormen went below to the stokehold--on
+occasion, passengers were recruited on board to bear a hand. Perhaps the
+public grumbled at receiving their letters an hour or two behind time.
+
+It is not easy to advance reasons for the new and better spirit that
+came to us coincident with the appearance of German savagery at sea.
+Restrictions of the supply of drink had effect in enabling us to
+commence a voyage under good conditions, without brawling and bloodshed
+in the forecastle. An atmosphere of determination was, perhaps,
+introduced by the tales of undying heroism in the trenches that reached
+us. The losses in ships served partially to supplement the numbers of
+men available: a choice could be made in engagement of a crew. Over all,
+there was the menace to our seafaring--the threat and challenge to our
+sea-pride, as compelling and remedial as the draught of a free breeze.
+In his action, the enemy made many miscalculations; not the least was
+when he roused a spirit of readiness to service in our merchantmen; he
+blew more than the acrid fumes into us with the shattering explosion of
+his torpedoes.
+
+If we may claim a patriotic influence acting upon our white seamen as
+reason for good service in the war, how shall we assess the lascar's
+quiet employment in a conflict that, perhaps, only dimly he understood?
+Of its operation he could have no ignorance. _Schrecklichkeit_ was
+particularly to be employed against the native seaman. Shell and torpedo
+took toll of his numbers, but there was little hesitancy when he was
+invited to sign for further voyages. It was ever a point of prophecy
+with his detractors in the days of peace that he would be found wanting
+under stress. Not boldly or magnificently or in a spirit of vainglory,
+but in a manner that is not the less impressive because few have spoken
+of it, he has given them the lie.
+
+The attitude of the naval authorities in regard to our manning is
+peculiar. They seem to be unable to think of ships' crews in any other
+terms than that of their own large complements. There is one part in the
+lectures of our instructional course that never fails to arouse rude
+merriment among the master-seamen attending--as it produces a shamefaced
+attitude on part of the naval lecturer (now intimate with our
+difficulties). In instructions for detailing our men to 'action
+stations' the phrases occur: "a party to be detached for attention to
+wounded," "a party to serve hoses at fire stations," "an ammunition
+supply party," "party to put the provisions and blankets in the boats."
+In practice, we are also working the guns, attending the navigation,
+spotting the fall of shot, keeping post at wheel and look-out. The
+average cargo vessel rarely carries more than eight men on deck: we
+cannot afford to have many wounded!
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+[Illustration: THE RULER OF PILOTS AT DEAL]
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE COASTAL SERVICES
+
+
+THE HOME TRADE
+
+          "_We're a North-country ship, an' a deep-water crew.
+                   A--way, i-oh!
+            Ye can stick t' th' coast, but we're damned if we do.
+                   An' we're bound t' Rio Grande!_"
+
+
+SO we sang--sounding a bravery at the capstan as we hove around and
+raised anchor to begin a voyage. We had our ideas. We were foreign-going
+sailors, putting out on a far venture. In pride of our seafaring--of
+rounding the Horn, of crossing Equator, perhaps of a circumnavigation--we
+looked down upon the coaster. He was a hoveller, a tidesman, a
+mud-raker--his anchors could shew no coral on the flukes as they came
+awash. We carried these ideas to the beach. Deliberately, we produced an
+atmosphere that is unjust to the cross-channel man.
+
+The oversea voyage possesses a greater appeal to the imagination. Long
+distances, variation of the climes, storm and high ocean seas--a burthen
+of goods brought from a far country, all contribute to make an
+impression that the tale of a coasting voyage could not produce.
+Familiarity, perhaps, has robbed the short-carriers' sea-trip of what
+shreds of romance existed. In tide and out, the smaller vessels have
+grown to the sight as almost part of the familiar quays and wharves they
+frequent. A voyage from Tyne to the Thames or from Glasgow to Liverpool
+is so common and everyday that little remark is excited. We are
+unconcerned at its incident; the gale that wrecked a collier on the
+Black Middens may have blown a tile or two from our roof; the fog that
+bound the Antwerp boat for a tide is, perhaps, the same that held us in
+the City for an hour over time. We may entertain our friends with
+recital of a sea-voyage, but we have not a great deal to say of a
+Channel passage.
+
+At war, this focus of the public outlook has persisted. The threat to
+our sea-communications, to the source by which the nation gains its
+daily bread, has drawn an intense interest to the fortunes of the ships,
+but that interest has rarely been extended to the coasting vessels and
+the seamen who man them; there is little said of the work of the coastal
+pilots, on whose skill and local knowledge so much depends. We are
+concerned for our _Britannics_ and _Justitias_, but the fate of the
+_Sarah Pritchard_ of Beaumaris, or the escape of _Boy Jacob_ are small
+events in relation to the toll of our tonnage. Their utility has not
+been brought before us in the same way as the direct service of the
+great ocean carriers. It is not difficult to understand that a breakdown
+of that source of supply would mean starvation and disaster. Our
+dependence on the coasting vessels is not so apparent. The vital needs
+served by them are, in part, obscured. We are, perhaps, satisfied that
+alternative channels exist for passage of the tonnage they transport:
+road and rail are open for inland carriage.
+
+The situation is not quite so clear. Pressure at the rail-heads, at the
+collieries, at the steelworks and the manufactories, has thrown a burden
+on our island railways that they are unable to bear. But for the service
+of the coasters and the resolution of the home-trade seamen, the block
+to our traffic could not have been other than fatal. By relieving the
+congestion on the lines, they made possible the expansion of our output
+of munitions. Millions of tons that would otherwise have been put upon
+land transport (and have lain to swell the accumulations), are brought
+to tide-mark to be handled and cleared and ferried between home ports
+and across the channels by the coasting vessels. The Fleet is coaled
+and stored almost entirely by sea. Our men in France and Flanders are
+carried and fed and refitted by light-draught steamers. Power is
+transmitted to our Allies from British coalfields by our grimy colliers.
+Constant voyaging, dispatch at the ports of lading and discharge,
+seagoing through all weathers, make huge the total of their tonnage, but
+their individual cargoes rank small against the mammoth burdens of the
+oversea merchantmen. The sea-ants (however busily they throng the ports)
+are seldom remarked; their work is carried on in the shadow of more
+spectacular and lengthy voyaging. On occasion, a stray beam of popular
+recognition is turned on the smaller craft--as when _Wandle_ steams up
+Thames after her gallant fight, or when _Thordis_ (Bell, master) rams
+and sinks a U-boat--but the light is quickly slewed again to illuminate
+the seafaring of the oversea vessels. Similarly--with the men--interest
+has centred on the deep-water mariner; the coasting masters and their
+crews, together with the pilots, are little heard of. Their navigations,
+steering by the land on a short passage of a tide or two, have not the
+compelling emphasis of long voyaging on distant seas. Chroniclers of our
+deeds and fates have set out the drawn agony of the raft and the open
+boat in mid-Atlantic; they are less insistent on the tragedies (as
+bitter and prolonged) of inshore waters. Perhaps they are influenced by
+a common misconception that succour is ever ready at hand in the narrow
+sea. There are the lifeboats on the coast, patrols on keen look-out in
+the channels, vessels are ever passing up and down the fairways; the
+land, in any case, is not far distant. Such assurance has but slender
+warrant. Gallant, unselfish, and thorough as are the services of the
+lifeboatmen, their operations in the main are intended to serve known
+wrecks and strandings. A flare in the darkness or a flash of gunfire in
+the channels is now no special signal; the new sea-casualty gives little
+time or warning for a muster of resources. The ready succour of the
+patrols is, perhaps, more instant and alert, but the channel seaways
+cover an area that no system could place under a quartered post or
+guard. No vigilance could prevent the capture of _Brussels_ and the
+martyrdom of Captain Fryatt; the crew of the _Nelson_ smack were for
+over thirty hours adrift in the narrow seas ere they were sighted and
+rescued. In the busy waters of the Irish Sea, three men of the ketch
+_Lady of the Lake_ made ten miles in eight hours under oars, after their
+vessel had been sunk by gunfire. A weary progress, with ships passing
+near and far, but none daring too close the boat that might, for all
+they know, be trap for an enemy mine or torpedo.
+
+It is time we ceased to sing that Rio Grande chanty: an _amende_ is
+overdue.
+
+While we, the foreign-going men, have our 'ins and outs' of the most
+dangerous seas--serving our turn in the front-line sea-trenches, then
+retiring to a rest in safer and more distant waters--the coastal seaman
+has no such relief. His daily duty lies in the storm-centre, in the
+very midst of the sea-war. From harbour mouth to the booms of his port
+of entry, no course can be steered that does not drive his keel through
+minable areas and across the ranges of lurking submarines.
+
+The new sea-warfare has developed a scheme of offence that renders our
+inshore waters peculiarly fraught with peril to navigators. The
+coast-line is no longer a defence and protection; rather, by limiting
+sea-room in manoeuvre, the shoals and rock-bound beach have turned
+ally to the enemy. Sea-mark and headland provide a guide in estimating
+the run of a torpedo; note of a point definite, on which sea-routes
+converge, is of value to a submarine commander. Even in the shallower
+waters--depths in which a torpedo attack would be difficult--an equally
+deadly offence may be maintained. The run of the sea-bottom in the
+channels offering a good hold to slipped mine-moorings, it was not long
+before the enemy had adapted submarines to continue the minelaying that
+our command of the surface had stopped. While new and larger U-boats are
+sent abroad on the trade routes, special submarines, less encumbered by
+the stores and equipment that longer passages would demand, make
+frequent visits to the fairways to sow a freight of mines. No section of
+the channels holds sanctuary for the coaster. Close inshore, as in the
+offing, is all a danger area, open to the stealthy visits of the
+submarine minelayers. Right on the Mersey Bar, the Liverpool pilot
+steamer went up with a loss of forty lives; remote West Highland bays
+have echoed to the crash of mines exploded; seaward of the Irish banks,
+the deeps are alike dangerous. Counter-measures there are (services as
+efficient and resourceful in life-saving as those of the enemy are
+cunning and viciously ingenious in murder), but even the gallantry and
+skill and untiring efforts of our minesweepers cannot wholly clear the
+immense water-spaces. Mechanical contrivances--the Otters--are valuable,
+and aid in fending the mines, but (the sea-bottom being foul with
+wreckage) they are often a danger to their carriers. There is ever the
+harassing uncertainty which no vigilance may allay. The sheer relief of
+passing over the hundred-fathom line to the comparative safety of the
+deeps of ocean is never experienced by the cross-channel captain.
+
+Favoured by their light draught and smaller proportions, the coasters
+are perhaps less exposed to successful torpedo attack than their larger
+and deeper ocean sisters. In the early days of submarine activity, the
+enemy was loath to use his deadlier and more expensive weapon on the
+small craft. He relied on gunfire to produce effects. The channel seas
+were not then as well patrolled as now by armed auxiliaries: he could
+have a leisurely exercise in frightfulness at little risk to
+himself--there was no return to his fire--it was an easy target
+practice. _Cottingham_ was shelled at short ranges when off the Bristol
+Channel. Unarmed and outdistanced, the master stopped his engines,
+lowered the two boats, and abandoned ship. The shelling continued, but
+was directed on the sinking ship; the submarine commander evidently
+thought the bitter wintry weather would accomplish a more refined
+_Schrecklichkeit_ than the summary execution of his shell-bursts. In the
+heavy battery of a sou'west gale, the boats drove apart. The master's
+boat was sighted by a patrol, and the crew of six rescued after some
+hours' exposure. The mate's boat came ashore at Portliskey in Wales,
+bottom up and shattered; of the seven men who had manned her there was
+no trace. Six of _Cottingham's_ crew survived the bitter weather--six
+hardy seamen were spared to return to service afloat. The German became
+dissatisfied with a frightfulness that murdered only half a merchant
+ship's crew when it was possible to murder all. It was not enough to
+destroy the ships and leave the seamen to the wind and sea and bitter
+weather. If they were not to be driven from their calling by fear, there
+were other measures--sure, definite, final. There was to be no weakness
+among the apostles of the new creed, no shrinking, no humanity--British
+seamen were to follow their shattered ships to the litter of the channel
+bottom. The _Koelnische Zeitung_ set forth that "in future, our German
+submarines and aircraft would wage war against British mercantile
+vessels without troubling themselves in any way about the fate of the
+crews." The _Koelnische Zeitung_ could not have been well informed. Their
+submarine commanders troubled themselves greatly about the fate of our
+crews. They shelled the boats in many subsequent attacks. They expended
+ammunition in efforts to secure that no further seafaring would be
+possible to their victims. Sheer individual murder took the place of an
+illegal act of war. ". . . We were unarmed, a slow ship. The submarine
+hit us with a shot on the bow and then ran up the signal to take to the
+lifeboats. We did so, and several shots were fired at the _Palermo_.
+They did not take effect, however, and a torpedo was sent into her side.
+She sank within a few minutes. Whether the fact that he had to use a
+torpedo to send our vessel to the bottom angered the commander I do not
+know, but the submarine came directly alongside of our lifeboats. The
+commander was on the deck, and yelled, 'Where is the captain of that
+ship?' The captain stood up and made his way to the side where the
+German was standing. The German held his revolver close to our captain's
+head. 'You will never bring _another ship across this ocean_,' he said,
+using several oaths, then he pulled the trigger. Our captain fell dead,
+and we were permitted to continue."
+
+The new campaign was directed particularly against the coasters and
+fishermen. The procedure was simple. No great speed or gun-range was
+required. There was no risk, if a good look-out was kept for patrols and
+war craft. The helpless, unarmed vessel, outsped and hulled, was
+brought-to within easy range, and shelling could be continued to
+augment the confusion of boat-lowering in a seaway. If by resolution and
+fine seamanship the boats were got away, there was further target
+practice with shrapnel or machine-gun. The schooner _Jane Williamson_ of
+Arklow was attacked without warning. The first shot smashed one of her
+boats, the second killed one of the crew. At shouting distance--a
+hundred yards range--point-blank under the submarine's gun--there could
+be no question of defence or escape. The remaining five hands put over
+the second boat, tumbled into her and shoved clear. To hit the boat the
+submarine's gun must have been slewed deliberately from the larger
+target: bad shooting could not have occurred. Afloat and helpless, a
+shell struck her, killing one man outright, mortally wounding the master
+and another, and damaging the frail row-boat. The Germans beckoned the
+boat to them, but it was only to laugh at the throes of the dying men.
+The U-boat submerged, leaving the three survivors to ship oars and face
+the long weary pull towards the distant land. The _William_ was sunk by
+gunfire; the gun's crew of the U-boat then loaded shrapnel and turned
+the gun on the open boat, wounding a man of the crew. _Redcap_ was
+hauling her trawl when without any warning shrapnel burst on board.
+There was no challenge, the fishermen had made no attempt to get under
+way and escape. Busied with the gear, all hands were grouped together,
+when the shell exploded among them. One hand was killed instantly, the
+mate's leg was blown off, two seamen were wounded. Under fire, the
+survivors put the boat over and removed the wounded; the Germans gave no
+thought to their distress, but centred rapid fire on the trawler, sunk
+her, and disappeared.
+
+[Illustration: A HEAVILY ARMED COASTING BARGE]
+
+When guns were served to merchant ships, the coasters shared in their
+issue. Encounters with enemy submarines were no longer one-sided and
+hopeless. Effects could not be secured by the Germans at so small a
+cost. Frequently the effects were those that the submarine commander was
+most anxious to avoid. _Atalanta_ picked up the crew of _Marechal de
+Villars_, then fought off the U-boat that had sunk that vessel. Watchers
+on the coastal headlands saw many a running fight between handy little
+home-traders and the under-sea pirates. Nor were the fishermen slow in
+action. Once armed for defence, they proved that they could use their
+weapons with skill and precision. Off Aberdeen in stormy weather, a
+German submarine hove up from his depths for practice on a fleet of
+trawlers. It was to be a _Redcap_ diversion: rapid fire, shrapnel, boats
+thrown out hastily, common shell on the hulls of the trawlers--wholesale
+destruction. But there was a mistake. A 'watch-dog' was among the
+fleet--_Commissioner_, armed and alert. At an opportune moment she cut
+her gear adrift, canted under speed and helm, returned the U-boat's fire
+and sank her in five rounds. Submarine commanders soon realized that
+'diversions' were risky, the target could now hit back. It was safer to
+submerge when within range of anything larger than a row-boat. Even the
+sailing barges acquired a sting. In proportion to her tonnage, _Drei
+Geschwister_--a captured German, refitted to our coastal service--is
+probably the heaviest armed vessel afloat.
+
+In channel waters, look-outs must not be confined to the round of the
+sea. To the U-boat's gunfire and torpedo, to the menace of moored and
+drifting mines, is added a danger that rarely threatens the oversea
+trader--an attack from the air. Striking distance from enemy bases has
+given opportunity for exercise of aircraft. Zeppelin and seaplane have
+their turns of activity in the North Sea and the Straits. Steering a
+careful course in a sea 'foul with floating mines,' the Cork steamship
+_Avocet_ was attacked by three aeroplanes. The action lasted for over
+half an hour. Bombs exploded alongside, the bridge and upper decks were
+scarred and pitted by a hail of machine-gun bullets. The master and mate
+kept the aircraft at a respectful height by using their rifles--the only
+arms carried. By skilful handling, Captain Brennell saved his ship. He
+is probably the only seaman who has steered a deliberate course between
+a 'fall' of bombs; swinging on starboard helm, 'three bombs missed the
+starboard bow and three the port quarter by at most seven feet.' The
+_Birchgrove_ was attacked by two seaplanes carrying torpedoes--a novel
+adaptation. Again the use of ready helm proved a moving ship a difficult
+target. Both torpedoes missed. Less fortunate was the _Franz Fischer_,
+an ex-German collier. Anchored off the Kentish Knock, the night black
+dark, the thunder of a Zeppelin's engines was heard overhead. Before
+there was time to extinguish all lights, the huge airship was able to
+take up a position for attack. One heavy bomb sufficed. _Franz Fischer_
+reeled to a tremendous explosion, heeled over, and sank. Only three
+survived of her crew of sixteen.
+
+Constant sea-perils are enhanced by war measures in the channels. On
+open sea there is less confusion; the issue is narrowed to contest
+between ship and submarine and the hazard of a derelict or floating
+mine--there is ample sea-room in which to 'back and fill.' The coaster
+has a harder task. His navigational problem is complicated by the eight
+hundred odd pages of 'Notices to Mariners'--the amends and addends and
+cancellations of Admiralty instructions relating to the seafaring of the
+coast. Inner channels are confused by 'friendly' minefields or by
+alteration of the buoyage; aids to navigation are suspended or
+rearranged on scant notice; coastwise lights are put out or have their
+powers reduced to small efficiency in the mists and grey weather.
+Unmarked wrecks, growing daily in numbers, litter the sea-bottom; areas
+are to be avoided to leave a fair field for the hunters; zigzag courses
+in close proximity to the land sustain a constant anxiety. Above all,
+navigation without lights increases the danger to all merchantmen and to
+the patrols and naval craft that crowd the seaways of the coast.
+
+Through all that the enemy can set against them, the home-trade vessels
+proceed on their voyages. Their losses are heavy in numbers (if the sum
+of their tonnage be not great), but the press of short sea-carriers that
+passes up Channel or down shews no evidence that frightfulness achieves
+an effect in holding them, loath, at their moorings. There is freight
+enough for all. Every vessel that has a sound keel and a helm to steer
+her is actively employed. Old craft and odd are come on the sea to serve
+turn in our emergency. Barges and inland watermen, Hudson Bay sloops,
+whilom pleasure craft, mud-hoppers reshelled, hulks even, are used; if
+they can neither sail nor steam, the ropemakers can supply a
+hawser--there is trade and bargain for a tow. After peace-years of
+grinding competition with the freight-grabbing steam coasters, the
+sailing craft of the smaller ports have found a new prosperity, from
+which no risks can daunt them. Sailmakers and rigging-cutters, the block
+and spar makers, have taken up their old tools again, and the gallant
+little topsail schooners, brigantines, cutters, and ketches are out
+under canvas.
+
+The German boast that he can achieve victory by submarine policy could
+be nowhere more plainly refuted than in the War Channel that extends
+from the Thames to the Tyne. The evidence is there for all to judge. The
+seaway is foul with wrecks, foundered on beach and sandbar--the tide
+vexed by under-water obstructions. Topmast spars with whitened cordage
+whipping in the wind stand out above the swirl of the tides; a shattered
+bow-section or gaunt listed shell of a wrecked vessel sets the turn to a
+new shoal drift; crazy funnels, twisted and arake by the broken hulls
+below, stud the angles of the buoyage that marks the fairway. Disaster
+to our shipping is plainly shewn, grouped in a way that no figures or
+statistics could rival. But there is other evidence. Daybreak in the
+Channel gives light to a progress of seaworthy craft that seems in no
+way diminished by the worst that the enemy can do. He has failed,
+despite the sinister sea-marks that litter the fairway. Down the river
+estuaries and out from the sea-harbour and roadstead, the coasters still
+join in company through the channels. An unending procession; the grey
+seascape is never free of their whirling smoke-wreaths. Passing and
+turning in the deeps, they steam close to the red-rusted, shattered
+hulls of their sister ships. The gaunt masses of tortured steel stand
+out as monuments to an indomitable spirit--or to an influence that calls
+their sea-mates out to steer by the loom of their wreckage.
+
+
+PILOTS
+
+IF we may count antiquity and precedence a claim, the pilot is the real
+senior of our trade. Before the ship and her tackling--the rude coracle,
+setting across the river bars or steering on a short passage by
+sea-marks on the coast, before the oversea venturer with his guide in
+sun and star--the lodesman, who marked the deeps and the shallows.
+
+The pilot's departure and boarding are definite and well-marked
+incidents in the course of a voyage, and have a significance and
+interest few other ship-happenings claim. He is our last and first
+connection with the shore. His leaving is attended by a sober emotion, a
+compound of regret and impatience; regret that his sure support is
+withdrawn--impatience to go ahead to open sea. He backs over the rail
+and lurches down the swaying side-ladder to his dinghy to an
+accompaniment of cordial good-byes. Passengers crowd the bulwarks to
+watch his small boat go a-bobbing in the stern-wash as we gather way. It
+hardly occurs to them that their farewell letters, now in his
+weather-stained bag, may be for days or weeks unposted; to them he is
+the last post--the link is snapped, the voyage now really begun.
+
+There may be masters who affect a fine aloofness when the pilot boards
+them on incoming, others who preserve a detached air--but there are few
+who do not feel relief in answering the cheerful hail--'All well aboard,
+Captain?'--as the pilot puts a cautious testing foot on the side-ladder.
+Here is the voyage practically at an end with the coming of an expert in
+local navigation. The anxiety of a landfall is over. The channel buoys,
+port hand and starboard, stretch out ahead to mark definite limits to
+shoal and sandbank; familiar landmarks loom up through the drift of
+distant city haze; the outer lightship curtsies in the swell, beckoning
+us into port to resume the brief round of longshore life. After a
+lengthy period of silence and detachment, we are again in touch with the
+affairs of the beach; the news of the day and of weeks past is told to
+us in intervals of steering orders--sailor news, edited by a competent
+understanding of our professional interests. The tension of the voyage
+is unconsciously relaxed. We are in good hands. The engines turn
+steadily and we come in from sea.
+
+If the pilot was ever a welcome attendant in the peaceful days, his
+services in the war earn for him an even warmer appreciation. War
+measures in their operation have rendered our seaports difficult of
+entry. The buoyage has, perhaps, been reset in the interval of a
+voyage's absence. Boom defences and examination areas exist, channels
+are closed or obstructed; certain of the lightships or floating marks
+may be withdrawn on short warning. Amid all our doubts and
+uncertainties, we look for the one assured sea-mark on the unfamiliar
+bars--the red-and-white emblem of a pilot vessel on her boarding
+station. Undeterred by the risk of mine or torpedo while marking time on
+their cruising ground, the pilots are constantly on the alert to board
+the incoming vessels as they approach from seaward. No state of the
+weather drives the cutter from her station to seek shelter in safer
+waters. If the seas are too high for boatwork, she steams ahead and
+offers a lead to a quieter section of the fairway where boarding may be
+attempted.
+
+Turn and turn of the pilots in service can no longer be effected. The
+even balances of their roster (that worked so well in peace-time) have
+been rudely disturbed by war. The steady round of duty, in which every
+man knew the date of his relief, has given place to a state of 'feast
+and famine'; all hands are frequently mustered to meet the sudden and
+unheralded demands of an inward-bound convoy, or the limited
+accommodation of the cutter is taxed and overloaded by the release of
+pilots from an outward mass sailing.
+
+There are grades of pilotage--from that of the rivers and protected
+waters to the more hazardous voyages between coastal ports. It is,
+perhaps, to the sea-pilots of Trinity we are most intimately drawn.
+While the river pilot is with us for the short term of the tide, the
+Trinity man is of our ship's company for a day or days. His valued local
+knowledge is at our service to set and steer fair courses in the
+perplexing tangents of unfamiliar tideways; operations of the
+minesweepers and patrols--that alter and multiply beyond counting in the
+course of a voyage abroad--are a plain book to him. If we meet disaster
+in the channels, we have a prompter at our elbow to advise a favourable
+beaching. We have a peer to confide in throughout our difficulties.
+After days of anxious watchkeeping on the bridge we are well served by a
+competent relief.
+
+Ship movements in the western waters are controlled by the naval
+authorities in a manner that allows of independent sailings, but the
+Trinity pilots' duties lie in the Channel and the North Sea, where a
+more exacting regime is in force. From the Downs to the north, measures
+adopted for protection of the ships call for a time-table of sailings
+and arrivals that can only be adhered to by the pilot's aid. A 'War
+Channel' is established, a sea-lane of some two hundred and eighty miles
+that has constantly to be swept and cleared in advance of the traffic.
+Navigation in the channel obstructs an efficient search for mines;
+sweeping operations interfere with the passage of the ships. No small
+amount of control and management is necessary to reconcile conflicting
+actions and expedite the safe conduct of the shipping. Latterly,
+sailings were restricted to the hours of daylight; a system of sectional
+passages is enforced, by which all vessels are scheduled to make a
+protected anchorage before nightfall. An effect of this is to group the
+vessels in large scattered convoys, forming a pageant of shipping that
+even the busiest days of peace-time could not rival.
+
+In all the story of the Downs, the great roadstead can rarely have
+presented such a scene as when, on a chill winter morning, we lay at
+anchor awaiting passage. Overnight, we had come in under convoy from the
+westward, eighteen large ships, to swell the tonnage that had gathered
+from the Channel ports. From Kingsdown to the Gull, there was hardly
+water-space to turn a wherry. Even in the doubtful holding ground of
+Trinity Bay some large ships were anchored, and the fairway through the
+Roads was encroached upon by more than one of us--despite the summary
+signals from the Guardship. All types were represented in our assembly;
+we boasted a combination in dazzle paint to set us out, and our signal
+flags carried colour to the mastheads to complete the variegations of
+our camouflage. Troop transports from the States, standard cargo ships,
+munition carriers come over in the night from the French ports,
+high-sided empty colliers returning to the north for further loads,
+deep-laden freighters for London, ammunition and store ships for the
+Fleet, coasters and barges, made up the mercantile shipping riding at
+anchor, while naval patrols and harbour craft under way gave movement to
+the spectacle. Snow had fallen, and the uplands above Deal and Walmer
+had white drifts in the quartered fields. To seaward, we could see twin
+wreaths of smoke blowing low on the water, marking the progress of a
+flotilla of minesweepers, on whose operations we waited. A brisk north
+wind held out our signal flags, shewing our ports of destination, and
+the pilot cutter, busily serving men on the inward bound, took note of
+our demands. In time, the punt delivered our pilot, and we hove short,
+awaiting a signal from the Guardship that would release the traffic.
+
+The teeth of the Goodwins had bared to a snarl of broken water that
+shewed the young flood making when movement began among the ships. Long
+experience had accustomed the pilots to the ways of the minesweepers,
+and when the clearing signal 'Vessels may proceed' was hoisted at the
+yard-arm of the Guardship, there were few anchors still to be raised.
+Crowding out towards the northern gateway, we found ourselves in close
+formation. Variations of speeds rendered the apparent confusion
+difficult to steer through, but the action of a kindred masonry among
+the pilots seemed to clear the narrow sea-lane. There was little easing
+of speed; with only a few hours of winter daylight to work in, shipping
+was being driven at its utmost power to make the most of the precious
+time. 'All out,' stoking up and setting a stiff smoke-screen over the
+seascape, we thinned out to a more comfortable formation, while the
+smaller craft, taking advantage of the rising tide, cut the inner angles
+of the channel to keep apace.
+
+With flood tide to help us, we made good progress. The press of shipping
+gradually dropped astern till only the troop transport, our
+sea-neighbours of the convoy, kept company with us. Satisfied with the
+speed made, the pilot reckoned up the mileage and the tide. We were for
+Hull and, with luck, he expected to make Yarmouth Roads before darkness
+and the Admiralty regulations obliged us to bring up. Like all who serve
+the tide, he was prepared for an upset to his plans. "Not much use
+figuring things out in these days, Capt'n," he said. "A lot o'
+happenings come our way. In spite o' these fellows out there"--he
+pointed to a group of destroyers lining out on our seaward beam--"the
+U-boat minelayers get in on the channels to lay 'eggs'; as fast as we
+can sweep them up, sometimes. But"--cheerfully--"they don't always get
+back for another load: saw the bits o' one being towed into Harwich last
+week."
+
+Happenings came our way. At the Edinburgh Channel, where the troop
+transports parted company and turned away for London, we were halted by
+an urgent signal from a spurring torpedo-boat. 'Ships bound north to
+anchor instantly,' was the reading of her flags; we rounded to and
+obeyed. In groups and straggling units, we were joined by the larger
+number of the fleet that had left the Downs with us. Some few were for
+the Thames and steamed ahead in wake of the troop-ships, but the most
+were bound for east-coast ports and anchored near the Channel Lightship.
+Two hours of precious daylight were lost to us as we rode out the last
+of the flood. High water came and we swung around on the cant of the
+wind. The pilot grew visibly impatient. The traverse of his reckoning
+lessened in mileage with every hasty step or two up and down the bridge.
+Yarmouth Roads receded into the morrow; Lowestoft (if the chief could
+crack her up to thirteen) was possible, but unlikely. Time passed, with
+no clearing signal--we were to be 'nipped' on the long stretch with no
+prospect but to dodge into Hollesay Bay before black night came.
+
+By some mysterious agency, the coasters developed a foreknowledge of
+permission to proceed. Feathers of white steam curled from their
+windlasses, and their anchors were awash before the block was signalled
+clear. They had start of us. Less handily, we got under way and stood on
+into the Black Deep, where the smaller craft were throwing green smoke
+in their efforts to get ahead. The tide had now turned ebb to set us on
+our way. As we surged past the channel buoys the pilot was reassured.
+The prospect of windy Lowestoft Roads beckoned him on with every coaster
+we overhauled and passed; the outlook improved as we timed our passage
+between the sea-marks. Off the Sunk, we came on the cause of our
+stoppage. The pilot noted a new wreck on the sands, one that had not
+been there when last he steered over this route. Beached at high water,
+he said. She had not been long on. The wreck lay listed on a spit of
+the sandbank. Her bows were blown open, exposing the interior of
+forecastle and forehold. Neutral colours were painted on her topside;
+the boats were gone and dangling boat-falls streamed alongside in the
+tideway. There was no sign of life on her, but a patrol drifter was
+standing by with a crowd of men on her decks. Out to seaward a flotilla
+of minesweepers was busily at work. Turning no more than a curious eye
+on the mined neutral, the pilot paid attention to the steering. That we
+were over a mined area had no grave concern for him. Relying on the
+minesweepers, he kept course and speed--the channel was reported clear.
+
+
+LIGHTSHIPS
+
+DEVOTED to the service of humanity, in a bond that linked all seafarers,
+lightships and isolated sea-beacons were regarded as exempted from the
+operation of warlike acts. The claim of the 'beacons established for the
+guidance of mariners' rested upon a high conception of world-wide
+service to mankind. Their duties were not directed to military uses or
+to favouring alone the nation who manned them. Their upkeep was met by a
+universal levy. Their warning beams were not withdrawn from foreign
+vessels; no effort was made to establish the nationality of a ship in
+distress ere setting portfire to the signal-gun to call out the
+lifeboat. On rare occasions sea-rovers interfered with the operation of
+the guide-marks. Retribution overtook them; they were outlawed by even
+the loose opinion of the period. There is surely more than legend in the
+ballad of Sir Ralph the Rover; if death by shipwreck was not actually
+his fate, it is at least the penalty adjudged to him by popular acclaim.
+Smeaton, in his Folio, records an instance of reparation for a similar
+'diversion.'
+
+          "Lewis the Fourteenth being at war with England
+          during the proceeding with this building, a French
+          privateer took the men at work upon the Eddystone
+          Rock, together with their tools, and carried them
+          to France, and the Captain was in expectation of a
+          reward for the achievement. While the captives lay
+          in prison, the transaction reached the ears of
+          that monarch. He immediately ordered them to be
+          released and the captors to be put in their place:
+          declaring that though he was at war with England,
+          he was not at war with mankind. He therefore
+          directed the men to be sent back to their work
+          with presents, observing that the Eddystone
+          Lighthouse was so situated as to be of equal
+          service to all nations having occasion to navigate
+          the Channel."
+
+A lightship is as peaceful and immobile as the granite blockstones of a
+lighthouse. She requires an even greater protection, exposed as she is
+to dangers on the sea that do not threaten the landward structure. She
+is incapable of offence or defence. Unarmed, save for the signal-gun
+that is only used to warn a vessel from the sands or to summon
+assistance to a ship in distress, she can offer no resistance to a show
+of force. She is moored to withstand the strongest gales, and cannot
+readily disengage her heavy ground-tackle. She has no efficient means of
+propulsion; parted from her stout anchors, she would drive helplessly on
+to the very shoals she had been set to guard. To all seafarers, in war
+as in peace, she should appeal as a sea-mark to be spared and protected;
+in the service of humanity, she is exposed to danger enough--to the
+furious gales from which she may not run.
+
+Unlike the Grand Monarch, the Germans are bitterly at war with mankind.
+As one of their first war acts at sea, they shelled the Ostend
+Lightship. Like the Lamb, she was using the water; the Wolf would suffer
+no protestation of her innocency. Was she not floating placidly on the
+same tides that served the German coast?
+
+In view of his subsequent atrocities in torpedoing hospital ships and
+shelling rafts and open boats, it is probable that our light-vessels
+would have been similarly destroyed by the enemy, but that his submarine
+commanders found under-water navigation required as accurate a check as
+in coasting on the surface. The fury of the Wolf was, in his own
+interest, tardily suppressed. He recognized that the value of the
+lightships in establishing a definite position was an asset to him.
+Withal--his 'fix' decided--he had no qualms in sowing mines in the area
+of these signposts; nor did he stay his hand in the case of a sea-mark
+that was not vital to his plans. Two lightships on the east coast were
+blown up by mines; one, off the coast of Ireland, was deliberately
+torpedoed.
+
+[Illustration: THE LAMPMAN OF THE GULL LIGHTSHIP]
+
+The menace of the German sea-mine remains the greatest war danger to
+which the lightships are exposed. Zeppelin and seaplane pay visits to
+the coastal waters, but the sea is wide for a chance missile from the
+air, and no great success has attended their bombing efforts. But the
+enemy mine has no instant aim. Full-charged and deadly, its activity is
+not confined--as the British mine is--to the area of the mooring. Their
+minelayers, creeping in to the fairways in cloak of the darkness, are
+anxious to settle their cargo of high explosive as quickly as possible.
+Not all of the mines they sow hold to the hastily slipped 'sinkers' till
+disaster to our shipping or the untiring search of the minesweepers
+reveals their presence. Many break adrift and surge in the tideways,
+moving as the set of the current takes them. Vessels under way, by keen
+look-out and ready helm, can sight and avoid the drifting spheres, but
+the lightships have no power to steer clear. Moored on the offset of
+a shoal or sandbank (their position, indeed, a guide to the minelayer),
+their broad bows offer contact to all flotsam that comes down on swirl
+of the tide. The authorities were unwilling to expose their men to a
+danger that could not be evaded, however gallant the shipmen or skilled
+their seamanship. It was not a seagoing risk that could be met; no
+adequate protection consistent with the lightship's mission could be
+devised. As the submarine war became intensified, the more distant
+vessels were withdrawn; new routes were set to divert shipping from the
+outer passages; only those floating sea-marks are now maintained whose
+removal would entail disaster to the traffic that passes by night and
+day.
+
+Holding station in waters that are patrolled and, in part, protected,
+the Trinity men who form the crews of the lightships have readjusted
+their manning. A large proportion of the able-bodied men have joined the
+naval forces, leaving the older hands (and some few who have a physical
+disability) to tend the lights. War risks still remain, for the German
+minelayers have followed the shipping to the inner channels, but the
+greybeards have grown stolid and immovable in a service that was never
+at any time a safe and equable calling. They have become sadly familiar
+with the new sea-warfare--with disaster to the shipping in the channels.
+While they have incident enough, in the movement and activity of patrols
+and war craft, in the ceaseless sweeping of the channels, to judge our
+sea-power and take pride in its strength, they have all too frequent
+experience of the murderous under-water mechanics of the enemy. Living
+in the midst of sea-alarms, the old placid tedium of their 'sixty days'
+has given place to an excitement that even the monotonous rounds of
+their small ship-life cannot suppress. The men on the 'Royal Sovereign'
+were observers of the terrific power of the sea-mine; three ships in
+sight being blown to small wreckage within an hour. 'Shambles' jarred to
+distant torpedoings off the Bill. The 'South Goodwin' saw _Maloja_
+brought up in her stately progress by a thundering explosion, then
+watched her list and settle in the stormy seaway; a second crash and
+upheaval drew the eyes of the watch on deck to the fate of the _Empress
+of Fort William_ as she was hastening to succour the people of the
+doomed liner. Up Channel and down, the lightshipmen were observers of
+the toll exacted by the enemy--the price we paid for the freedom of the
+seas.
+
+But not all their observations of sea-casualties brought gloom to the
+dog-watch reckoning. If there remained no doubt of the intensity and
+power of German submarine activity, they were equally assured of the
+efficiency of our surface offence, and the deadly precision of our own
+under-water counter-measures. On occasion, there were other sea-dramas
+enacted under the eyes of the lightshipmen--short, swift engagements
+that set an oily scum welling over the clean sea-space of the channel,
+or an affair of rapid gunfire that cleared a pest from the narrow
+waters. There is at least one instance of a lightship having a
+commanding, if uncomfortable, station in an action between our drifters
+and a large enemy submarine. The lampman of the 'Gull' had a front view.
+. . . "Misty weather, it was. Day was just breakin', about seven o' th'
+mornin' when I see him. I see him just over there--a little t' th'
+nor'ard o' that wreckage on th' Sands. A big fella, about th' size o'
+them oil-barges as passes hereabouts. I didn't make him out at
+first--account o' th' mornin' haze, but there was somethin' over there
+where no ship didn't oughta be. I calls down th' companion--'Master,' I
+says, 'there's somethin' on th' north end o' th' Sands.' He comes up an'
+has a look. Then we made 'im out what he was, a big German sub.--but he
+hadn't no flag flyin'. Jest then we hears firin', an' th' shells goes
+over us an' lands nigh him. They was three drifters jes' come out o' th'
+Downs t' start sweepin' an', all three, they goes for him like
+billy-o--firin' as they comes. We was right atween them an' th' shots
+passes over th' lightship. One as was short just pitches clear an
+'undred yards ahead o' us. Two guns he had--th' sub.--an' they didn't
+half make a din as they goes at it--_bang-bang-bang!_ Th' drifters
+passes us, goin' a full clip. The first one, she got hit a-top th'
+wheelhouse, but they didn't stop for nothin'. The' keeps bangin' away
+with th' gun. . . . Yes. Some shots landed hereabouts, but we was busy
+watchin' th' drifters. . . . I see their shots hittin', too. I see one
+blaze up on th' submarine's deck, an' one o' his guns didn't talk back
+no more. Th' drifters was steerin' straight for him. I dunno how one o'
+them didn't go ashore herself--near it, she was. The sub. was hard on by
+this time, an' he stands high--with a list, too, but fightin' away like
+he was afloat.
+
+"Two more drifters come up an' they joins in, an' th' shells goes
+_who-o-o-o!_ overhead again. Then a destroyer, he comes tearin' along at
+full speed, an' he puts th' finishin' touch to him. There was an
+explosion on th' submarine, an' th' nex' we see--we see his men tumblin'
+out o' him overside t' th' Sands. . . . Them up t' their middles in th'
+water an' holdin' their hands up."
+
+The lampman was, of his service, a trained observer. He said nothing of
+the scene on the deck of the lightship--the watch tumbling up from
+below, their clothing hastily thrown on--the questioning, the alarmed
+cries. His concern was directed to the happenings on spit of the Sands.
+"Some shots landed hereabouts," he said; but his interest was on the
+Goodwins.
+
+[Illustration: MINESWEEPERS GOING OUT]
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+'THE PRICE O' FISH'
+
+
+THE inshore patrol hailed us and reported the channel clear as far as
+the Nore, and we stood on at full speed, making the most of the short
+winter daylight. Past the Elbow buoy, we met the minesweepers returning
+from a sweep of their section. They were steaming in two columns, line
+ahead, and we sheered a little to give them room; within the reading of
+our Admiralty instructions, they were a 'squadron in formation,' to
+whose movements we were advised to give way. They passed close. The
+leader of the port column was _Present Help_; we read the name on a gilt
+scroll that ornamented her wheelhouse. For the rest, she was trim in a
+coat of iron-grey, with her port and number painted over. A small gun--a
+six-pounder, perhaps--was mounted on her bows, and she carried a
+weather-stained White Ensign aloft. She scurried past us, pitching to
+our bow wash in an easy sidling motion that set her wheelhouse glasses
+flashing a cheery message. The skipper leaned from an open doorway, in
+an attitude of ease that, somehow, assured us of his day's work being
+well done--with no untoward happenings. He waved his cap to our
+greeting. _Present Help_ and her sisters went by, and we returned to our
+course in the fairway.
+
+"These lads," said the pilot, waving his arm towards the fast-receding
+flotilla. "If it wasn't for these lads, Capt'n, you and I wouldn't feel
+exactly comfortable on the bridge in channel waters. Two went up this
+week, and one a little while agone." He turned his palms upward and
+raised both arms in an expressive gesture. . . . "Three gone, one with
+all hands, but only one merchant ship done in by mines hereabouts in the
+last month. (_Starboard, a little, quartermaster!_) . . . I dunno how we
+could carry on without them. Out there in all weathers, clearing the
+fairways and--Gad!--it takes some doing. . . . I was talking to one of
+the skippers in Ramsgate the other day. Saying what I'm
+saying--(_Steady, now, steady's you go!_)--what I'm saying now, and all
+he said was--'Right, pilot,' he says. 'If you feels that way, remember
+it when we gets back to th' fishin' in peace-time, an'--for th' Lord's
+sake--keep clear o' our gear when th' nets is down! I lost a tidy lot o'
+gear,' he says, 'with tramps an' that bargin' about on th' fishin'
+grounds.'. . . He didn't think nothing of this minesweeping. His mind
+was bent on his nets and the fish again." A pause, while he conned the
+ship on a steady course, then, reflectively, "An' there's some
+folks--there's folks ashore growling about the price o' fish!"
+
+Of courage in the war, on land as on sea, there are few records
+comparable to the silent devotion of the fishermen. The heat of attack
+and fury of battle may call out a reckless heroism that has no bounds to
+individual gallantry, but the sustained courage required for a lone
+action under heavy odds--every turn of the engagement being assessed and
+understood--is of a rarer quality; mere physical health and high spirit
+cannot generate it; tradition of a sea-inherence and long self-training
+alone can bring it forth. That the fishermen (inured to a life of bold
+hazard and hardship) would offer valuable service in emergency was never
+doubted, but that the level of their gallantry should reach such
+heights, even those who knew them were hardly prepared to assume. And we
+were weak in our judgment, for their records held ample evidence by
+which we should have been able to predict a bravery in war action no
+less notable than their courage in the equally perilous ways of their
+trade. For a lifetime at war with the sea, wresting a precarious living
+from the grudging depths, their skill and resolution required no
+stimulus under the added stress of sea-warfare. In the fury of the
+channel gales, shipwreck and disaster called forth the same spirit of
+dogged endurance and elevating humanity that marks their new seafaring
+under arms. The countless instances of their service to vessels in
+distress, to torpedoed merchantmen and warships, in the records of
+strife, are but repetitions of their sea-conduct throughout the years of
+their trading. When Rozhdestvensky's panic-stricken gunlayers opened
+fire on the 'Gamecock' fleet on the Dogger, the story of that outrage
+was distinguished by the same heroism of the trawlermen that ennobles
+their diary to-day. When the _Crane_ was sinking, the crew of _Gull_,
+themselves suffering under fire, boarded her to rescue the survivors. . . .
+"When they got on board the _Crane_ they found the living members of the
+crew lying about injured. The vessel was in total darkness, and it was
+known that at any moment she might founder; yet Costello (the _Gull's_
+boatswain) went below to the horrible little forecastle to bring up
+Leggatt's dead body. Smith (the second hand), who took charge of the
+_Crane_ when the skipper was killed, refused to leave her till every man
+had been taken off. Rea (the engineer) showed unyielding courage when,
+in spite of the fact that the little ship was actually foundering, he
+groped back to the engine-room, which was in total darkness, to reach
+the valves. The stokehold was flooded with water, and Rea could do
+nothing. He went on deck, where the skipper was lying dead, and all the
+survivors, except the boy, were wounded."
+
+In all its bearings, the comradely action of the _Gull_ was but a
+foreshadowing of _Gowan Lea's_ assistance to _Floandi_ in the raid by
+Austrian cruisers on the drifter line in the Adriatic. The circumstances
+were curiously alike--the actual occurrence, the individual deeds. We
+have Skipper Nichols refusing to leave until his wounded were embarked,
+and Engineman Mobbs groping (as Rea did) through the scalding steam of
+_Floandi's_ wrecked engine-room to reach the stokehold and draw the
+fires. Then, as in the Russians' sea-panic of October 1904, the
+fishermen (fighting seamen now) came under a sudden and murderous
+gunfire at close range. Overpowered by heavy armament, there was no
+flinching, no surrender. _Gowan Lea_ headed for the enemy with her one
+six-pounder spitting viciously. The issue was not considered--though
+Skipper Joseph Watt must have had no doubt that he was steering his
+drifter towards certain destruction. Her gun was quickly put out of
+action. Her funnel and wheelhouse were riddled and shot to pieces. Water
+made on her through shot-holes in the hull. On the gun-platform, her
+gunlayer struggled to repair the mechanism of the breech--his leg
+dangling and shattered. Shell-torn and incapable of further attack, she
+drifted out of the line of fire. Bad as was her own condition, there
+were others in worse plight. _Floandi_ had come under direct point-blank
+fire, and her decks were a shambles. Out of control--her main steam-pipe
+being shot through--seven dead or badly wounded, and only three
+remaining to work her, she was in dire need of assistance. Skipper Watt
+observed the distress of his sea-mate and steered _Gowan Lea_ down to
+her to offer the same brotherhood as of the _Gull_ to _Crane_. The
+analogy is peculiarly complete: the boarding, the succour to the
+wounded, the reverent handling of the dead. Not as a new spirit born of
+the stress of war, but as the outcome of an age-old tradition, Gowan Lea
+stood by.
+
+After four years of warfare at sea, serving under naval direction and
+discipline, one would have expected the fisherman sailing under the
+White Ensign to lose at least a certain measure of his former
+character--to have become a naval seaman in his habits of thought, in
+his actions, his outlook. Four years of constant service! A long term!
+He has come under a control that differs as poles apart from the free
+days of 'fleeting' and 'single boating.' He is set to service in
+unfamiliar waters and abnormal climates, but the habits of the old trade
+still cling to him. New gear comes to his hands--sweeps, depth-keepers,
+explosive nets, hydrophones, and paravanes--but he regards them all as
+adaptations to his fishing service. He is unchanged. He is still
+fishing; that his 'catch' may be a huge explosive monster capable of
+destroying a Dreadnought does not seem to have imposed a new turn to his
+thoughts. He is apart from the regular naval service. The influence of
+his familiar little ship, the association of his kindred shipmates, the
+technics of a common and unforgettable trade, have proved stronger than
+the prestige of a naval uniform. In his terms and way of speech, he
+draws no new farrago from his brassbound shipmate. Did not the skipper
+of the duty patrol hail _Aquitania_ on her approach to the Clyde booms
+and advise the captain? . . . 'Tak' yeer _bit boatie_ up atween thae twa
+trawlers!'
+
+The devotion and gallantry and humanity of the fishermen is not confined
+to the enlisted section who man the patrol craft and minesweepers. The
+regular trade, the old trade, works under the same difficulties and
+dangers that ever menaced the ingathering of the sea-fishery. Serving on
+the sea in certain areas, the older men and the very young still
+contrive to shoot the nets and down the trawls. Their contribution to
+the diminished food-supply of the country is not gained without loss;
+'the price o' fish' is too often death or mutilation or suffering under
+bitter exposure in an open boat. The efforts of the enemy to stop our
+food-supply are directed with savage insistence towards reducing the
+rations drawn from the deeps of the sea; brutality and vengeful fury
+increase in intensity as the days pass and the indomitable fishermen
+return and return to their grounds. In August 1914, fast German cruisers
+and torpedo-boats raided our fleets on the Dogger Bank. Twenty fishing
+vessels were sunk, their crews captured. There was no killing. ". . .
+The sailors [of the torpedo-boat] gave us something to eat and drink,
+and we could talk and were pretty free," said the skipper of _Lobelia_.
+Later, on being taken ashore ". . . with German soldiers on each side of
+us, and the women and boys and girls shouting at us and running after us
+and pelting us, we were marched through the streets of Wilhelmshaven to
+a prison." Hardship, abuse! Now ridicule! ". . . The Germans stripped
+us of everything we had. . . . But they were not content with that--they
+disfigured us by cutting one half of the hair of our heads off and one
+half of the moustache, cropping close and leaving the other half on,
+making you as ugly as they could. . . . It was a nasty thing to do; but
+we made the best of it, and laughed at one another."
+
+Hardship, abuse, ridicule! The fishermen still served their trade at
+sea. Now, brutality! The third hand of _Boy Ernie_ details the callous
+precision of German methods in September 1915. The smack was unarmed.
+". . . It was very heavy and deliberate fire. [There were two enemy
+submarines.] The shots . . . were coming on deck and going through the
+sails. We threw the boat overboard and tumbled into her. . . . I started
+sculling the boat away from the smack, all the time under fire; but the
+Germans were not content with firing shells at a helpless craft--they
+now turned a machine-gun on to defenceless fishermen in a boat on the
+open sea. . . . The boat was getting actually riddled by the machine-gun
+fire, and before I knew what was happening, I was struck by a bullet on
+the right thigh, and began to bleed dreadfully. . . . The smack was
+blown to pieces and went down. This was the work of one of the
+submarines--while she was sinking the smack the other was firing on us."
+
+Throughout all the malevolent and calculated campaign of destruction,
+the fishermen remain steadfast to their old traditions of humanity. When
+_Vanilla_ is torpedoed without warning and vanishes in a welter of
+broken gear, her sea-mate, _Fermo_, dodging a second torpedo, steams to
+the wreckage to rescue the survivors--but finds none. In a heavy gale,
+_Provident_ of Brixham risks her mast and gear, gybing to close the
+sinking pinnace of the torpedoed _Formidable_, and rescue the exhausted
+seventy-one men who crowded her. The instances of fisher help to
+merchantmen in peril are uncounted and uncountable.
+
+In the distant days when the Sea Services were classed apart, each in
+its own trade and section--working by a rule that admitted no
+co-partnery--we foreign traders had little to do with those whom (in our
+arrogance) we deemed the 'humble' fishermen. In the mists of the channel
+waters, we came upon them at their trawls or nets. Their floats and
+buoys obstructed our course; the small craft, heading up on all angles,
+confused the operation of a 'Rule of the Road.' Impatient of an
+alteration that took us miles from a direct course, we felt somewhat
+resentful of their presence on the sea-route. That they were gathering
+and loading a cargo under stress and difficulty that contrasted with
+_our_ easy stowage in the shelter of a dock or harbour, did not occur to
+us; they were obstructionists, blocking our speedy passage with their
+warps and nets and gear. Although most masters grudgingly steered clear,
+there were those in our ranks who elected to hold on through the fleets,
+unconcerned by the confusion and risk to the fishermen's gear that
+their passage would occasion. There were angry shouts and protests; the
+gear and nets were often the sole property of the fishermen; serious
+losses were sustained.
+
+At war, we have incurred debts. When peace comes and the seas are free
+again, we shall have memories of what we owe to the fishermen in all the
+varied services they have paid to us. The minesweepers toiling in the
+channels, that we may not meet sudden death; patrols riding out bitter
+weather in the open to warn us from danger, to succour and assist the
+remnants of our manning when a blow goes home. War has purged us of many
+old arrogant ways. When next we meet the fishing fleet at peaceful work
+in the channels, we shall recall the emotion and relief with which we
+sighted their friendly little hulls bearing down to protect us in a
+menaced seaway. We shall 'keep clear o' th' gear when th' nets is
+down.'
+
+[Illustration: SOUTHAMPTON WATER]
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE RATE OF EXCHANGE
+
+
+THE Bank of England official, who had been a close attendant on the
+bridge during the early part of the voyage, seems now to be reassured.
+We are nearing land again. Another day should see us safely berthed at
+New York, where--his trust discharged--a pleasant interval should open
+to him ere returning to England. The gold and securities on board are
+reason for his passage; he is with us as our official witness, should
+the activity of an enemy raider compel us to throw the millions
+overboard. Nothing has happened. The 'danger zone' has been passed
+without event. Stormy weather on the Grand Banks has given way to light
+airs and a smooth sea as we steer in to make our landfall.
+
+Together on the navigation bridge, we are discussing the shipment.
+". . . It is the exchange, Captain," he says. "The exchange is against
+us. These huge war purchases in the States cannot be balanced by the
+moderate exports we are able to send over. When we left Liverpool the
+sovereign was worth four dollars, seventy-one cents in America. I don't
+know where it is going to end. We can't make securities. There must be a
+lim----" Drumming of the wireless telephone cuts in on his words.
+"Operator wishes to know if he can leave the 'phones, sir? Says he has
+to see you."
+
+The bridge messenger turns aside inquiringly, holding out the receiver
+of the telephone as a context to his words. The request, that would have
+aroused an instant disquiet six days ago, now appears trivial and
+normal. There may be receipts to be signed. Approaching port the
+operator will be completing his accounts. We are unconcerned and resume
+our conversation until he arrives.
+
+He is insistent that it cannot be due to atmospherics. "A queer
+business, sir. Thought it best to report instead of telephoning. Some
+station addressing a message to ABMV [all British merchant vessels], and
+another trying to jam it out. Can't get more than the prefix, when
+jamming begins. No, not atmospherics. I've taken ABMV, though distant,
+twice in this watch, and, looking up the junior's jottings for the last
+watch, I see he had traces. Whatever is jamming the message out is
+closer to us than the sender. I dunno what to make of it!"
+
+"You mean that a message from a land station to us is being interfered
+with, deliberately, from somewhere near at hand?"
+
+He produces the slip of his junior's scribbles. Among the jumble of
+noughts and crosses, there is certainly a hastily scrawled ABMV, then
+x's and x's. "What else, sir? At first I thought it was
+atmospherics--x's were fierce last watch--but x's can't happen that way
+twice running!"
+
+"All right! Carry on again. Let me know at once if anything further.
+Gear to be manned continuously from now on. Keep your junior at hand."
+
+[Illustration: 'OUT-BOATS' IN A MERCHANTMAN]
+
+A queer business! We trim the possibilities in our mind. It is now
+nearly dark. As we go, we should make Nantucket Lightship at daybreak;
+our usual landfall on the voyage. There is not much to work on. 'A
+message being sent, and some one making unusual efforts to prevent
+receipt.' A raider? It is now some months since _Kronprinz Wilhelm_ was
+driven into Norfolk; she cannot surely, have escaped internment.
+_Karlsruhe?_ Nothing has been heard of her for a long term. A submarine?
+Perhaps _Deutschland_, with his torpedo-tubes refitted and a gun
+mounted? He knows the way; he could carry oil enough to reach the coast,
+do a strafe, and sneak into a port for internment. . . . Figuring on the
+chart, measuring distance and course and speed, it comes to us that
+enemy action would best succeed off Nantucket or the Virginia Capes. We
+resolve to cut in between the two, to make the land below Atlantic City,
+and take advantage of territorial waters. If there is no serious
+intention behind the jamming of the wireless, there will be no great
+harm done--we shall only lose ten hours on the passage; if a raider
+is out, we shall, at least, be well off the expected route. We pass the
+orders.
+
+A quiet night. We are steering into the afterglow of a brilliant sunset.
+The mast and rigging stand out in clear black outline against lingering
+daylight as we swing south four points. The look-out aloft turns from
+his post and scans the wake curving to our sheer; anon, he wonders at
+the coming of a mate to share his watch. Passengers, on a stroll, note
+unusual movement about the boat-deck, where the hands are swinging out
+lifeboats and clearing the gear. As the carpenter and his mates go the
+rounds, screwing blinds to the ports and darkening ship, other
+passengers hurry up from below and join the groups on deck; an
+excitement is quickly evident. They had thought all danger over when, in
+thirty degrees west, we allowed them to discard the cumbersome
+life-jackets that they had worn since leaving the Mersey. And
+now--almost on the threshold of security and firm land--again the
+enervating restrictions and routine, the sinister preparations, the
+atmosphere of sudden danger. Rumours and alarms fly from lip to lip; we
+deem it best to publish that the wireless has heard the twitter of a
+strange bird.
+
+Before midnight, the bird is identified. Our theories and conjectures
+are set at rest. The operator, changing his wave-length suddenly from
+600 to 300 metres, succeeds in taking a message. '_From Bermuda_'--of
+all places--'_to ABMV German armed submarine left Newport eighth stop
+take all precautions ends_.' A submarine! And we had thought the limits
+of their activity stopped at thirty degrees west. Even the Atlantic is
+not now broad enough! The definite message serves to clear our doubts. A
+submarine from Newport will certainly go down off Nantucket. Our course
+should now take us ninety miles south of that. There remains the measure
+of his activity. A fighting submarine that can navigate such a distance
+is new to us. His speed and armament are unknown. We can hardly gauge
+his movements by standards of the types we know. We are unarmed; our
+seventeen knots top speed may not be fast enough for an unknown
+super-submarine. Crowded as we are by civilian passengers, we cannot
+stand to gunfire. A hit will be sheer murder. It is a problem! We return
+to the deck and make three figures of that ninety miles.
+
+The pulse of the ship beats high in the thrust and tremor of the
+engines, now opened out to their utmost speed; the clean-cut bow wave
+breaks well aft, shewing level and unhindered progress. In the calm
+weather, the whirl of our black smoke hangs low astern, joining the sea
+and sky in a dense curtain; we are prompted by it to a wish for misty
+weather when day breaks--to make a good screen to our progress. Though
+dark, the night is clear. A weak moon stands in the east, shedding
+sufficient light to brighten the lift. We overhaul some west-bound
+vessels in our passage and warn them by signal. Two have already taken
+Bermuda's message and are alert, but one has no wireless, and is heading
+up across our course. We speak her; her lights go out quickly, and she
+turns south after us.
+
+Daybreak comes with the thin vapours of settled weather that may turn to
+a helpful haze under the warm sun. We zigzag in a wide S from the first
+grey half-light, for we are now due south of the Lightship. In the
+smooth glassy surface of the sea we have an aid to our best defence--the
+measure of our eyes. We note a novel vigilance in the watchkeepers, a
+suppressed anxiety that was not ours in the infinitely more dangerous
+waters of the channels. The unusual circumstance of zigzagging and
+straining look-out for a periscope almost in American waters has gripped
+us. Every speck of flotsam is scanned in apprehension. The far-thrown
+curl of our displacement spitting on the eddy of the zigzag, throws up a
+feather that calls for frequent scrutiny. We have no lack of unofficial
+assistance in our look-out. From early morning, the passengers are
+astir--each one entrammelled in a life-jacket that reminds them
+continually of danger. For the children, it is a new game--a source of
+merriment--but their elders are gravely concerned. Gazing constantly
+outboard and around, they add eyes to our muster. Every hour that passes
+without event seems to increase the tension; the size and numbers of
+enemy vessels grow with the day. A telegraph-cable ship at work is
+hailed as 'a raider in sight'--a Boston sea-tug, towing barges south, is
+taken for a supply-ship with submarines in tow.
+
+The wireless operator reports from time to time. The 'humming bird'
+(whoever he is) has ceased jamming. The air is full of call and
+counter-call. Halifax is working with an unknown sea-station--long
+messages in code. Coastal stations are joined in the 'mix-up.' Cape Cod
+is offering normal 'traffic' to the American steamer _St. Paul_, as
+though there was no word of anything happening within reach of the
+radio. It is all very perplexing. Perhaps the Bermuda message was a
+hoax; some 'neutral' youth on the coast may have been working an
+unofficial outfit, as had been done before. Anon, an intercepted message
+comes through. A Hollands steamer sends out '_S.O.S._ . . . _S.O.S._. . .'
+but gives no name or position. Then there is silence; nothing working,
+but distant mutterings from Arlington.
+
+Throughout the day we swing through calm seas, shying at each crazy
+angle of the zigzag in a turn that slows the measured beat of the
+engines. Night coming and the haze growing in intensity, we use the
+lead--sounding at frequent intervals--and note the lessening depth that
+leads us in to the land. At eight, we reach six fathoms--the limit of
+American territorial waters. It is with no disguised relief we turn
+north and steer a straight course.
+
+Although now less concerned with the possibility of enemy interference,
+we have anxiety enough in the navigation of a coastal area in hazy
+weather. We reduce speed. The mist has deepened to a vapour that hangs
+low in the direction of the shore. House lights glimmer here and there,
+but only by the lead are we able to keep our distance. A glow of light
+over Atlantic City shews itself mistily through a rift in the haze and
+gives an approximation of our latitude, but it is Barnegat's
+quick-flashing lighthouse beam that establishes our confidence and
+enables us to proceed at better speed. We shew no lights. For all we are
+in American waters, we have not forgotten _Gulflight_ and _Nebraskan_
+and other international 'situations'; we look for no consideration from
+the enemy and preserve a keen look-out. Vessels pass us in the night
+bound south with their deck lights ablaze, but we stand on up the coast
+with not a glimmer to show our presence. Turning wide out to the
+shoal-water off Navesink, we sight the pilot steamer lying to. We switch
+on all lights and steer towards her.
+
+It is not often one finds the New York pilots unready, but our sudden
+arrival has taken them aback. We have to wait. Daybreak is creeping in
+when the yawl comes alongside with our man. He is an old
+Swedish-American whom we had long suspected of pro-German leanings, but
+the relief and enthusiasm on his honest old face is undisguised. "Gott!
+I am glat to see yo, Cabtin," he calls. "Dere vas a rumour dat yo vas
+down too! Yoost now, ven yo signal de name of de ship, I vas
+glat--glat!" He is full of his news; there are rumours and rumours. 'The
+White Star mailboat is down,' 'a Prince liner is overdue,' 'there are
+fears for a Lamport and Holt boat.' In view of our safe arrival, he is
+prepared to discount the rumours. What is certain is that U 53 has
+arrived in these waters, and has already sunk six large ships off
+Nantucket.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A day later we turn to the commercial pages of the _New York Herald_.
+Our arrival is reported, and it seems that the sovereign is now worth
+$4.72 1/16!
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+INDEPENDENT SAILINGS
+
+
+UNTIL nearly three years of war had gone on, we sailed independently as
+'single' ships, setting our speeds and courses and conforming only to
+the general route instructions of the Admiralty. The submarine menace
+did not come upon us in a sudden intensity. Its operation was gradually
+unfolded and counter-measures were as methodically advanced to meet it.
+The earliest precaution took the form of a wide separation of the ships,
+branching the sea-routes apart on the sound theory that submarines would
+have voyaging to do to reach their victims. While this was a plan of
+value on the high seas, it could not be pursued in the narrower waters
+of the channels. Destroyers in sufficient numbers not being available to
+patrol these waters, fishing craft--trawlers and drifters--were
+commissioned to that service. Being of moderate speed, their activities
+were not devoted to a mass operation, by which they could group the
+merchantmen together for protection. The custom was still to separate
+them as widely as possible, each zigzagging on her own plan. Until the
+convoy system was established, measures for our protection did not take
+the form of naval escorts sailing in our company: such vessels were only
+provided for transports or for ships on military service: vessels on
+commercial voyages were largely left to their own resources when clear
+of harbour limits.
+
+[Illustration: FIREMEN STANDING BY TO RELIEVE THE WATCH]
+
+That all sea-going vessels should carry a wireless installation was one
+of the first measures enforced by Admiralty. The magnificent resources
+of the Marconi Company, though strained, were equal to the task. There
+was a life-labour alone in the technical education of their operators,
+but they drilled the essentials of their practice into landward youths
+in a few months--blessed them with a probationer's licence--and sent
+them to sea. It is idle to speculate on what we could have done without
+this communication with the beach: it is inconceivable that we could
+have served the sea as we have done. Throughout the length of channel
+waters, we were constantly in visual touch with the patrols, but in the
+more open seas we relied on the wireless to keep us informed of enemy
+activities. At first, we were lavish in its use. The air was scored by
+messages--'back chat' was indulged in by the operators. An _S.O.S._ (and
+they were frequent) was instant signal for a confusion of
+inquiries--a battery of call and counter call--that often prevented the
+ready succour of a vessel in distress. We grew wiser. We put a seal on
+the switch. Regulations came into force to restrain unnecessary
+'sparking'; we sat in to listen and record, and only to speak when we
+were spoken to.
+
+Codes were issued by the Admiralty for use at sea. Their early
+cryptogram was easily decoded by friend and enemy alike. Knowing that
+certain words would assuredly be embodied in the text of a message
+(words such as, _from_--_latitude_--_report_--_submarine_--_master_), it
+was not difficult to decipher a code of alphabetical sequence. There
+were famous stories of traitors and spies, but our authoritative
+simplicity was responsible for the occasional leakage of information. At
+this date, 1915-16, wireless position-detectors came into use by the
+enemy. A spark-group, repeated after an interval, could give a fair
+approximation of distance and course and speed. More than ever it was
+necessary to maintain silence when at sea. Withal, the air was still in
+strong voice. At regular periods the great longshore radios threw out
+war warnings to guide us in a choice of routes and warn us away from
+mined areas. Patrols and war craft kept up an incessant, linking report.
+Distress signals hissed into the atmosphere in urgent sibilance, then
+faltered and died away. On occasion, the high note of a _Telefunken_ set
+invited a revealing confidence that would lead us, 'chicky-chicky,' to
+the block. We were well served by Marconi.
+
+Extension of the power of enemy submarines brought new practice to our
+seafaring. We had made the most of a passage by the land, steering so
+close that the workers in the fields paused in their toil and waved us
+on; but the new under-water craft crept in as close, and mined the
+fairways. We were ordered to open sea again, to steer the shortest
+course by which we could reach a depth of water that could not be mined.
+Zigzag progress now assumed the importance that was ever its right. It
+had been but cursorily maintained. The 'shortest distance between two
+points' had, for so long, been our rule that many masters were unwilling
+to steer in tangents. On passage in the more open sea, they were soon
+converted to a belief in the efficacy of a crazy course. Statistics of
+our losses proved the virtue of the tangent: of a group of six vessels
+sunk in a certain area only one--a very slow vessel--was torpedoed while
+maintaining a zigzag. Extracts from the diary of a captured submarine
+commander were circulated among us, giving ground for our confidence, in
+the frequent admissions of failure--"owing to a sudden and unexpected
+alteration of course."
+
+Still, we were unarmed. If, by zigzag and a keen look-out, we were
+fortunate in evading torpedo attack, the submarine had by now mounted a
+surface armament, and we were exposed to another equally deadly offence.
+For our protection, Admiralty placed a new type of warship on the
+routes approaching the channels. Built originally for duty as
+minesweepers, the sloops were faster and more heavily armed than the
+drifters. They patrolled in a chain of five or six over the routes that
+we were instructed to use. During the daylight hours we were rarely out
+of sight of one or other of the vessels forming the chain. Our route
+orders were framed towards a definite point of departure into the high
+seas when darkness came. There, the patrol of the sloops ended: we had
+the hours of the night to make our offing and, by daybreak again, were
+assumed to be clear of the 'danger zone.' But the 'danger zone' was
+being extended swiftly; it was not always possible to traverse the area
+in the dark hours of a night: only the fast liners could stretch out a
+speed that would serve. Profiting by experience that was constantly
+growing, the _Reichsmarineamt_ constructed larger submarines capable of
+remaining long at sea, and of operating in ocean areas that could not
+adequately be patrolled. Twelve, fifteen--then twenty degrees of
+longitude marked their activity advancing to the westward: they went
+south to thirty-five: in time the Mediterranean became a field for their
+efforts. Gunfire being the least expensive, they relied on their deck
+armament to destroy unarmed shipping. The patrols were but rarely in
+sight; the submarine became a surface destroyer. There was no necessity
+for submergence on the ocean routes: under-water tactics were held in
+reserve for use against fast ships--the slower merchantmen were
+brought-to in a contest that was wholly in favour of the U-boat. In a
+heavy Atlantic gale, _Cabotia_ was sunk by gunfire, 120 miles from land.
+She had not the speed to escape. Despite the heavy seas that swept over
+the submarine and all but washed the gunner from the deck, the enemy was
+able to keep up a galling fire that ultimately forced the master to
+abandon his ship. _Virginia_ was fired upon at midnight when steering
+for the Cerigo Channel. Notwithstanding the courage of Captain Coverley,
+who remained on board to the last, there could be but one end to the
+contest. _Virginia_ was sunk. A strong ship; the enemy had to expend two
+of his torpedoes to destroy her.
+
+Against such attacks only one measure could be advocated--the measure we
+had for so long been demanding. It was impossible to patrol adequately
+all the areas of our voyaging. Guns were served to us and we derived a
+confidence that the enemy quickly appreciated. We did not expect wholly
+to reduce his surface action, but we could and did expose him to the
+risk he had come so far out to sea to avoid. On countless occasions our
+new armament had effect in keeping him to his depths, with the
+consequent waste of his mobile battery power. Even in gun action he
+could no longer impose his own speed power on a slow ship. Under
+conditions that he judged favourable to his gunnery, the submarine
+commander still exercised his ordnance--usually after a torpedo had
+failed to reach its mark. Many of the hazards were against us, but our
+weapons brought the contest to a less unequal balance. If we did present
+the larger target, we had--in our steady emplacement--a better platform
+from which to direct our fire. From the first it was a competition of
+range and calibre. Six-pounders led to twelves; these in turn gave way
+to 4.7's. Anon, the enemy mounted a heavier weapon, to which we replied
+by a new type of 4-inch, sighted to 13,000 yards.
+
+Thus armed and equipped, we were in better condition to meet the enemy
+in our independent sailings. He was again obliged largely to return to
+the use of his torpedoes, with all the maze of under-water approach that
+that form of attack involved. If outranged in a surface action, we had
+our smoke-producing apparatus to set up a screen to his shell-fire, and
+that form of defence had the added value of forcing him to proceed at a
+high and uneconomical speed to press an attack. Some of our gun actions
+resulted in destruction of a sea-pest, but all--however
+unsuccessful--contributed to lessen his power of offence. Every torpedo
+fired, every hour of submergence, every knot of speed expended in a
+chase, was so far a victory for us as to hasten the date when he would
+be obliged to head back to his base. His chances of survival in that
+passage through the patrols and the nets and mines could not be
+considered as good.
+
+[Illustration: QUEEN'S DOCK, GLASGOW]
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK
+
+  "_All vessels are prohibited from approaching within four miles
+          of Rathlin Island between sunset and sunrise_"
+
+
+IN view of Admiralty instructions, we are 'proceeding as
+requisite'--turning circles, dodging between Tor Point and Garron
+Head--and awaiting daybreak to make a passage through Rathlin Sound.
+Steering south from the Clyde, we had reached Skullmartin when the
+wireless halted us. Enemy activity off the south coast of Ireland had
+become intensified, and all traffic from west-coast ports was ordered to
+proceed through the North Channel. In groups and singles, the ships from
+Liverpool and the Bristol Channel join us, and we make a busy
+channel-way of the usually deserted coastal waters. We show no lights,
+but the moon-ray reveals us, sharply defined, as we pass and repass on
+the lines of our courses. We keep well within the curve of the coast
+until the light grows in the east, then turn finally to the north. The
+sun comes up as we reach Fair Head, and we stand on towards the entrance
+of the Sound.
+
+In the first hour of official clearance, the North Channel is busy with
+the traffic. Outside as well as within, ships have been gathering in
+anticipation of Admiralty sunrise. The seaway over by the mainland shore
+is scored and lined by passage of the inward-bound vessels, all pressing
+on at their best speed to make their ports before nightfall. A strong
+ebb tide runs through, favouring our company of outward-bounders. We
+swing past Rue Point in a rip and whirl that gives the helmsman cause
+for concern, cross the bight of the Bay at a speed our builders never
+contemplated, and round the west end of the Island before the sun has
+risen high.
+
+It is fine weather in the Atlantic. Only the slight heave of an
+under-running swell, and the rips and overfalls of the tide, mark the
+smooth surface of the sea: the light north airs that come and go have no
+strength to ruffle the glassy patches. Everything promises well for
+speedy progress. The engines are opened out to their utmost capacity.
+Already we have drawn ahead of the press of shipping that marked time
+with us on the other side of the channel. Our only peer, a large Leyland
+liner, has opened out abeam of us and the whirl of black smoke at his
+funnel-tip shows that he is prepared to make and keep the pace. 'To
+proceed at such a time as to reach 56 deg. 40' North, 11 deg. West, by
+nightfall'--is the reading of our new route orders. We shall have need
+of the favour of the elements if we are to reel off 200 miles between
+now and 10 p.m. Anon, we pass Oversay and the Rhynns of Islay and head
+for a horizon that has no blue mountain-line to break the level thread
+of it. Our sea-mates of the morning are hull down behind us--the slower
+vessels already turning west on the inner arms of the fan formation that
+is devised to keep us widely separated in the 'danger area.' Only the
+Leyland boat remains with us. We steer on a similar mean course, but the
+angles of our independent zigzags make our progress irregular in
+company. At times we sheer a mile or more apart, then close perceptibly
+to crossing courses. She has perhaps the better speed, but her stoking
+is irregular. Drawing ahead for a term, she shows us her broad sternwash
+in a flurry of disturbed water; then comes the cleaning of the fires--we
+pull up and regain a station on her beam.
+
+So, till afternoon, we keep in company--pressing through the calm seas
+at a speed that augurs well for our timely arrival in 11 deg. West. We
+sight few vessels. A lone drifter on patrol speaks us and reports no enemy
+sighted in the area: an auxiliary cruiser with a destroyer escorting her
+passes south on the rim of the landward horizon. A drift of smoke astern
+of us hangs in the clear air, then resolves to a fast Cunarder that
+speedily overhauls and passes us. As though impressed by the mail-boat's
+progress, our sea-mate puts a spurt on and maintains a better speed than
+any she has shown since morning. She draws ahead and we are left with
+clear water to exercise the cantrips of our zigzag.
+
+An _allo_ is intercepted by the wireless in the dog-watch. (We have
+coined a new word to report an enemy submarine in sight, a word that
+cannot offer a key to our codes.) It comes from the Cunarder, now out of
+sight ahead. We figure the radius on the chart, and bear off six points
+on a new course to keep well clear of the area. The Leyland liner is by
+now well ahead and we note she has turned to steer west. There is a
+slight difference in our courses and we draw together again as we steam
+on. The wireless operator now reports that a vessel near at hand has
+acknowledged the Cunarder's _allo_. Shortly a man-o'-war sloop appears
+in sight and passes north at high speed, steering towards the position
+we are avoiding.
+
+The second officer keeps a keen look-out. He has had bitter experience
+of the power of an enemy submarine and is anxiously desirous that it
+should not be repeated. A 'check' on the distant sea-line (that we had
+taken for the peak of a drifter's mizen) draws his eye. He reports a
+submarine in sight--broad on the port bow. The circle of our telescope
+shows the clean-cut horizon ruling a thread on the monotint of sea and
+sky. Sweeping the round, a grey pinnacle leaps into the field of view.
+It is over-distant for ready recognition. Only by close scrutiny,
+observing a hair-line that rises and falls on either side of the grey
+upstanding point, are we able to recognize our enemy. He is pressing on
+at full speed, trusting to our casual look-out, that he may secure a
+favourable position to submerge and attack. Our fine confidence with
+which we have anticipated such a meeting gives place to a more sober
+mood. Though not yet in actual danger, there is the former _allo_ to be
+thought of--the possibilities of a combination. Quick on recognition, we
+alter course, steering to the north again. The gun, already manned, is
+brought to the 'ready,' and the intermittent crackle of the wireless
+sends out an urgent warning. The Leyland steamer starts away at first
+sight of our signals: ahead, grey smoke on the horizon marks where the
+patrol sloop has gone hull-down.
+
+A spurt of flame throws out from the distant submarine. He has noted our
+sudden alteration of course and knows that he has now no prospect of
+reaching torpedo range unobserved. His shell falls short by about a
+thousand yards. We reply immediately at our extreme elevation, but
+cannot reach him. The next exchange is closer--he is evidently
+overhauling us at speed. Mindful of our limited fifty rounds, we
+telephone to the gun-layer to reserve his fire until he has better
+prospect of a hit. Two shots to our one; the enemy persists though he
+does not now seem to be closing the range. Our seventh shot pitches
+close to him, and ricochets. There is a burst of flame on his
+deck--whether from his gun or the impact of our shell we shall never
+know; when the spume and spray fall away he has dived.
+
+Suddenly, it is recalled to us that we have been, for over half an hour,
+steering into the radius of the Cunarder's _allo_. The patrol sloop has
+turned to close us and is rapidly approaching. A decision has quickly to
+be made. If we stand on to keep outside torpedo range of our late
+antagonist, we may blunder into the sights of number two. North and east
+and west are equally dangerous: we may turn south-east, but our course
+is for the open sea. The sloop sheers round our stern and thunders up
+alongside. Receiving our information, her helm goes over and she swings
+out to investigate the area we have come from. We decide to steer to the
+north-west as the shortest way to the open sea.
+
+We have the luck of the cast. As we ease helm to our new course, the
+ship jars and vibrates--a thundering explosive report comes to our ears.
+The Leyland liner close on our starboard quarter has taken a torpedo and
+lies over under a cloud of spume and debris.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+ON SIGNALS AND WIRELESS
+
+
+FOR war conditions our methods and practice of signalling were woefully
+deficient. In sailing-ship days the code was good enough; we had no need
+for Morse and semaphore. We had time to pick and choose our signals and
+send them to the masthead in a gaudy show of reds and blues and yellows.
+Our communications, in the main, were brief and stereotyped. "What ship?
+Where from? How many days out? Where bound? Good-bye--a pleasant
+passage!" Occasionally there was a reference to a coil of rope or a
+tierce of beef, but these were garrulous fellows. The ensign was dipped.
+We had 'spoken'; we would be reported 'all well!'
+
+Good enough! There were winches to clean and paint, bulwarks to be
+chipped and scaled, that new poop 'dodger' to be cut and sewn. "Hurry
+up, there, you sodgerin' young idlers! Put the damned flags in the
+locker, and get on with the _work_!"
+
+With steam and speed and dispatch increasing, we found need for a
+quicker and more instant form of signal correspondence. New queries and
+subjects for report grew on us, and we had to clip and abbreviate and
+shorthand our methods to meet the lessening flag-sight of a passing
+ship. We altered the Code of Signals, adding vowels to our flag
+alphabet. We cut out phrases like 'topgallant studding sail boom' and
+'main spencer sheet blocks,' and introduced 'fiddley gratings' and
+'foo-foo valve.' Even with all our trimming, the book was tiresome and
+inadequate. We began to fumble with Morse and semaphore, with
+flashlights and wig-wags and hand-flags.
+
+We did it without a proper system. As a titbit to our other 'snippings,'
+medicine, the Prayer Book, the law, ship's business, the breeches buoy,
+ship-cookery! Fooling about with flags and tappers and that, was all
+very well for the watch below, but there was _work_ to be done--the
+binnacles to be polished, the sacred _suji-mudji_ to be slapped on and
+washed off!
+
+Hesitating and slipshod and inexact as we were, at least we made, of our
+own volition, a start; a start that might, under proper and specialized
+direction, have made an efficient and accurate addition to the sum of
+our sea-lore. But we were wedded to titbits. Late on the tide, as
+usual, the Board of Trade woke up to what was going on. They added a
+'piece' to our lessons, without thought or worry as to the provision of
+facilities for right instruction. We crammed hard for a few days, fired
+our shot at the right moment, and forgot all about it.
+
+[Illustration: THE BRIDGE-BOY REPAIRING FLAGS]
+
+Withal, in our own amending way, we were enthusiastic. We learned the
+trick of _Ak_ and _Beer_ and _Tok_ and _Pip_. We slapped messages at one
+another (in the dog-watches), in many of which a guess was as good a
+translation as any. Our efforts received tolerating and amused
+recognition from naval officers (secure in possession of scores of
+highly trained signal ratings). If we came, by chance, across an affable
+British warship, she would perhaps masthead an E (exercise), to show
+that there was no ill-feeling. Then was the time to turn out our star
+man, usually the junior-est officer, and set him up to show that we were
+not such duffers, after all! Alas! The handicaps that came against us!
+The muddled backgrounds (camouflage, as ever was!), the fatal
+backthought to a guess at the last word! The call and interfering
+counter-call from reader to writer, and writer to reader, and, finally,
+the sad admission--an inevitable _Eye_, _emmer_, _eye_ (I.M.I.--please
+repeat), when our scrawl and jumble of conjectural letters would not
+make sense! We have yet a mortifying memory of such an incident, in
+which a distant signalman spelt out to us, clearly and distinctly, "_Do
+you speak English?_"
+
+Under the stress of war we have improved. Fear for the loss of important
+information has spurred us to keener appreciation. If you promise not to
+flirt the flags backhanded (a most damnably annoying habit of superior,
+_flic-flac_ Navy men) we can read you in at ten or twelve words a
+minute. For single-ship work, that was good enough; if we had a press of
+signalling to attend, we could make up for our busy time in leisurely
+intervals. But convoy altered that. In the Naval Service a signalman
+has nothing whatever to do in the wide world but attend to signals. It
+is his only job: a highly trained speciality. With us the demands of
+ship work on our bare minimum crews do not allow of a duty signaller; he
+must bear a hand with the rest to straighten out the day's work. In
+convoy, with signals flying around like crows at the harvest, we found
+our way of it unworkable. It resolved itself to what used to be called a
+'grand rally' in pantomime--all hands on the job, and the officer of the
+watch neglecting a keen look-out to see that note of the message was
+kept properly.
+
+The naval authorities took counsel. The experiment had been a 'try on,'
+in which they (with their large staff of special signalmen) had assessed
+our ability as greater than their own! It was decided to train
+signalmen--R.N.V.R.--for our service. Pending their formation and
+development, we were given skilled assistance from the crews of our
+ocean escorts. But for our gun ratings, and they mostly R.N.R., we had
+no experience of the regular Navy man in our muster. He spun a bit,
+trimming the grass, before he found rest and a level. With us only for a
+voyage, we did not get to know him very well, but in all he was
+competent enough.
+
+One we had, from H.M.S. _Ber--Sharpset_, Private Henry Artful, R.M.L.I.
+Drouthy, perhaps, but a good hand. At the end of sailing day, when the
+flags were made up and stowed, he came on the bridge.
+
+"Fine night, sir!" We assented, curiously; democratic and all as we are,
+it is rather unusual for our men to be so--so sociable. "Larst capt'in I
+wos with, sir, 'e allus gimme a drink after th' flag wos stowed."
+
+We stared, incredulous. "What! Do you say the captain of _Sharpset_ gave
+you a drink when your work was done?" He started in affright. "Not the
+capt'in o' _Sharpset_, sir! Oh no, sir!--Gawd!--No! Th' capt'in o' th'
+larst merchant ship wot I wos signallin' in!"
+
+His horror, genuine and unconcealed, at our suggestion of such an
+unheard-of transaction, gave illustration alike of the discipline in His
+Majesty's ships and, sadly, the lack of it in ours.
+
+In time our quickly trained R.N.V.R.'s joined. They came from Crystal
+Palace, these new shipmates. Clean fellows--smart. Bacon-curers,
+Cambridge men, lawyers, shopmen, clerks, haberdashers--trimmed and able
+and willing to carry on, and lacking only a little ship practice, and a
+turn of sea-legs, to fit them for a gallant part in delivering the
+goods. With their coming we are introduced to a line of longshore life
+that had escaped us. There is talk and ado of metropolitan habits and
+styles, of 'Maudlen' and high life, of music scores, the latest revue,
+the quips of the music-halls. ("When Pa--says--_turn_" is now the
+correct aside, when Commodore gives executive for a new angle on the
+zigzag!)
+
+At the first we were somewhat concerned at the apparent 'idleness' of
+our signalman. He was on our books for but one employment--the business
+of flags and signals. In intervals of his special duties he made an odd
+picture on the bridge of a merchant ship--a man without a 'job.' The
+firemen, on deck to trim ventilators, would take a peep at him as at
+some strange alien; seamen, passing fore and aft on their reliefs, would
+nod confidently. "Still diggin' wet sand, mate? . . . Wish I 'ad your
+job!" There were days when he was busy enough--'windmilling' with the
+hand-flags, or passing hours in hoist and rehoist when Commodore was
+sharpening the convoy to a precision in manoeuvre, but on open sea his
+day was not unduly crowded. There were odd hours of 'stand-by' under
+screen of the weather-cloth, intervals of leisure which he might use as
+he liked, provided he kept a ready ear for the watch officer's call.
+Reading was usual. In this his taste was catholic. _Tit-Bits_ and _My
+Dream Novelettes_ found favour; one had back numbers of the _Surveyor
+and Municipal and County Engineer_, old volumes of _Good Words_ from the
+Bethel box found a way to the bridge; we saw a pocket volume of Greek
+verse that belonged to the bold lad who altered our signalled 'will' to
+'shall'!
+
+For all his leisured occupation he was quick enough when the call of
+"_Signals_" brought him to business. His concentration on the speciality
+of the flags brought an accuracy to our somewhat haphazard system of
+signalling. We benefited in more than his immediate work by promoting
+his instruction of our young seamen. Spurred, perhaps, by the knowledge
+of our quondam haberdasher's efficiency, the boys improved rapidly under
+his tuition. We paid a modest bonus on results. We are looking forward.
+We shall not have our duty signalman with us when there is 'peace bacon'
+to be cured.
+
+Another new shipmate who has signed with us is the wireless operator,
+the lieutenant of Signor Marconi, our gallant _salvator_ in the war at
+sea. If we may claim for our sea-service a foremost place in national
+defence, it is only by grace of our wireless we register a demand.
+Without it, we were undone. No other system of communication would have
+served us in combat with the submarine; _spurlos versenkt_, without
+possibility of discovery, would have been the triumph of the enemy. If
+to one man we seamen owe a debt unpayable, Marconi holds the bond.
+
+Unthinking, we did not accept our new shipmate with enthusiasm. Before
+the war he could be found on the lordly liners, tapping out all sorts of
+messages, from the picture-post-card-like greetings of extravagant
+passengers to the deathless story of _Titanic_ and _Volturno_. We looked
+upon him as a luxury, only suited to the large passenger vessels. We
+could see no important work for him in the cargo-carriers; we could get
+on very well without a telegraph to the beach. A week of war was
+sufficient to alter our views; we were anxious to have him sign with us.
+Although he is now an important member of the crew, his reception at
+first was none too cordial. The apparent ease and comfort of his office
+rankled in contrast to the rigours of the bridge and the hardships of
+the engine-room. His duties--specialized to one operation--we deemed
+unfairly light in comparison with our jack-of-all-trades routine. In
+port, he was a lordling--no man his master--able to come and go as the
+mood took him. Frankly, we were jealous. Who was this to come among us
+with the airs of a full-blown officer, and yet not a dog-watch at sea?
+Messed in the cabin too, and strutted about the decks with his hands in
+his pockets, as bold and unconcerned as any first-class passenger! We
+were puzzled to place him. He talked airily of ohms and static leaks,
+ampere-hours and anchor-gaps, and yet, in an unguarded moment, had he
+not told us of his experiences in a Manchester broker's office, that
+could have been no more than six months ago? The airs of him! Absurd
+assumption of an official confidence between the Old Man and himself, as
+if _he_ had the weight of the ship's safety on his narrow shoulders! As
+for his baby-brother assistant--that kid with the rosy cheeks--everybody
+knows that all he does is to screw up his 'jimmy fixin's' and sit down
+good and comfortable to read "The Rosary," with his dam mufflers on his
+ears! _Huh!_
+
+But we are wiser now! Here is a text for our conversion. It is a record
+of a wireless conversation between a merchantman attacked and a British
+destroyer steaming to her assistance from somewhere out of sight.
+
+"Are you torpedoed?"
+
+"Not yet. . . . Shots in plenty hitting. Several wounded. Shrapnel, I
+believe. Broken glass all round me."
+
+"Keep men below. Stick it, old man!"
+
+"Yes, you bet. Say, the place stinks of gunpowder. Am lying on the
+floor. . . . I have had to leave 'phones. My gear beginning to fly
+around with concussion. . . . Captain is dead. . . ."--an
+interval--"Submarine has dived! Submarine has dived!"
+
+Yes, we are wiser now! We admit him to full fellowship at sea. And on
+land, too! We admit him the right to trip it in Kingsway or the Strand,
+with his kid gloves, and his notebook, and his neat uniform, for his
+record has shown that it does not require a four-years' apprenticeship
+to build up a stout heart; that on his 'jimmy fixin's' and their proper
+working depends a large measure of our safety; and if the crack does
+come and the air is thick with hurtling debris, broken water and acrid
+smoke, our first look will be aloft to see if his aerial still stands.
+We do him and baby brother the honour that we shall not concern
+ourselves to wonder whether they be ready at their posts!
+
+[Illustration: A TRANSPORT EMBARKING TROOPS FOR FRANCE]
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+TRANSPORT SERVICES
+
+
+THE first State control of the merchants' ships began with the
+transports employed to convey the Expeditionary Force to France in the
+early days of August 1914. Vessels of all sizes and classes were
+commandeered at the dockside to serve in the emergency. The
+comparatively short distance across the channels did not call for
+elaborate preparation and refitment: the times would admit of no delay.
+Ships on the point of sailing on their trading voyages were held in
+dock, their cargo discharged in quantity to make space for troops and
+their equipment. Lining-up on the quays and in the littered dock-sheds,
+troops awaited the stoppage of unloading operations. With the last sling
+of the 'tween-deck lading passed to the shore, they marched on board. As
+the tide served, the vessels steamed out of dock and turned, away from
+their normal routes, towards the coast of France.
+
+To serve as ballast weight, the stowage of cargo in the lower holds was
+frequently left in place for the term of the vessel's troop service.
+Months, perhaps a year later, the merchandise arrived at its
+destination. Consignees would wonder at its tardy delivery--they could
+see no record of its itinerary as shewn by the bills of lading, unless
+they read into the fine prefix--'War: the King's Enemies: restraints of
+Rulers and Princes'--the romance of its voyaging with the heroes of
+Mons.
+
+To transport the overseas troops from India and Canada and Australia,
+different measures were necessary. The ships requisitioned for this
+service had to be specially fitted for the longer voyage. The State was
+lavish and extravagant under the sudden pressure of events. The
+many-handed control at the ports made for an upheaval and dislocation of
+shipyard labour that did not hasten the urgent dispatch of the vessels.
+The hysteria of the times gave excuse for a squandering of valuable
+ship-tonnage that was without parallel. Large liners, already fitted for
+carriage of passengers, were employed as prison and internment ships.
+Curious situations arose in the disposal of others. At the north end, a
+large vessel might suddenly be requisitioned and taken from her
+trade--with all the consequent confusion and relay; by day and night the
+work of fitting her would go on. South, a vessel of similar size and
+build might be found, having her troop-fittings removed, in preparation
+for an ordinary trading voyage. Still, if the end justifies the means,
+the ultimate results were not without credit. The garrison troops from
+Malta and Egypt and Gibraltar and South Africa were moved with a
+celerity that is unexampled; a huge contingent from India was placed on
+the field in record time. A convoy of thirty-one merchantmen brought
+Canadian arms to our assistance: Australians, in thirty-six ships,
+crossed the Indian Ocean to take up station in Egypt. The unsubsidized
+and singular enterprise of the merchants was proving its worth: as vital
+to the success of our cause as the great war fleet, the merchants' ships
+aided to stem the onrush in France and Flanders.
+
+Considerations of economy followed upon the excited measures with which
+the first transport of available troops was effected. In the period of
+training and preparation for the long offensive, the Transport
+Department had opportunity to organize their work on less stressful
+lines. It was well that there was breathing-space at this juncture.
+Enemy interference, that had so far been almost wholly a surface threat
+to our communications, grew rapidly to a serious menace from under
+water. The engagement and organization of naval protection underwent an
+immediate revisal. Heavily armed cruisers and battleships could afford
+little protection against the activity of the German submarines, now at
+large in waters that we had thought were overdistant for their peculiar
+manoeuvres. Destroyers and swift light craft were needed to sail with
+the transports.
+
+The landing at Gallipoli, under the guns of the enemy, was a triumph for
+the Transport Service. In the organization and disposal of the ships,
+the control and undertaking that placed them in sufficient numbers in
+condition for their desperate venture, the Department redeemed any
+earlier miscalculations. The efficient service of the merchant masters
+and seamen was equally notable. Under heavy fire from the batteries on
+shore they carried out the instructions given to them in a manner that
+was "astonishingly accurate" and impressed even the firebrands of the
+naval service. Strange duties fell to the merchant seamen on that day.
+Compelled by the heavy draught of their ships to remain passive
+spectators of the deeds of heroism on the beach, they saw ". . . whole
+groups swept down like corn before a reaper, and to realize that among
+these groups were men who only a short time before had bid us good-bye
+with a smile on their lips, was a bitter experience.
+
+"Our vessel was used to re-embark the wounded, and we stood close
+inshore to make the work of boating them off less hazardous. We had
+three doctors on board, but no nurses or orderlies, and the wounded were
+being brought on board in hundreds, so it was a relief to us to doff our
+coats and lend a hand. We had to bury the dead in batches; officers and
+men were consigned to the deep together. On one occasion the number was
+exceptional, and the captain broke down while reading the service. . . ."
+It was surely a bond of real brotherhood that brought the shattered
+remnants of the complement she had landed earlier in the day to meet
+their last discharge at the hands of the troopship's seamen--their
+committal to the deep at the broken words of the vessel's master.
+
+While the transport of troops in the Channel and the narrow seas was
+not, at any time, seriously interfered with, the movements of the larger
+ocean transports were not conducted without loss. _Royal Edward_ was the
+first transport to be torpedoed. She went down with the sacrifice of
+over a thousand lives. The power of the submarine had been over-lightly
+estimated by the authorities: measures of protection were inadequate.
+Improved U-boats were, by now, operating in the Mediterranean, and their
+commanders had quickly acquired a confidence in their power. More
+destroyers were required to escort the troopships.
+
+By a rearrangement of forces a more efficient measure of naval
+protection was assured. Although the provision of a swift escort did not
+always prevent the destruction of ships, the loss of life on the
+occasion of the sinking of a transport was sensibly reduced by the
+presence of accompanying destroyers. The skill and high gallantry of
+their commanders was largely instrumental in averting complete and
+terrible disaster. As the numbers of ships were reduced by enemy action
+there came the need to pack the remaining vessels to a point of
+overloading. Boat equipment on the ships could not be other than
+inadequate when the certified complement of passengers was exceeded by
+100 per cent. In any case, the havoc of a torpedo left little time to
+put the huge numbers of men afloat. With no thought of their own
+hazard--bringing up alongside a torpedoed vessel and abandoning the
+safeguard of their speed and manoeuvring power--the destroyer men
+accepted all risks in an effort to bring at least the manning of their
+charge to port.
+
+Every casualty added grim experience to the sum of our resources in
+avoiding a great death-roll. Life-belts that we had thought efficient
+were proved faulty of adjustment and were condemned: methods of
+boat-lowering were altered to meet the danger of a sudden list: the run
+of gangway and passage to the life-apparatus was cleared of impediment.
+When on a passage every precaution that could be taken towards a ready
+alert was insisted upon. Despite the manly grumbling of the very young
+military officers on board, certain irksome regulations were enforced.
+Life-belts had to be worn continuously; troops were only allowed below
+decks at stated hours; systems of drill, constantly carried through,
+left little leisure for the officers and men. Although no formal drill
+can wholly meet the abnormal circumstances of the new sea-casualty, we
+left nothing undone to prepare for eventualities. That our efforts were
+not useless was evident from the comparatively small loss of life that
+has resulted from late transport disasters.
+
+The system of escort varies largely in the different seas. Homeward from
+Canada and, latterly, from the United States the troopships are formed
+in large convoys under the ocean escort of a cruiser. On arrival at a
+position in the Atlantic within working distance of the destroyers'
+range of steaming, the convoy is met by a flotilla of fast destroyers
+who escort the ships to port. For transport work in the Mediterranean no
+such arrangement could be operated. Every sea-mile of the great expanse
+is equally a danger zone. Usually, vessels of moderate speed are
+accompanied by sloops or armed drifters, but the fast troopships require
+destroyers for their protection. The long courses call for relays, as
+the destroyers cannot carry sufficient fuel. Marseilles to Malta, Malta
+to Suda Bay, Suda Bay to Salonika--a familiar voyage of three
+stages--required the services of no less than five destroyers. The
+numbers of our escorting craft were limited: it called for keen
+foresight on the part of the Naval Staff and unwearying sea-service on
+that of the war craft to fit their resources to our demands.
+
+[Illustration: TRANSPORTS IN SOUTHAMPTON DOCKS]
+
+In the narrow seas, with the patrols more numerous and closely linked,
+the short-voyage transports proceed on a time-table of sailings that
+keeps them constantly in touch with armed assistance. The vessels are
+mostly of light draught and high speed. Whilom railway and pleasure
+craft, they make their voyages with the exactitude of the
+rail-connections they served in the peaceful days. Although many of them
+are built and maintained (and certificated by the Board of Trade) for
+smooth-water limits only, the emergency of the times has given
+opportunity of proof that their seaworthy qualities are underestimated
+by the authorities. The high gales and dangerous short seas of the
+Channel are no deterrent to their voyages; under the pressure of the
+continual call for reinforcements on the Western Front, and serving the
+line of route from England to the Continent, to Marseilles and beyond,
+they stand no hindrance. They are specially the objects of enemy
+attention. Their high speed and rapid turning power enables them to run
+moderately free of torpedo attack--though the attempts to sink them by
+this weapon are frequent enough--but in the German sea-mines they have a
+menace that cannot so readily be evaded. Many have fallen victims to
+this danger, but the ready succour of the patrols has prevented heavy
+loss of life. Though armed for defence, they have not had many
+opportunities for gun action. Their keen stems are weapon enough, as
+Captain Keith considered when he drove _Queen Alexandra_ at full speed
+into an enemy submarine, sinking him, and nipping a piece of his shorn
+hull for trophy.
+
+Southampton is the principal base for the smaller transports. Large
+vessels--the _Olympic_ and her sisters--come and go from the port, but
+it is by the quick turns of the smaller vessels that the huge traffic of
+the base is cleared. Tramping through the streets of the ancient town to
+turn in at the dock gates, company after company of troops file down the
+quayside to embark on the great adventure. The small craft are berthed
+at the seaward end of the docks, and the drifting white feathers at
+their funnel-tips marks steam up in readiness for departure. The
+drab-grey of their hulls and decks is quickly lined by ochre tint of
+khaki uniforms. There is no halt to the long lines of marching men, save
+on the turn of the stream to another gangway. By long practice, the
+Naval Transport Staff and the embarkation officers have brought their
+duties to a finished routine. There is not here the muster, the
+enumeration, the interminable long-drawn march and counter-march on the
+wharf-side, that is the case with the larger ocean transports. Crossing
+the gangway, carrying pack and equipment, the troops settle down on the
+decks in a closely packed mass.
+
+Anon, with no undue advertisement, the transports unmoor from the quay
+and steam down Southampton Water. Off St. Helens, the night covers them
+and they steal out swiftly on the Channel crossing.
+
+
+INTERLUDE
+
+BUT for the flat-topped dwellings, the domes and minarets, of the town
+that stands in the alluvial valley, Suda Bay is not unlike a Highland
+loch in its loneliness and rugged grandeur. The high surrounding
+mountains, the lofty snow-capped summit of Psiloriti standing up in the
+east, the bare hill-side sloping to the water with no wooded country to
+break the expanse of rock and heath, the lone roadway by the fringe of
+the sea that leads to the wilds, are all in likeness to the prospect of
+a remote Sutherland landscape. The darkling shadows on the water, the
+play of sun and cloud on the distant uplands, completes the picture;
+sheep on the hill-side set up plaintive calls that echo over the Bay.
+
+The heavy westerly gale that was reason for our being signalled in from
+sea has blown itself out, and the water of the Bay stands still and
+placid. All that is left of the furious squalls of yesterday has not
+strength to keep us wind-rode in the anchorage, and we cast about to the
+vagaries of the drift.
+
+We were bound down from Salonika to Marseilles when ordered in. We had
+expected to meet the relieving escort of destroyers at the Cerigo
+Channel, but the bad weather had prevented them from proceeding at any
+but a slow speed, and there was no prospect of their arrival at the
+rendezvous. So we turned south to seek protection behind the booms at
+Suda Bay. We are a packed ship. The shortage of transports has had
+effect in crowding the vessels in service to a point far beyond the
+limits of their accommodation. We have had to institute a
+watch-and-watch system among our huge complement. While a proportion are
+seeking rest below, others crowd the upper decks, passing the time as
+best they may until their turn of the hammocks comes round.
+
+The fine weather after the late gale has brought every one on deck. The
+doings of the ships in the anchorage have interest for the landsmen.
+Naval cutters and whalers are out under oars for exercise, and thrash up
+and down the Bay with the long steady sweep of practised rowers. Our
+escort of two destroyers arrives--their funnels white-crusted from the
+heavy weather they have experienced on passage from Malta. They engage
+the flagship with signals, then steam alongside an oiler to take fuel
+for the return voyage. A message from the senior officer is signalled to
+us to have steam raised, to proceed to sea at midnight.
+
+Standing in from the Gateway, a British submarine comes up the Bay. She
+moves slowly, as though looking for the least uncomfortable berth in the
+anchorage. The oil-ship, having already the two destroyers alongside,
+cannot offer her a place: she will have to lie off and await her turn.
+We put a signal on her, inviting her people to tie up alongside and
+come stretch their legs on our broad decks. Instant compliance. She
+turns on a long curve, rounds our stern, and her wires are passed on
+board.
+
+The commander of the submarine gazes about curiously as he comes on
+board. He confesses that he has had no intimate acquaintance with
+merchants' ships. The huge number of our passengers impresses him,
+accustomed as he is to the small manning of his own vessel. Standing on
+the navigation bridge, we look out over the decks below at the
+khaki-clad assembly. The ship seems brimming over with life and
+animation. There is no corner but has its group of soldiers. They are
+everywhere; in the rigging, astride the derricks, over the top of boats
+and rafts they are stretched out to the sun. Mess-cooks with their gear
+push their way through the crowds; there is constant movement--the men
+from aft barging forward, the fore-end troops blocking the gangways as
+they saunter aft. Noisy! Snatches of song, hails, and shouts--the
+interminable games of 'ouse with '_Clikety-clik_ and _blind-forty_'
+resounding in the many local dialects of the varied troops. High in
+spirit! We are the leave-ship, and they are bound home for a
+long-desired furlough after the deadly monotony of trench-keeping on the
+Doiran Front.
+
+"Gad! What a crowd," he says. "I had no idea you carried so many. They
+look so big--and so awkward in a ship. Of course, on a battleship we
+muster a lot o' men, twelve hundred in the big 'uns, but--somehow--one
+never sees them about the decks unless at divisions or that. Perhaps
+it's khaki does it; one gets accustomed to blue in a ship."
+
+A 'diversion' has been arranged for the afternoon. Dinner over, all
+troops are mustered to a boat drill that includes the lowering of the
+boats. Since leaving Salonika there has been no such opportunity as now
+offers. Despite foreknowledge of the time of assembly it is a long
+proceeding. Our complement is made up of small details--a handful of men
+from every battalion on the Front. Officers set to their control are
+drawn from as many varied branches of the service. The valued personal
+'grip' of non-commissioned officers is not at our disposal. There is no
+such order and discipline as would be the case if we were manned by
+complete battalions. The routine of military movements seems dull and
+lifeless at sea, however efficient it may prove on land. We are long on
+the job.
+
+By dint of check and repetition the grouping of the men at their boat
+stations is brought to a moderate proficiency. The seamen at the boats
+swing out and lower, and we set the boats afloat, each with a full
+complement of troops. Embarked, and left to their own resources--with
+only one ship's rating to steer--the men make a better show. The
+division of the mass into smaller bodies induces a rivalry and spirit
+of competition: they swing the oars sturdily and make progress to and
+fro on the calm water of the Bay.
+
+With the boats away full-loaded, we take stock of the numbers still
+mustered on the deck. Considerably reduced, they are still a host. The
+boat deck, the forecastle head, the poop--are all lined over by the
+waiting men: the empty boat-chocks and the dangling falls inspire a mood
+of disquiet. Standing at ease, they seem to be facing towards the
+bridge. Doubtless they are wondering what we think of it all. The
+submarine's commander has been with us at our station during the muster.
+We look at one another--thoughtfully.
+
+
+'THE MAN-O'-WAR 'S 'ER 'USBAND'
+
+A SENSE of security is difficult of definition. Largely, it is founded
+upon habit and association. It is induced and maintained by familiar
+surroundings. On board ship, in a small world of our own, we seem to be
+contained by the boundaries of the bulwarks, to be sailing beyond the
+influences of the land and of other ships. The sea is the same we have
+known for so long. Every item of our ship fitment--the trim arrangement
+of the decks, the set and rake of mast and funnel, even the furnishings
+of our cabins--has the power of impressing a stable feeling of custom,
+normal ship life, safety. It requires an effort of thought to recall
+that in their homely presence we are endangered. Relating his
+experiences after having been mined and his ship sunk, a master confided
+that the point that impressed him most deeply was when he went to his
+room for the confidential papers and saw the cabin exactly in everyday
+aspect--his longshore clothes suspended from the hooks, his umbrella
+standing in a corner as he had placed it on coming aboard.
+
+Soldiers on service are denied this aid to assurance. Unlike us, they
+cannot carry their home with them to the battlefield. All their scenes
+and surroundings are novel; they may only draw a reliance and comfort
+from the familiar presence of their comrades. At sea in a ship there is
+a yet greater incitement to their disquiet. The movement, the limitless
+sea, the distance from the land, cannot be ignored. The atmosphere that
+is so familiar and comforting to us, is to many of them an environment
+of dread possibilities.
+
+[Illustration: THE _LEVIATHAN_ DOCKING AT LIVERPOOL]
+
+It is with some small measure of this sense of security--tempered by our
+knowledge of enemy activity in these waters--we pace the bridge. Anxiety
+is not wholly absent. Some hours past, we saw small flotsam that may
+have come from the decks of a French mail steamer, torpedoed three days
+ago. The passing of the derelict fittings aroused some disquiet, but
+the steady routine of our progress and the constant friendly presence of
+familiar surroundings has effect in allaying immediate fears. The rounds
+of the bridge go on--the writing of the log, the tapping of the glass,
+the small measures that mark the passing of our sea-hours. Two days out
+from Marseilles--and all well! In another two days we should be
+approaching the Canal, and then--to be clear of 'submarine waters' for a
+term. Fine weather! A light wind and sea accompany us for the present,
+but the filmy glare of the sun, now low, and a backward movement of the
+glass foretells a break ere long. We are steaming at high speed to make
+the most of the smooth sea. Ahead, on each bow, our two escorting
+destroyers conform to the angles of our zigzag--spurring out and
+swerving with the peculiar 'thrown-around' movement of their class.
+Look-out is alert and in numbers. Added to the watch of the ship's crew,
+military signallers are posted; the boats swung outboard have each a
+party of troops on guard.
+
+An alarmed cry from aloft--a half-uttered order to the steersman--an
+explosion, low down in the bowels of the ship, that sets her reeling in
+her stride!
+
+The upthrow comes swiftly on the moment of impact. Hatches, coal,
+shattered debris, a huge column of solid water go skyward in a hurtling
+mass to fall in torrent on the bridge. Part of a human body strikes the
+awning spars and hangs--watch-keepers are borne to the deck by the
+weight of water--the steersman falls limply over the wheel with blood
+pouring from a gash on his forehead. . . . Then silence for a stunned
+half-minute, with only the thrust of the engines marking the heart-beats
+of the stricken ship.
+
+Uproar! Most of our men are young recruits: they have been but two days
+on the sea. The torpedo has gone hard home at the very weakest hour of
+our calculated drill. The troops are at their evening meal when the blow
+comes, the explosion killing many outright. We had counted on a
+proportion of the troops being on the deck, a steadying number to
+balance the sudden rush from below that we foresaw in emergency.
+Hurrying from the mess-decks as enjoined, the quick movement gathers way
+and intensity: the decks become jammed by the pressure, the gangways and
+passages are blocked in the struggle. There is the making of a
+panic--tuned by their outcry, "_God!_ _O God!_ _O Christ!_" The swelling
+murmur is neither excited nor agonized--rather the dull, hopeless
+expression of despair.
+
+The officer commanding troops has come on the bridge at the first alarm.
+His juniors have opportunity to take their stations before the
+struggling mass reaches to the boats. The impossibility of getting among
+the men on the lower decks makes the military officers' efforts to
+restore confidence difficult. They are aided from an unexpected quarter.
+The bridge-boy makes unofficial use of our megaphone. "Hey! Steady up
+you men doon therr," he shouts. "Ye'll no' dae ony guid fur yersels
+croodin' th' ledders!"
+
+We could not have done it as well. The lad is plainly in sight to the
+crowd on the decks. A small boy, undersized. "Steady up doon therr!" The
+effect is instant. Noise there still is, but the movement is arrested.
+
+The engines are stopped--we are now beyond range of a second
+torpedo--and steam thunders in exhaust, making our efforts to control
+movements by voice impossible. At the moment of the impact the
+destroyers have swung round and are casting here and there like hounds
+on the scent: the dull explosion of a depth-charge--then another, rouses
+a fierce hope that we are not unavenged. The force of the explosion has
+broken connections to the wireless room, but the aerial still holds and,
+when a measure of order on the boat-deck allows, we send a message of
+our peril broadcast. There is no doubt in our mind of the outcome. Our
+bows, drooping visibly, tell that we shall not float long. We have
+nearly three thousand on board. There are boats for sixteen
+hundred--then rafts. Boats--rafts--and the glass is falling at a rate
+that shows bad weather over the western horizon!
+
+Our drill, that provided for lowering the boats with only
+half-complements in them, will not serve. We pass orders to lower away
+in any condition, however overcrowded. The way is off the ship, and it
+is with some apprehension we watch the packed boats that drop away from
+the davit heads. The shrill ring of the block-sheaves indicates a
+tension that is not far from breaking-point. Many of the life-boats
+reach the water safely with their heavy burdens, but the strain on the
+tackles--far beyond their working load--is too great for all to stand to
+it. Two boats go down by the run. The men in them are thrown violently
+to the water, where they float in the wash and shattered planking. A
+third dangles from the after fall, having shot her manning out at
+parting of the forward tackle. Lowered by the stern, she rights,
+disengages, and drifts aft with the men clinging to the life-lines. We
+can make no attempt to reach the men in the water. Their life-belts are
+sufficient to keep them afloat: the ship is going down rapidly by the
+head, and there remains the second line of boats to be hoisted and swung
+over. The chief officer, pausing in his quick work, looks to the bridge
+inquiringly, as though to ask, "How long?" The fingers of two hands
+suffice to mark our estimate.
+
+The decks are now angled to the deepening pitch of the bows. Pumps are
+utterly inadequate to make impression on the swift inflow. The chief
+engineer comes to the bridge with a hopeless report. It is only a
+question of time. How long? Already the water is lapping at a level of
+the foredeck. Troops massed there and on the forecastle-head are
+apprehensive: it is indeed a wonder that their officers have held them
+for so long. The commanding officer sets example by a cool nonchalance
+that we envy. Posted with us on the bridge, his quick eyes note the
+flood surging in the pent 'tween-decks below, from which his men have
+removed the few wounded. The dead are left to the sea.
+
+Help comes as we had expected it would. Leaving _Nemesis_ to steam fast
+circles round the sinking ship, _Rifleman_ swings in and brings up
+alongside at the forward end. Even in our fear and anxiety and distress,
+we cannot but admire the precision of the destroyer captain's
+manoeuvre--the skilful avoidance of our crowded life-boats and the men
+in the water--the sudden stoppage of her way and the cant that brings
+her to a standstill at the lip of our brimming decks. The troops who
+have stood so well to orders have their reward in an easy leap to
+safety. Quickly the foredeck is cleared. _Rifleman_ spurts ahead in a
+rush that sets the surrounding life-boats to eddy in her wash. She takes
+up the circling high-speed patrol and allows her sister ship to swing in
+and embark a number of our men.
+
+It is when the most of the life-boats are gone we realize fully the
+gallant service of the destroyers. There remain the rafts, but many of
+these have been launched over to aid the struggling men in the water.
+Half an hour has passed since we were struck--thirty minutes of frantic
+endeavour to debark our men--yet still the decks are thronged by a
+packed mass that seems but little reduced. The coming of the destroyers
+alters the outlook. _Rifleman's_ action has taken over six hundred. A
+sensible clearance! _Nemesis_ swings in with the precision of an
+express, and the thud and clatter of the troops jumping to her deck sets
+up a continuous drumming note of deliverance. Alert and confident, the
+naval men accept the great risks of their position. The ship's bows are
+entered to the water at a steep incline. Every minute the balance is
+weighing, casting her stern high in the air. The bulkheads are by now
+taking place of keel and bearing the huge weight of her on the water. At
+any moment she may go without a warning, to crash into the light hull of
+the destroyer and bear her down. For all the circling watch of her
+sister ship, the submarine--if still he lives--may get in a shot at the
+standing target. It is with a deep relief we signal the captain to bear
+off. Her decks are jammed to the limit. She can carry no more. _Nemesis_
+lists heavily under her burdened decks as she goes ahead and clears.
+
+Forty minutes! The zigzag clock in the wheelhouse goes on ringing the
+angles of time and course as though we were yet under helm and speed.
+For a short term we have noted that the ship appears to have reached a
+point of arrest in her foundering droop. She remains upright as she has
+been since righting herself after the first inrush of water. Like the
+lady she always was, she has added no fearsome list to the sum of our
+distress. The familiar bridge, on which so many of our safe sea-days
+have been spent, is canted at an angle that makes foothold uneasy. She
+cannot remain for long afloat. The end will come swiftly, without
+warning--a sudden rupture of the bulkhead that is sustaining her weight.
+We are not now many left on board. Striving and wrenching to man-handle
+the only remaining boat--rendered idle for want of the tackles that have
+parted on service of its twin--we succeed in pointing her outboard, and
+await a further deepening of the bows ere launching her. Of the
+military, the officer commanding, some few of his juniors, a group of
+other ranks, stand by. The senior officers of the ship, a muster of
+seamen, a few stewards, are banded with us at the last. We expect no
+further service of the destroyers. The position of the ship is
+over-menacing to any approach. They have all they can carry. Steaming at
+a short distance they have the appearance of being heavily overloaded;
+each has a staggering list and lies low in the water under their deck
+encumbrance. We have only the hazard of a quick out-throw of the
+remaining boat and the chances of a grip on floating wreckage to count
+upon.
+
+On a sudden swift sheer, _Rifleman_ takes the risk. Unheeding our
+warning hail, she steams across the bows and backs at a high speed: her
+rounded stern jars on our hull plates, a whaler and the davits catch on
+a projection and give with the ring of buckling steel--she turns on the
+throw of the propellors and closes aboard with a resounding impact that
+sets her living deck-load to stagger.
+
+We lose no time. Scrambling down the life-ropes, our small company
+endeavours to get foothold on her decks. The destroyer widens off at the
+rebound, but by clutch of friendly hands the men are dragged aboard. One
+fails to reach safety. A soldier loses grip and goes to the water. The
+chief officer follows him. Tired and unstrung as he must be by the
+devoted labours of the last half-hour, he is in no condition to effect a
+rescue. A sudden deep rumble from within the sinking ship warns the
+destroyer captain to go ahead. We are given no chance to aid our
+shipmates: the propellors tear the water in a furious race that sweeps
+them away, and we draw off swiftly from the side of the ship.
+
+We are little more than clear of the settling fore-end when the last
+buoyant breath of _Cameronia_ is overcome. Nobly she has held afloat to
+the debarking of the last man. There is no further life in her. Evenly,
+steadily, as we had seen her leave the launching ways at Meadowside, she
+goes down.
+
+[Illustration: SALVAGE VESSELS OFF YARMOUTH, ISLE OF WIGHT]
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+THE SALVAGE SECTION
+
+
+THE TIDEMASTERS
+
+IF Royal Canute, King of England and Denmark, with his train of servile
+earls and thanes, could revisit the scene of his famous object-lesson,
+he would learn a new value in the tide. Suitably, he might improve his
+homily by presentation of the salvage tidemasters, harnessing the rise
+and fall of the stubborn element to serve their needs and heave a
+foundered vessel to sight and service. He would note the cunning
+guidance of strain and effort, their exact timing of the ruled and
+ordered habits of the sea. As a moral, he could quote that, if tide may
+not be ordered to command, it can at least be governed and impressed to
+performance of a mighty service.
+
+Recovery of ships, their gear and cargo, is no longer wholly an
+application of practised seamanship. The task is burdened and
+complicated by powers and conditions that call for auxiliary arts. It is
+true that the salvage officer's ground, his main asset, is the knowledge
+and ability to do a seamanlike 'job o' work' when the time and tide are
+opportune; he must have a seaman's training in the ways of the wind and
+the sea and be able properly to assess the weather conditions under
+which alone his precarious work is possible. A scientist of a liberal
+and versatile type (not perhaps exhaustive in his scope and range), he
+is able to draw the quantum of his needs from a wide and varied summary.
+Together with his medical exemplar, he has developed a technique from
+crude remedies and imperfect diagnoses to application of fine science.
+He must have a sure knowledge of the anatomy of his great steel
+patients, be versed in the infinite variety and intricacy of ship
+construction, and the valves and arteries of their power; be able to pen
+and plan his formulae for weight-lifting--the stress and strain of it,
+down to the calibre of the weakest link. A super-tidesman, he must know
+to an inch the run of bottom, the swirl and eddy, the value of flood and
+ebb and springs, for the tide--Canute's immutable recalcitrant--is his
+greatest assistant, a familiar _Genius maris_ whom he conjures from the
+deeps of ocean to do his bidding. Shrewd! He is a keen student of the
+psychology of the distressed mariner; again, like the medical man, he
+must set himself to extract truth from the tale that is told. His
+treatment must be prescribed, not to meet a case as presented, but as
+his skilled knowledge of the probabilities warrants. Tactful, if he is
+to meet with assistance in his difficult work, he must assume the
+sympathy of one seaman to another in distress. What, after all, does it
+matter if he agree heartily that "the touch was very light, we were
+going dead slow," when, from his divers' reports, he knows that the
+whole bottom is 'up'?
+
+In the handling of his own men there must be a combination of rigour and
+reason. Salvage crews are a hardy, tempestuous race who have no ordinary
+regard for the niceties of law and order; their work is no scheduled and
+defined occupation with states and margins; they are servants to tide
+and weather alone; they are embarked on a venture, on a hazard, a
+lottery. To such men, administering, under his direction, the heroic but
+destructive remedies of high explosive and compressed air, there cannot
+be a normal allowance for the economic use of gear and material. He must
+know the right and judicial discount to be made that will meet the
+conflicting demands of the expenses department and the results
+committee. Above all, he must be of an infinite patience, of the mettle
+that is not readily discouraged. In the great game of seafaring his hand
+holds the king of disappointment and the knaves of frustration and
+discouragement. But he has other cards; he holds an ace in stability and
+determination.
+
+Calm days and smooth seas may lure him to surpassing effort, to work
+through the tides in feverish energy, making the most of favoured
+opportunity. The scattered and interrupted work of months has perhaps
+been geared and bound, the tackle rigged and set for a final dead lift.
+Buoyancy is figured out and assured; the pumps are in place, throbbing
+and droning out, throwing steady streams from the weight of water that
+so long has held the foundered wreck in depth. The work has been long
+and trying, but an end to difficulty is in sight. Given a day or two of
+continued fine weather, the sea and the rocks will have to surrender
+their prisoner.
+
+Comes a darkling to windward and the sea stirs uneasily; jets and spurts
+of broken water appear over the teeth and spit of rocky ledges. The
+salvors look around with calculating eyes and note the signs of a
+weather break. Still, there is no slackening of effort; there may be
+time to complete the work before the sea rises to interfere; if
+anything, the omens only call for another spur to the flank, a new sting
+to the lash.
+
+Beaten to the knees, the gear and tackle swaying perilously in breaking
+seas, the lifting-barges thundering at their curbs, the pumps groaning
+and protesting their inability to overcome the lap of blue water, there
+is no alternative but to abandon the work and return to harbour. From
+the beach the salvage officer may watch his labour of weeks--or
+months--savagely undone in an hour or two of storm and fury of the sea!
+
+It is a great catalogue, that schedule of virtues and accomplishments.
+To it must be added, as a supplement, that he must be a 'made' man--made
+in a long hard pupilage in a stern school that appraises strictly on
+results. It is of little use to show that, in theory, a certain course
+was right and proper, when the broad but damning fact remains that the
+property is still in Davy Jones his locker, and likely--there to remain.
+Many are called, but few are chosen. The salvage service has no room for
+the merely mediocre officer: the right man goes inevitably to his proper
+place, the wrong one goes back to a junior, and less responsible, post
+at sea.
+
+It is doubtful if the Naval Service could produce the type required.
+Their candidate would be, to a degree, inelastic. He would be an
+excellent theorist, a sound executant, a strict disciplinarian; but his
+training and ideas would fit ill to the wide range of conflicting
+interests, and the shutting out of all manoeuvre, however skilled and
+stimulating--but that of securing a maximum of result by a minimum of
+effort. Perhaps it was for these reasons our salvage services before the
+war were almost wholly mercantile and commercial. Certainly, most
+Admiralty efforts in this direction were confined to ports and harbours
+where method could be ordered and controlled by routine; their more
+arduous and unmanageable cases on the littoral were frequently handed
+over to the merchantmen--not seldom after naval efforts had been
+unavailing. Among the protestations of our good faith to the world in
+time of peace, it may be cited that we made no serious provision for a
+succession of maritime casualties; there was no specially organized and
+equipped Naval Salvage Service. True, there were the harbour gear,
+divers, a pump or two, and appliances and craft for attending submarine
+accidents, but their energies were bent largely to humane purposes--to
+marine first aid. Of major gear and a trained personnel to control
+equipment and operation there was not even a nucleus. Salvage was valued
+at a modest section of the "Manual on Seamanship" (written by a
+mercantile expert), and a very occasional lecture at the Naval College.
+At war, and the toll of maritime disaster rising, the need grew quickly
+for expert and special service. There was no longer a relative and
+profitable balance to be struck between value of sea-property and cost
+of salvage operations. A ship had become beyond mere money valuation; as
+well assess the air we breathe in terms of finance. No cost was high if
+a keel could be added to our mercantile fleets in one minute less than
+the time the builders would take to construct a new vessel. The call was
+for competent ship-surgeons who could front-rank our maritime C Threes.
+By whatever skill and daring and exercise of seamanship, the wrecks must
+be returned to service. Happily, there was no necessity to go far
+afield; the merchants' salvage enterprise, like the merchants' ships and
+the merchants' men, was ready at hand for adoption.
+
+[Illustration: IN A SALVAGE VESSEL: OVERHAULING THE INSULATION OF THE
+POWER LEADS]
+
+The Salvage Section, Admiralty, is a dignified caption and has an almost
+imperial address, but, camouflages and all, it is not difficult to see
+the hem of old sea-worn garments of our mercantile companies peeping out
+below the gold braid. If in peace-time they did wonders, war has made
+their greatest and most successful efforts seem but minor actions
+compared to their present-day victories. The practice and experience
+gained in quick succession of 'cases' has tuned up their operations to
+the highest pitch of efficiency. New and more powerful appliances have
+come to their hands; a skilled and technical directorate has liberated
+initiative. Strandings, torpedo or mine damage, fire, collisions--frequently
+a compound of two or three--or all five--provide them with occasion for
+every shift of ingenuity, every turn of resource. There is no stint to
+the gear, and no limits to invention, or device, if there is a
+possibility of a damaged ship being brought to the dry docks. Is it not
+on record that an obstinate, stranded ship, driven high on the beach,
+was finally relaunched on the crest of an artificially created 'spring'
+tide, the wash and suction of a high-speed destroyer, plying and
+circling in the shallows?
+
+Many new perils are added to the risks and hazards of their normally
+dangerous work. Casualties that call for their service are rarely
+located in safe and protected waters; open coast and main channels are
+the marches of the Salvage Section, where the enemy has a keen and ready
+eye for a 'potting' shot by which he may prevent succour of a previous
+victim. The menace of sea-mines is particularly theirs; the run and
+swirl of Channel tides has strength to weigh a stealthy mooring and
+carry a power of destruction up stream and down. They have a new and
+deadly danger to be guarded against in the ammunition and armament of
+their stricken wards. Many have gone down at 'action stations,' and
+carry 'hair-sprung' explosive charges, the exact condition and activity
+of which are usually a matter for conjecture. It calls for a courage of
+no ordinary measure to grope and stumble under water amid shattered
+wreckage for the safety-clutch of the charges, or grapple in the mud and
+litter for torpedo firing-levers. This the pioneer of the divers must
+do, as the first and most important of his duties.
+
+With skill enhanced by constant and encouraged practice, they set out to
+bind the wounds and raise our damaged ships to a further lease of
+sea-activity. So definite and sure are their methods, so skilled and
+rapid their execution, they steam ahead of reconstruction and crowd the
+waiting-room at the dry-dock gates. Lined up at the anchorage awaiting
+their turn, the recovered vessels may be crippled and bent, and showing
+torsion and distress in the list, and staggering trim with which they
+swing flood and ebb. They may rest, halting, on the inshore shallow
+flats, but, laid by for a term of repair, their day is to come again.
+The Salvage Section has reclaimed their rent and stranded hulls from the
+misty sea-Front; the Repair Section, working day and night, will hammer
+and bind and reframe the gaps of their steel; the Sea Section will take
+them out on the old stormy road, sound and seaworthy, with the flag at
+the peak once more.
+
+
+A DAY ON THE SHOALS
+
+THE rigger was engaged at second tucks of a five-inch wire-splicing job,
+and hardly looked in the direction we indicated. "Them," he said.
+"Them's crocks wot we don't want nothin' more t' do with! Two on 'em's
+got frozen mutton. High? Excelsi-bloody-or! . . . an' that feller as is
+down by th' 'ead--Gawd! 'e don't 'arf smell 'orrible!" A pause, while he
+hammered down the strands and found fault with his assistant, gave us
+time to disentangle the negatives of his opening. "Grain, she 'as--an'
+of all th' ruddy messes wot I ever see--she gets it! We 'ad four days at
+'er--out there 'n th' Padrig Flats, an' she sickened nigh all 'ands! . . .
+Now we're well quit o' 'er, an' th' longshore gangs is unloadin' th'
+bulk, in nosebags an' gas 'elmets, t' get 'er a-trim for th' dry dock!"
+
+As we passed alee of the grain-carrier there was no doubt of the truth
+of the rigger's assurance. Steam-pumps on her fore-deck were forcing a
+sickly mixture of liquid batter through hoses to a barge alongside, and
+the overpowering stench of the mess blew down to us and set eyes and
+noses quickening with instant nausea. The men on the barges were garbed
+in odd headgear, high cowls with staring circular eyepieces, and each
+carried a knapsack cylinder on his back. Clouds of high-pressure steam
+from the winches and pumps threw out in exhaust, and the hooded,
+ghost-like figures of the labourers passed and repassed in drifts of
+white vapour. To the hiss and rumble of machines, clamour of
+block-sheaves and chain and piston joined action to make a setting of
+_Inferno_, the scene might well be imagery for a stage of unholy rites.
+
+Past her, we turned to the clean salt breeze again and stood on to the
+open sea. The salvage officer, a Commander, R.N.R., joined us at the
+rail. "What about that now? Sa--lubrious?" he said.
+
+We wondered how men could be got to work in such an atmosphere, how it
+was possible to handle such foul-smelling litter in the confined holds.
+
+"Oh! We go through that all right. A bit inconvenient and troublesome,
+perhaps, working in a restricting gas-rig; but now, the chemists have
+come to our assistance and we can sweeten things up by a dose of
+anti-stink. . . . But you won't see that to-day. Our 'bird' has got no
+cargo, only clean stone ballast--a soft job."
+
+The 'soft job' had had a rough time, a combination and chapter of sea
+and war hazard. Inward bound from the United States with a big cargo, a
+German torpedo had found a mark on her. She settled quickly by the
+stern, but the undamaged engines worked her gallantly into a small
+seaport where she brought up with her main deck awash. There she was
+lightened of her precious load, temporary baulks and patches were
+clamped and bolted to her riven shell-plate, and she set off again on a
+short coastwise voyage to the nearest port where definite and
+satisfactory repair could be effected. Off the Heads, the enemy again
+got sights on her. Crippled, and steaming at slow speed to ease strain
+on the bulkheads, she made a 'sitting' target for a second torpedo, that
+shattered rudder and stern-post and sheared the propellor from the
+shaft.
+
+"We came on her just before dark," said the commander. . . . "Some of
+the crew were in the boats, close by, but the captain and a Trinity
+pilot and others were still aboard. She was down astern to the counter
+and up forward like a ruddy unicorn. We got fast and started to tow.
+Tow?--Might as well have taken on the Tower Bridge. There was no way of
+steering her, and a strong breeze from the south'ard blew her head down
+against all we could do. . . . Anyway, we hung on, and at daylight in
+the morning the wind let up on us a bit, and we guided her drift--that's
+about all we could do--inshore, till she took the bottom on good ground
+a little north of the Westmark Shoal. We filled her up forrard as the
+weather was looking bad--a good weight of water to steady her through a
+gale. She's lain out there for two months now. We've had a turn or two
+at her occasionally--shoring up the after bulkheads and that, while we
+had weather chances. _Titan_ has been out at her since yesterday
+morning. . . . It looks good and healthy now." He cast an eye around
+appreciatively at the calm sea and quiet sky, the gorse-banked cliffs
+dimmed by a promising summer haze, at seagulls lazily drifting on the
+tide or becking and bowing in the glassy ripples of our wash. "Good and
+healthy; I like to see these old 'shellbacks' sitting low and not
+shrilling overhead with all sail set. . . . If this weather holds I
+shouldn't wonder if we get the old bus afloat on high tide to-day!"
+
+Clear of harbour limits and heading out to the shoals, a brisk rigging
+of gear and tackle brings action to the decks of the salvage steamer.
+Already we had thought the narrow confines from bulwark to bulwark
+congested by the bulk of appliances, but, from hole and corner and
+cunning stowage, further coils and shoots and lengths of flexible,
+armoured hose are dragged and placed in readiness for operations.
+Derricks are topped up and purchases rove for handling the heavy
+twelve-inch motor-pumps. Hawsers are uncovered and coiled clear, stout
+fenders thrown over in preparation for a grind alongside the wreck.
+Mindful of possibilities, the engineer-lieutenant and his artificers go
+over the insulation of their power leads in minute search for a leak in
+the cables that may occasion a short circuit later on. The terminals and
+couplings are buffed and polished with what seems exaggerated and
+needless precision--but this is salvage, where sustained effort is only
+possible in the rare and all-too-brief union of favourable tide and
+weather conditions. A cessation of the steady throw of the pumps,
+however instant and skilful the adjustment, may mean the loss of just
+that finite measure in buoyancy that could spring the weight of
+thousands in tons. Second chances are rarely given by a grudging and
+jealous sea; there must be no hitch in the gear, no halt in weighing the
+mass.
+
+A drift of lazy smoke on the sea-rim ahead marks our rendezvous, where
+_Titan_ and a sisterly tug-boat are already at work on the wreck. A
+screen of motor-patrols are rounding and lining out in the offing, with
+a thrust of white foam astern that shows their speed. Coastwise, a
+convoy of merchant ships zigzag in confusing angles on their way to sea,
+guarded by spurring destroyers and trawler escort. Seaplanes are out,
+hawking with swoop and wheel for sight of strange fish. The seascape is
+busy with a shipping that must remind the coastguard and lightkeepers of
+old and palmy days when square sail was standard at sea. The Westmark
+Shoal lies some distance from the normal peace-time track of direct
+steaming courses. It lies in the bight of a bay, where rarely steamers
+closed the land. Sailing ships, close-hauled and working a tack inshore,
+or fisher craft on their grounds, had long been the only keels to sheer
+water in the deeps, but war practice has renewed our acquaintance with
+many old sea-routes and by-paths, and we are back now to charts and
+courses that have long been out of our reckoning.
+
+The tide is at low-water slack, and whirls and eddies mark the run over
+shallows. At easy speed and handing the lead, we approach the wreck. Her
+weathered hull, gilt and red-rusted by exposure to sun and wind and sea,
+stands high and bold against the deep blue of a summer sky. Masts and
+rigging and cordage are bleached white, like tracery of a phantom ship.
+The green sea-growth on her underbody fans and waves in the tide,
+showing long voyaging in the crust and stage of it. She lies well and
+steadily, with only a slight list to seaward that marks the gradient on
+which she rests. Through fracture on the stern and counter, the twisted
+and shattered frames and beams and angles can be seen plainly. Sunlight,
+in slanting rays, shines through the rents and fissures of the upper
+deck, and plays on the free flood that washes in and out of the exposed
+after hold; seaweed and flotsam surges on the tide, clinging to the
+jagged, shattered edges of the plating, and breaking away to lap in the
+dark recesses. To eyes that only know the lines and mould of sightly,
+seaworthy vessels, she seems a hopeless and distorted mass of standing
+iron--a sheer hulk, indeed, fit only for a lone sea-perch to gull and
+gannet and cormorant. It appears idle for the salvors to plan and strive
+and wrestle for such a prize, but their keen eyes are focused to values
+not readily apparent. "A fine ship," says the commander, now happily
+assured that his 'soft job' has suffered no worse than a weathering on
+the ledge that his skill has secured her. "A job o' work for the
+repairers, certainly . . . but they will set her up as good as new in a
+third of the time it would take to build a substitute!"
+
+[Illustration: A TORPEDOED MERCHANTMAN ON THE SHOALS: SALVAGE OFFICERS
+MAKING A SURVEY]
+
+We anchor at a length or two to seaward. There is not yet water
+alongside for our draught, but _Titan_, drawing less, is berthed at her
+stern and their men are taking advantage of low water to pin and tomp
+and strengthen the rearmost bulkhead that must now do duty for the
+demolished stern section. A boat from _Titan_ brings the officer
+in charge, and he greets his senior with no disguised relief. A serious
+leak has developed in one of the compartments that they had counted on
+for buoyancy. . . . "Right under the bilge, and ungetatable, with all
+that rubble in th' holds. A good job you brought out these extra pumps.
+We should manage now, all right!"
+
+Technical measures are discussed and a plan of operations agreed. At
+half-flood there will be water for us alongside, and a 'lift' can be
+tried. Number one hold is good and tight, but still has a bulk of water
+to steady her on the ledge; number two is clear and buoyant; three has
+the obstinate leak; the engine-room is undamaged, but water makes
+through in moderate quantity. Number four--"the bulkhead is bulged in
+like the bilge of a cask, but that cement we put down last week has set
+pretty well, and the struts and braces should hold." Number five? There
+is no number five, most of it lies on deep bottom off the Heads, some
+miles away!
+
+With his colleague, the commander puts off to the wreck, to assess the
+prospects, and we have opportunity to note the inboard trim of her
+derelict posts and quarters. Davits, swung outboard as when the last of
+her crew left her, stand up in unfamiliar dejection, the frayed ends and
+bights of the boat-falls dangling overside and thrumming on the rusty
+hull. The boat-deck shows haste and urgency in the litter of spars and
+tackle thrown violently aside: a seaman's bag with sodden pitiful rags
+of apparel lies awry on the skids, marking some cool and forethinking
+mariner denied a passage for his goods. Living-rooms and crew quarters
+show the indications of sudden call, in open desks--a book or two cast
+side, quick-thrown bedspreads, an array of clothing on a line; the
+range-guards in the cook's galley have caught the tilt of pots and
+mess-kits as they slid alee in the grounding. The bridge, with chart and
+wheelhouse open to the wind and spray, and sea-gear adrift and
+disordered, strikes the most desolating note in the abandon of it all.
+Tenantless and quiet, the same scene would be commonplace and understood
+in dock or harbour, with neighbourly shore structures to point a reason
+for absence of ship-life, but out here--the clear horizon of an open sea
+in view around, with vessels passing on their courses, the desertion of
+the main post seems final and complete, with no navigator at the guides
+and no hand at the wheel.
+
+The flood tide making over the shoals sets in with a _thrussh_ of broken
+water alee of the wreck. The salvors' cutter, from which the mate is
+sounding and marking bottom, spins in widening circles in the eddies and
+shows the strength of early springs. As yet the stream binds the wreck
+hard to the bank, setting broad on from seaward, but relief will come
+when the spent water turns east on the last of the flood. Survey
+completed, the salvage officers clamber to the deck again. The leak in
+number three is their only concern; if that can be overcome, there seems
+no bar to a successful programme. The commander questions the mate as to
+the depth of water alongside, is assured of draught, and signals his
+vessel to heave up and come on. The strength and onrush of the tidal
+race makes the manoeuvre difficult, and it is on second attempt, with
+a wide sweep and backing on plane of the current, she drives unhandily
+to position. The impact of her boarding, for all the guardian fenders,
+jars and stirs the wreck, but brings a confident look to the salvors'
+faces; as readily shaken as that, they assure themselves the responding
+hull will come off with 'a bit of a pinch' on the angle of withdrawal
+that they have planned on the tidal chart.
+
+With hawsers and warps barely fast, the great pumps are hove up in air
+and swung over the hatchway of the doubtful hold. But for the general
+order to carry on, there are few directions and little admonition. Every
+man of the busy group of mechanics and riggers has 'a brick for the
+wall,' and the wriggling lengths of armoured hose are coupled and
+launched over the coamings as quickly as the massive motors are lowered.
+Foundering with splash and gurgle, like uncouth sea-monsters in their
+appanage of tortuous rubber tentacles, the sheen of their polished bulk
+looms through the green translucent flood of solid seawater, the grave
+and surely augmented tide that they are trimmed to master. Again, the
+seeming hopelessness of the task, the handicap of man against element,
+presents a doubt to one's mind. Two shell-like casings of steel, a line
+of piping and cab-tyre coils for power leads--to compete with the
+infiltration of an ocean; there are even small fish darting in the flood
+of it, a radiating Medusa floats in and out the weltering 'tween-decks,
+waving loathsome feelers as though in mockery of human efforts!
+
+Like a war-whoop to the onslaught the dynamos of the salvage vessel
+start motion, and hum in _crescendo_ to a high tenor tone; the
+vibrations of their speed and cycle are joined in conduct to the empty
+hull of the wreck, and she quickens with a throb and stir as of her
+arteries coursing. There is no preparatory trickle at outboard end of
+the hose ejections; with a rush and roar, a clean, solid flood pours
+over, an uninterrupted cascade at seven tons from each per minute!
+
+The carpenter sounds the depth with rod and chalked lanyard, then lowers
+a tethered float to water-level of the flooded compartment. In this way
+he sets a starting mark for the competition, a gauge for the throw of
+the pumps. In interest with the issue, the salvage men gather round the
+hatchway, and all eyes are turned to the bobbing cork disc to note the
+progress of the contest. Stirring and drifting to slack of the line, the
+float seems serenely indifferent to its important motion; wayward and
+buoyant, it trims, this way and that, then steadies suddenly on a taut
+restraint; slowly it seems to rise in the water as though drawn by an
+invisible hand. It spins a little to lay of the cord, then hangs,
+moisture dropping and forming rings on the glassy surface of the well!
+By no seeming effort but the pulse-like quiver of the hose, the level
+falls away. A bolt-head on the plating shows under water, then tips an
+upper edge above; a minute later the round is exposed and drying in a
+slant of the sun.
+
+The tense regard with which we have scanned the guide-mark gives way to
+jest and relief when it is seen that drainage is assured; a facetious
+mechanic at the hose-end makes motions as of pulling a bar handle to
+draw a foaming glass. "Sop it up, old sport!" says the rigger, patting
+the pipes. "Sop it up an' spit! Ol' Neptune ain't arf thusty!"
+
+During our engagement, _Titan_ has not been idle. There remains only an
+hour or two of flood tide and much has to be done. Leaving steam-pumps
+to cope with the more moderate leakage at the after section, she has
+hauled forward on the rising tide on the shoal side of the wreck. At the
+bows she has applied suction to the prisoned water in the fore holds,
+and a new stream pours overside in foaming ejection. The roar and throb
+of her power motors adds further volume and vibration to the rousing
+treatment by which the nerves of the stranded hulk seem braced. Stirred
+by the new life on her, the old ship may well forget she has no stern
+and only part a bottom. Already the decks, gaunt and red-rusted as they
+are, take on a cheering look of service and animation. The seamen in the
+rigging and workmen crowded round the hatchways might be the dockers
+boarded for a day's work on the loading, and only the thunder of the
+motors and crash of the sluicing torrent remain foreign to a normal
+ship-day.
+
+The sun has gone west when the tidal current surging past shows a change
+in direction. We throw sightly flotsam overboard and note the drift that
+takes the refuse astern. No longer the green slimy plates of the hull
+show above water, the tide has lapped their sea-growth and ripples high
+on a cleaner surface. With high water approaching we draw near the point
+of balance in buoyancy, and the salving tenders tighten up headfasts and
+stern ropes in readiness for a slip or drag. The sea-tug that has till
+now been a quiet partner in operations, smokes up and backs in astern to
+pass a hawser to the wreck. She drops away with a good scope, and lies
+handy to tow at orders.
+
+Tirelessly, droning and throbbing with insistent monotony, the pumps
+continue their labour and draw the weight of water that holds the wreck
+down. At number three hold the flood below is no longer a still and
+placid well. The penned and mastered water seethes and whirls in
+impotent fury at the suction that draws and churns only to expel. Some
+solid matter, seaweed perhaps, has drifted to the leak and stems a
+volume of the incoming water; there seems a prospect that a single pump
+may keep the level.
+
+In somewhat tense expectancy, we await a crisis in the operations. There
+is a feeling that all these masterly movements should lead to a
+spectacular resurrection--a stir and tremor in the frame of her,
+reviving sea-throes, a lurch, a list, a mighty heave, and a staggering
+relaunch to the deeps.
+
+Precise and businesslike, modern salvage avoids such a flourishing end
+to their labours. As skilful surgeons, they object strongly to
+excitement. Their frail and tortured sea-patients can rarely stand more
+than gentle suasion. As surely as the tide they work by, the factors of
+weight and displacement and trim have been figured and calculated. . . .
+The commander draws our attention to a quiet and steady rise in the
+bows, the knightheads perceptibly edging nearer to a wisp of standing
+cloud. Without a jar or surge the wreck becomes a floating ship; she
+lists a little, as the towing hawser creaks and strains, and we draw off
+gently to seaward.
+
+
+THE DRY DOCK
+
+A DOWNPOUR of steady, insistent rain makes quagmire of the paths on the
+dockside, and the half-light of a cheerless early morning gives little
+guidance to progress among the raffle of discarded ship-gear that lies
+about the yard. Stumbling over shores and stagings, skirting gaunt
+mounds of damaged plates and angles, we reach the sea-gate where the
+ship victims of mine and torpedo are moored in readiness for treatment
+in the great sea-hospital. In the uncertain light and under wet lowering
+skies, they make a dismal picture. The symmetry of conventional
+docking--ships moored in line and heading in the same direction--that is
+an orderly feature of the harbours, is not possible in the overcrowded
+basin. There is need to pack the vessels closely. They lie at awkward
+angles, the stern of one overhanging the bows of another. Masts and
+funnels and deck erections, upstanding at varied rakes, emphasize the
+confused berthing and draw the eye to the condition of the mass of
+damaged shipping. Not all of the vessels are shattered hulks. A number
+are here for hull-cleaning or overhaul, but their high sides with the
+rust and barnacles and weedy green scum, make as drab a feature in the
+combination as the listed hulls of the cripples.
+
+[Illustration: A TORPEDOED SHIP IN DRY DOCK]
+
+Though nominally daylight, the arc-lamps of the pier-head still splutter
+in wet contacts and spread a sickly glow over the oilskin-clad group of
+dockmen and officials gathered to enter the ships. A chill breeze from
+the sea blows in and carries reek and cinder of north-country coal to
+thicken the lash of the rain. The waft comes from heeling dock tugs
+that strain at their hawsers, spurring the muddy tide to froth in their
+task of moving the helpless vessels in the basin. The long expanse of
+flooded dock, brimming to the uppermost ledge, lies open for their
+entry; the bruised and shattered stern of a large ship is pointed over
+the sill at an awkward angle that marks an absence of steam-power aboard
+to control her wayward sheer. The dockmaster, in ill mood with her
+cantrips, roars admonition and appeal to the smoking tugs to "lie over
+t' s'uth'ard and right her!" By check, and the powerful heave of a shore
+capstan, she warps in and straightens to the line of the docks. As she
+draws on to her berth the high bows of a second cripple swing over from
+the tiers, and the tugs back out to fasten on and drag her to the gate.
+
+With entry of the ships, the glistening pier-head becomes thronged by
+tidesmen and their gear; like a drill-yard, with the lusty stamp of the
+marching lines of dockmen trailing heavy hawsers and handing check and
+hauling ropes. In an hour or so the gangs of the ship-repair section
+will be ready to 'turn to' at the new jobs, and the ships must be
+settled and ready against the wail of the starting 'buzzer.' Shrill
+whistle signals, orders and hails add to the stir of the labourers, and
+clatter of the warping capstan joins in with ready chorus. Not least of
+the medley is the bull roar of the harassed dockmaster, who finds a need
+in the press for more than one pair of hands at the reins to guide and
+halt his tandem charges.
+
+The ships are marked in company, to settle bow to stern, with no room to
+spare, in the length of the dock. Conduct must be ruled in duplicate to
+exact the full measure of utility from every foot of space. On the last
+tide a pair of sound ships were floated out to service, braced and bound
+and refitted for further duty as stout obverse to the 'Sure Shield.'
+Keel-blocks and beds for the new patients have been set up and
+rearranged in the brief interval of occupancy, and now, quick on the
+wash of the outgoers, are new cases for the shearing plate-cutters and
+the swing of hammers.
+
+Mindful to conserve their precious dry-dock space to the limit of good
+service, the repair section select the vessels with rare judgment. It is
+no haphazard turn of the wheel that brings an American freighter,
+shattered in stern section, to the same operating-table as an east-coast
+tramp (having her engines in scrap, boilers fractured, and the frames of
+her midships blown to sea-bottom). The combined measure of their length
+and the similarity of extent in hull damage has brought them to the one
+line of blocks. Odd cases, and regular ship-cleaning and minor repairs
+may be allotted to single-ship dry docks, but here, in sea-hospital with
+a twin-berth, there is a need for parallel treatment. The two ships must
+be considered as one, and all efforts be promoted towards refloating
+them, when hull repairs are completed, on one opening of the sea-gate.
+
+In this, strangely, they are assisted by the enemy. True, his
+accommodation could well be spared, but it does have an influence on
+repair procedure. The exact and uniformly graded proportions of the
+enemy explosive reproduces a correspondingly like extent and nature in
+ship damage. Location and sea-trim may vary the fractures in proportion
+to resistance but, with the vessels on the blocks together, working time
+may be adjusted to these conditions and a balance be struck that will
+further a simultaneous completion.
+
+So the dockmaster ranges his pair on the centre line of the keel-blocks,
+sets tight the hawsers that hold them in position, and bars the
+sea-entry with a massive caisson. Presently he passes an order to the
+pumpman, and the power-house echoes to the easy thrust of his giant
+engine.
+
+The keel-blocks have been set to meet the general lines of the vessels,
+with only a marginal allowance for the contour of damaged plating. To
+remedy any error divers, with their gear and escort, are ready on the
+dockside, and they go below with first fall in the water-level. The
+carpenters straggle out from sheltered corners and bear a hand. Riggers
+and dockmen have placed the ships, and it remains for the 'tradesmen' to
+bed them down and prop against a list by shores and blocks. They are ill
+content with the vile weather and their job in the open, where the rain
+lashes down pitilessly, soaking their working clothes. Doubtless they
+envy the dry divers their suits of proofed rubber, when they are called
+on to manhandle the heavy timber shores from the mud and litter of the
+dockside and launch them out towards the steel sides of the settling
+vessels. There the tide-workers on deck secure them by lanyards, and the
+spars hang in even order, sighted on doublings of the plates, ready to
+pin the ships on a steady keel when the water drains away.
+
+With the timbers held in place, the carpenters split up to small parties
+and stand by to set a further locking strain by prise of block and
+wedge. The dockmaster blows a whistle signal at the far end of the
+basin, and casts up his hand as though arresting movement; the thrust of
+the main pump stills, and he swings his arm. At the sign, the carpenters
+ram home . . . the thunder of their forehammers on the hardwood wedges
+rings out in chorus that draws a quavering echo from the empty,
+hard-pressed hulls.
+
+Settled and bedded and pinned, the ships are left till the water drains
+away and to await the coming of the shipwrights and repairing gangs. The
+carpenters shoulder their long-handled top-mauls and scatter to a
+shelter from the steady, continuous downpour. Up from the floors with
+their work completed, the divers doff their heavy head-gear and sit a
+while, _resting_ comfortably under the thrash of the same persistent
+rain. Anon, their awkward garb discarded, they walk off, striding with a
+crook at the knees, like farmer folk on ploughed land. The great pumps
+now pulsate at full speed, drawing water to their sluices in an eddying
+current that spins the flotsam and bares ledge after ledge of the solid
+dock masonry. From gaping wounds of the crippled vessels a full tide of
+seawater gushes and spurts to join the troubled wash below. The beams
+and side-planking, and temporary measures of the salvage section,
+uncover and come to sight, showing with what patience and laborious care
+the divers have striven to stem an inrush.
+
+On the second ship the receding water-line exposes the damage to her
+engine- and boiler-rooms. A litter of coal and oily scum showers from
+angles of the wrecked bunker and stokehold to the floor of the dock, and
+leaves the fractured beams and tubes to stand out in gaunt twist and
+deformity. Through the breaches the shattered cylinders and broken
+columns of the engines lie distorted in a piled raffle of wrenched pipe
+sections, valves and levers, footplates, skeleton ladders, and shafting.
+The mass of distorted metal has still a shine and token of polish, and
+these signs of late care and attention only serve to make the ruin seem
+the more complete and irremediable.
+
+An hour later a strident power syren sounds out from roof of the repair
+'shops.' The workmen, hurrying to 'check in' at the gates, scarcely
+glance at their new jobs on the blocks of the dry-dock. To them it seems
+quite a commonplace that the round of their industry should suffer no
+halt, that the two seaworthy ships they completed yesterday should be so
+quickly replaced by the same type of casualty for their attention. The
+magnitude of the task--the vast extent of plating to be sheared and
+rebuilt, the beams to be withdrawn or straightened in place, the litter
+to be cleared--holds no misgivings. Short on the stroke of 'turn to'
+they straggle down the dockside to start the round anew. With critical
+eye, foremen and surveyors chalk off the cypher of their verdicts on the
+rusted displaced remnants; the gangs apportion and assemble with tools
+and gear; the huge travelling cranes rumble along on their railways, and
+lower slings and hooks in readiness for a load of damaged steel.
+
+With the men lined out to the gangways and filing down the dock steps,
+chain linking in trial over the crane sheaves, and the bustle of
+preparation on ship and shore, everything seems set for an instant
+beginning--but no hammer falls as yet. There is, first, a sad freight to
+be discharged; not all the crew of the ship with the wrecked engines
+have gone to the pay-table. Three sombre closed wagons are waiting by
+the dockside, and towards them down the long gangways from the ship, the
+bodies of an engineer and some of the stokehold crew are being carried.
+The weltering flood that held them has drained to the dock, and busy
+hands have searched in the wreckage where they died at their post.
+
+We have no flags to honour, no processional march to accompany our dead.
+Their poor bodies, dripping and fouled, are draped in a simple coarse
+shroud that hardly conceals the line of their mangled limbs. Awkwardly
+the carriers stumble on the sodden planking and rest arms and knees on
+the guiding hand-lines. The workmen pause on the ship and gangways and
+look respectfully, if curiously, at the limp burdens as they are carried
+by.
+
+Here and there a man speaks of the dead, but the most are silent, with
+lowering looks, set teeth--a sharp intake of the breath. . . . Who
+knows? Perhaps the spirits of the murdered seamen may come by a payment
+at the hands of the shipwright gangs. The best monument to their memory
+will stand as another keel on the deep--a quick ripost to the enemy, in
+his victim repaired and strengthened and returned to sea.
+
+Lowering looks, set teeth, a hissing intake of the breath are the right
+accompaniment to a blow struck hard home; the thunder of hammers and
+drills, the hiss and sparkle of shearing cutters, that breaks out when
+the wagons have gone, marks a start to their monument!
+
+[Illustration: DAZZLE]
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+ON CAMOUFLAGE--AND SHIPS' NAMES
+
+
+EARLY in the war the rappel of 'Business as usual' was as deadly at sea
+as elsewhere. Arrogant and super-confident in our pride of sea-place, we
+made little effort to trim and adapt our practice to rapidly altering
+conditions; there were few visible signs to disquiet us, we hardly
+deviated from our peaceful sea-path, and had no concern for
+interference. We carried our lights ablaze, advertised our doings in
+plain wireless, announced our sailings and arrivals, and even devoted
+more than usual attention to keeping our ships as span in brave new
+paint and glistening varnish as the hearts of impressionable passengers
+could desire.
+
+We had difficulties with our manning. The seamen were off, at first tuck
+of drum, to what they reckoned a more active part in the great game of
+war--the strictly Naval Service--and we were left with weak crews of new
+and raw hands to carry on the sea-trade. So, from the very first of it,
+we engaged in a moral camouflage in our efforts to keep up appearances,
+and show the neutrals with whom we did business that such a thing as war
+could hardly disturb the smooth running of our master machine--the
+Merchants' Service!
+
+Some there were among us who saw the peril in such prominence, and took
+modest (and somewhat hesitating) steps to keep out of the limelight, by
+setting lonely courses on the sea, restraining the comradely gossip of
+wireless operators, and toning down appearances from brilliant polish to
+the more sombre part suiting a sea in war-time. Deck lights were painted
+over and obscured, funnel and masts were allowed to grey to neutral
+tints, the brown ash that discomposes fine paint at sea was looked upon
+with a new and friendly eye. The bias of chief mates (in a service where
+promotion is the due for a clean and tidy ship) was, with difficulty,
+overcome, and a new era of keen look-out and sea-trim started.
+
+There was but moderate support for these bold iconoclasts who dared thus
+to affront our high fetish. Ship painting and decoration and upkeep were
+sacrosanct rites that even masters must conform to; the enactments of
+the Medes and Persians were but idle rules, mere by-laws, compared to
+the formulae and prescriptions that governed the tone of our pantry
+cupboards and the shades of cunning grain-work. We were peaceful
+merchantmen; what was the use of our dressing up like a parish-rigged
+man-o'-war? As to the lights--darkening ship would upset the passengers;
+there would be rumours and apprehension. They would travel in less
+'nervous' vessels!
+
+The mine that shattered _Manchester Commerce_ stirred the base of our
+happy conventions; the cruise of the _Emden_ set it swaying perilously;
+the torpedoes that sank _Falaba_ and _Lusitania_ blew the whole sham
+edifice to the winds, and we began to think of our ships in other terms
+than those of freight and passenger rates. Our conceptions of peaceful
+merchantmen were not the enemy's!
+
+We set about to make our vessels less conspicuous. Grey! We painted our
+hulls and funnels grey. In many colours of grey. The nuances of our
+coatings were accidental. Poor quality paint and variable untimely
+mixings contributed, but it was mainly by crew troubles (deficiency and
+incapacity) that we came by our first camouflage. As needs must, we
+painted sections at a time--a patch here, a plate or two there--laid on
+in the way that real sailors would call 'inside-out'! We sported suits
+of many colours, an infinite variety of shades. Quite suddenly we
+realized that grey, in such an ample range--red-greys, blue-greys,
+brown-greys, green-greys--intermixed on our hulls, gave an excellent
+low-visibility colour that blended into the misty northern landscape.
+
+Bolshevik now in our methods, we worked on other schemes to trick the
+murderer's eye. Convention again beset our path. The great god
+Symmetry--whom we had worshipped to our undoing--was torn from his high
+place. The glamour of Balances, that we had thought so fine and
+shipshape, fell from our eyes, and we saw treachery in every regular
+disposition. Pairs--in masts, ventilators, rails and stanchions,
+boat-groupings, samson posts, even in the shrouds and rigging--were
+spies to the enemy, and we rearranged and screened and altered as best
+we could, in every way that would serve to give a false indication of
+our course and speed. Freighters and colliers (that we had scorned
+because of ugly forward rake of mast and funnel) became the leaders of
+our fashion. We wedged our masts forward (where we could) and slung a
+gaff on the fore side of the foremast; we planked the funnel to look
+more or less upright; we painted a curling bow wash over the propellor
+and a black elaborate stern on the bows. We trimmed our ships by the
+head, and flattered ourselves that, Janus-like, we were heading all
+ways!
+
+Few, including the enemy, were greatly deceived. At that point where
+alterations of apparent course were important--to put the putting Fritz
+off his stroke--the deck-houses and erections with their beamwise fronts
+or ends would be plainly noted, and a true line of course be readily
+deduced. With all our new zeal, we stopped short of altering standing
+structures, but we could paint, and we made efforts to shield our
+weakness by varied applications. Our device was old enough, a return to
+the chequer of ancient sea-forts and the line of painted gun-ports with
+which we used to decorate our clipper sailing ships. (That also was a
+camouflage of its day--an effort to overawe Chinese and Malay pirates by
+the painted resemblance to the gun-deck of a frigate.) We saw the
+eye-disturbing value of a bold criss-cross, and those of us who had
+paint to spare made a 'Hobson-jobson' of awning spars and transverse
+bulkheads.
+
+These were our sea-efforts--rude trials effected with great difficulty
+in the stress of the new sea-warfare. We could only see ourselves from a
+surface point of view, and, in our empirics, we had no official
+assistance. During our brief stay in port it was impossible to procure
+day-labouring gangs--even the 'gulls' of the dockside were busy at sea.
+On a voyage, gun crews and extra look-outs left few hands of the watch
+available for experiments; in any case, our rationed paint covered
+little more than would keep the rust in check. We were relieved when new
+stars of marine coloration arose, competent shore concerns that, on
+Government instruction, arrayed us in a novel war paint. Our rough and
+amateurish tricks gave way to the ordered schemes of the dockyard; our
+ships were armed for us in a protective coat of many colours.
+
+Upon us like an avalanche came this real camouflage. Somewhere behind it
+all a genius of pantomimic transformation blazed his rainbow wand and
+fixed us. As we came in from sea, dazzle-painters swarmed on us,
+bespattered creatures with no bowels of compassion, who painted over our
+cherished glass and teakwood and brass port-rims--the last lingering
+evidences of our gentility. Hourly we watched our trim ships take on the
+hues of a swingman's roundabouts. We learned of fancy colours known only
+in high art--alizarin and grey-pink, purple-lake and Hooker's green. The
+designs of our mantling held us in a maze of expectation. Bends and
+ecarteles, indents and rayons, gyrony and counter-flory, appeared on our
+topsides; curves and arrow-heads were figured on boats and davits and
+deck fittings; apparently senseless dabs and patches were measured and
+imprinted on funnel curve and rounding of the ventilators; inboard and
+outboard we were streaked and crossed and curved.
+
+With our arming of guns there was need for instruction in their service
+and maintenance; artificial smoke-screens required that we should be
+efficient in their use; our Otters called for some measure of seamanship
+in adjustment and control. So far all governmental appliances for our
+defence relied on our understanding and operation, but this new
+protective coloration, held aloof from our confidence, it was quite
+self-contained, there was no rule to be learnt; we were to be shipmates
+with a new contrivance, to the operation of which we had no control. For
+want of point in discussion, we criticized freely. We surpassed
+ourselves in adjectival review; we stared in horror and amazement as
+each newly bedizened vessel passed down the river. In comparison and
+simile we racked memory for text to the gaudy creations. "Water running
+under a bridge.". . . "Forced draught on a woolly sheep's back.". . .
+"Mural decoration in a busy butcher's shop.". . . "Strike _me_ a rosy
+bloody pink!" said one of the hands, "if this 'ere don't remind me o'
+jaundice an' malaria an' a touch o' th' sun, an' me in a perishin' dago
+'orspittel!"
+
+While naming the new riot of colour grotesque--a monstrosity, an
+outrage, myopic madness--we were ready enough to grasp at anything that
+might help us in the fight at sea. We scanned our ships from all points
+and angles to unveil the hidden imposition. Fervently we hoped that
+there would be more in it than met our eye--that our preposterous livery
+was not only an effort to make Gargantuan faces at the Boche! Only the
+most splendid results could justify our bewilderment.
+
+Out on the sea we came to a better estimate of the value of our novel
+war-paint. In certain lights and positions we seemed to be steering odd
+courses--it was very difficult to tell accurately the line of a vessel's
+progress. The low visibility that we seamen had sought was sacrificed to
+enhance a bold disruption of perspective. While our efforts at
+deception, based more or less on a one-colour scheme of greys, may have
+rendered our ships less visible against certain favouring backgrounds of
+sea and sky, there were other weather conditions in which we would stand
+out sharply revealed. Abandoning the effort to cloak a stealthy
+sea-passage, our newly constituted Department of Marine Camouflage
+decked us out in a bold pattern, skilfully arranged to disrupt our
+perspective, and give a false impression of our line of course. With a
+torpedo travelling to the limit of its run--striking anything that may
+lie in its course, range is of little account. Deflection, on the other
+hand, is everything in the torpedo-man's problem--the correct estimation
+of a point of contact of two rapidly moving bodies. He relies for a
+solution on an accurate judgment of his target's course; it became the
+business of the dazzle-painters to complicate his working by a feint in
+colour and design. The new camouflage has so distorted our sheer and
+disrupted the colour in the mass as to make our vessels less easy to
+hit. If not invisible against average backgrounds, the dazzlers have
+done their work so well that we are at least partially lost in every
+elongation.
+
+The mystery withheld from us--the system of our decoration--has done
+much to ease the rigours of our war-time sea-life. In argument and
+discussion on its origin and purpose we have found a topic, almost as
+unfailing in its interest as the record day's run of the old sailing
+ships. We are agreed that it is a brave martial coat we wear, but are
+divided in our theories of production. How is it done? By what shrewd
+system are we controlled that no two ships are quite alike in their
+splendour? We know that instructions come from a department of the
+Admiralty to the dockyard painters, in many cases by telegraph. Is there
+a system of abbreviations, a colourist's shorthand, or are there
+maritime Heralds in Whitehall who blazon our arms for the guidance of
+the rude dockside painters? It can be worked out in fine and sonorous
+proportions:
+
+                         For s.s. CORNCRIX
+
+          _Party per pale, a pale; first, gules, a fesse
+          dancette, sable; second, vert, bendy, lozengy,
+          purpure cottised with nodules of the first; third,
+          sable, three billets bendwise in fesse, or: sur
+          tout de tout, a barber's pole cockbilled on a
+          sinking gasometer, all proper._ For motto: "_Doing
+          them in the eye._"
+
+One wonders if our old conservatism, our clinging to the past, shall
+persist long after the time of strife has gone; if, in the years when
+war is a memory and the time comes to deck our ships in pre-war symmetry
+and grace of black hulls and white-painted deck-work and red funnels and
+all the gallant show of it, some old masters among us may object to the
+change.
+
+"Well, have it as you like," they may say. "I was brought up in the good
+old-fashioned cubist system o' ship painting--fine patterns o' reds an'
+greens an' Ricketts' blue, an' brandy-ball stripes an' that! None o'
+your damned newfangled ideas of one-colour sections for me! . . .
+_Huh!_. . . And black hulls, too! . . . Black! A funeral outfit! . . .
+No, sir! I may be wrong, but anyway, I'm too old now to chop and change
+about!"
+
+If we have become reconciled to the weird patterns of our war-paint,
+every instinct of seafaring that is in us rebels against the new naming
+of our ships. Is it but another form of camouflage--like the loving
+Indian mother abusing her dear children for deception of a malicious
+listening Djinn? _War Cowslip_, _War Dance_, _War Dreamer!_ War Hell!
+Are our new standard ships being thus badly named, that the enemy may
+look upon them as pariahs, unworthy of shell or torpedo? Perhaps, as a
+thoughtful war measure, it may be chargeful of pregnant meaning; our new
+war names for the ships may be germane to some distant world movement,
+the first tender shoot of which we cannot yet recognize! More than
+likely, it is the result of the fine war-time frolic of fitting the
+cubest of square pegs in the roundest of holes. How is it done? Is
+there, in the hutments of St. James's Park, an otherwise estimable and
+blameless greengrocer, officially charged with the task of finding names
+for vessels, 015537-68 inclusive, presently on the Controller's lists
+and due to be launched?
+
+We sailors are jealous for our vessels. Abuse us if you will, but have a
+care for what you may say of our ships. We alone are entitled to call
+them bitches, wet brutes, stubborn craft, but we will stand for no such
+liberties from the beach; strikes have occurred on very much less
+sufficient ground. Ridicule in the naming of our ships is intolerable.
+If _War_ is to be the prefix, why cannot our greengrocer find suitable
+words in the chronicles of strife? Can there be anything less martial
+than the _War Rambler_, _War Linnet_, _War Titmouse_, _War Gossamer_?
+Why not the _War Teashop_, the _War Picture House_, the--the--the _War
+Lollipop_? Are we rationed in ships' names? Is there a Controller of
+Marine Nomenclature? The thing is absurd!
+
+If our controllers had sense they would see the danger in thus flouting
+our sentiment; they would value the recruiting agency of a good name;
+they would recognize that the naming of a ship should be done with as
+great care as that of an heir to an earldom. Is the torpedoed bos'n of
+the _Eumaeus_ going to boast of a new post on the _War Bandbox_? What
+are the feelings of the captain of a _Ruritania_ when he goes to the
+yards to take over a _War Whistler_? Why _War_? If sober, businesslike
+argument be needed, it is confusing; it introduces a repetition of
+initial syllable that makes for dangerous tangles in the scheme of
+direction and control.
+
+It is all quite unnecessary. There are names and enough. Fine names!
+Seamanlike names! Good names! Names that any sailor would be proud to
+have on his worsted jersey! Names that he would shout out in the
+market-place! Names that the enemy would read as monuments to his
+infamy! Names of ships that we knew and loved and stood by to the bitter
+end.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+FLAGS AND BROTHERHOOD OF THE SEA
+
+
+UNLIKE the marches of the land, with guard and counterguard, we had no
+frontiers on the sea. There were no bounds to the nations and their
+continents outside of seven or ten fathoms of blue water. We all
+travelled on the one highway that had few by-paths on which trespassers
+might be prosecuted. And our highway was no primrose path, swept and
+garnished and safeguarded; it had perils enough in gale and tempest,
+fog, ice, blinding snow, dark moonless nights, rock and shoal and
+sandbar. Remote from ordered assistance in our necessity, we relied on
+favour of a chance passer-by, on a fallible sea-wanderer like ourselves.
+So, for our needs, we formed a sea-bond, an International Alliance
+against our common hazards of wind and sea and fire, an assurance of
+succour and support in emergency and distress. Out of our hunger for
+sea-companionship grew a union that had few rules or written compacts,
+and no bounds to action other than the simply humane traditions and
+customs of the sea. There were no statutory penalties for infringement
+of the rules unwritten; we could not, as true seamen, conceive so black
+a case. We had no Articles of our Association, no charters, no
+covenants; our only documents were the International Code of Signals and
+the Rule of the Road at Sea. With these we were content; we understood
+faith and a blood-bond as brother seamen, and we put out on our
+adventures, stoutly warranted against what might come.
+
+In the Code of Signals we had a language of our own, more immediate and
+attractive than Volapuek or Esperanto. The dire fate of the builders of
+the Tower held no terror for us, for our intercourse was that of sight
+and recognition, not of speech. Our code was one of bright colours and
+bold striking design--flags and pendants fluttering pleasantly in the
+wind or, in calmer weather, drooping at the halyards with a lift for
+closer recognition. The symbol of our masonry was a bold red pendant
+with two vertical bars of white upon it. We had fine hoists for hail and
+farewell; tragic turn of the colours for a serious emergency, hurried
+two-flag sets for urgent calls, leisurely symbols of three for finished
+periods.
+
+'_Can you_' required three flags to itself; _me_ or _I_ or _it_ came all
+within our range. We told our names and those of our ports by a long
+charge of four; we could cross our _t's_ and dot our _i's_ by beckon of
+a single square. We lowered slowly and rehoisted ('knuckles to the
+staff, you young fool!') our National Ensign, as we would raise our hat
+ashore. It was all an easy, courteous and graceful mode of converse,
+linguistically and grammatically correct, for we had no concern with
+accent or composition, taking our polished phrases from the book. It
+suited well the great family of the sea, for, were we a Turk of Galatz
+and you an Iceland brigantine, we could pass the time of day or tell one
+another, simply and intelligibly, the details of our ports and ladings.
+Distance, within broad limits, was small hindrance to our gossip; there
+were few eyes on the round of the sea, to read into our confidences. We
+could put a hail ashore, too. Passing within sight of San Miguel, we
+could have a message on the home doorsteps on the morrow, by hoisting
+our 'numbers'; the naked lightkeeper on the Daedalus could tell us of the
+northern winds by a string of colours thrown out from the upper gallery.
+
+Good news, bad news, reports, ice, weather, our food-supply, the wages
+of our seamen, the whereabouts of pirates and cannibals, the bank rate,
+high politics (we had S.L.R. for Nuncio)--we had them all grouped and
+classed and ready for instant reference. Medicine, stocks, the law
+(G.F.H., King's Bench; these sharps who never will take a plain seaman's
+clear word on salvage or the weather, or the way the fog-whistle was
+duly and properly sounded!) Figures! We could measure and weigh and
+divide and subtract; we could turn your Greek _Daktylas_ into a Japanese
+_Cho_ or _Tcho_, or Turkish _Parmaks_ into the _Draas_ of Tripoli! Some
+few world measures had to be appendixed; a _Doppelzentner_ was Z.N.L.
+What is a _Doppelzentner_?
+
+As evidence of our brotherly regard, our peaceful intent, we had few
+warlike phrases. True, we had hoists to warn of pirates, and we could
+beg a loan, by signal, of powder and cannon-balls--to supplement our
+four rusty Snyders, with which we could defend our property, but there
+was no group in our international vocabulary that could read, "I am
+torpedoing you without warning!" Seamanlike and simple, we saw only one
+form of warfare at sea, and based our signals on that. "Keep courage! I
+am coming to your assistance at utmost speed!". . . "I shall stand by
+during the night!". . . "Water is gaining on me! I am sinking!" . . .
+"Boat is approaching your quarter!" These, and others alike, were our
+war signals, framed to meet our ideas of the greatest peril we might
+encounter in our conflict with the elements.
+
+[Illustration: AN APPRENTICE IN THE MERCHANTS' SERVICE]
+
+Of all this we write in a sad past tense. Our sea-bond is shattered.
+There is no longer a brotherhood on the sea. The latest of our
+recruits has betrayed us. The old book is useless, for it contains no
+reading of the German's avowal, "Come on the deck of my submarine. I am
+about to submerge!" . . . "Stand by, you helpless swine in the boats, while
+I shell you and scatter your silly blood and brains!"
+
+No longer will the receipt of a call of distress be the instant signal
+(whatever the weather or your own plight) for putting the helm over. We
+have shut the book! We are grown hardened and distrustful. S.O.S. may be
+the fiend who has just torpedoed a crowded Red Cross, and endeavours by
+his lying wireless to lure a Samaritan to the net. A heaving boat, or a
+lone raft with a staff and a scrap, may only be closed with fearful
+caution; they may be magnets for a minefield.
+
+          ". . . still he called aloud, for he was in the
+          track of steamers. And presently he saw a steamer.
+          She carried no lights, but he described her form,
+          a darker shape upon the sea and sky, and saw the
+          sparks volley from her funnel.
+
+          "He shrieked till his voice broke, but the steamer
+          went on and vanished. The Irishman was furiously
+          enraged, but it was of no use to be angry. He went
+          on calling. So did the other four castaways, but
+          their cries were growing fainter and less
+          frequent.
+
+          "Then there loomed another steamer, and she, too,
+          went on. By this time, perhaps, an hour had gone
+          by, and the Arab firemen had fallen silent. The
+          Irishman could see them no longer. He never saw
+          them again. A third steamer hove in sight, and
+          she, too, went on. The Irishman cursed her with
+          the passionate intensity peculiar to the seaman,
+          and went on calling. It was a desperate
+          business. . . ."
+
+
+The shame of it!
+
+_Lusitania_, _Coquet_, _Serapis_, _Thracia_, _Mariston_, _The Belgian
+Prince_, _Umaria_ . . .
+
+          ". . . The commanding officer of the submarine,
+          leaning on the rail of the conning-tower, looked
+          down upon his victims.
+
+          "Crouched upon the thwarts in the sunlight, up to
+          their knees in water, which, stained crimson, was
+          flowing through the shell-holes in the planking,
+          soaked with blood, holding their wounds, staring
+          with hunted eyes, was the heap of stricken men.
+
+          "The German ordered the boat away. The shore was
+          fifteen miles distant. . . ."
+
+He ordered the boat away! The shame of it! The abasing, dishonouring
+shame of it!
+
+Bitterly, tarnished--we realize our portion in the guilt, our share in
+this black infamy--that seamen should do this thing!
+
+What of the future? What will be the position of the German on the sea
+when peace returns, let the settlement by catholic conclave be what it
+may?
+
+Sailorfolk have long memories! Living a life apart from their
+land-fellows, they have but scant regard for the round of events that,
+on the shore, would be canvassed and discussed, consented--and
+forgotten. There is no busy competing commercial intrigue, no fickle
+market, no grudging dalliance on the sea. We stand fast to our own old
+sea-justice; we have no shades of mercy or condonation, no degrees of
+tolerance for this bastard betrayer of our unwritten sea-laws. No
+brotherhood of the sea can be conceived to which he may be re-admitted.
+Not even the dethronement of the Hohenzollern can purge the deeds of his
+marine Satraps, for their crimes are individual and personal and
+professional.
+
+In the League of Nations a purged and democratic Germany may have a
+station, but there is no redemption for a Judas on the sea. There, by
+every nation, every seafarer, he will remain a shunned and abhorred
+Ishmael for all time.
+
+
+
+
+PART III
+
+[Illustration: A STANDARD SHIP AT SEA]
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+THE CONVOY SYSTEM
+
+
+EARLY in 1917 the losses of the merchants' ships and men had assumed a
+proportion that called for a radical revision of the systems of naval
+protection. Concentrating their energies on but one specific form of sea
+offence, the enemy had developed their submarine arm to a high point of
+efficiency. Speed and power and lengthy sea-keeping qualities were
+attained. To all intents and purposes the U-boats had become surface
+destroyers with the added conveniency of being able to disappear at
+sight. They conducted their operations at long distance from the land
+and from their bases. The immense areas of the high seas offered a
+peculiar facility for 'cut-and-run' tactics: the system of independent
+sailings of the merchantmen provided them with a succession of victims,
+timed in a progression that allowed of solitary disposal.
+Notwithstanding the matured experience of submarine methods gained by
+masters, the rapid evolution of counter-measures by the Royal Navy, the
+courage and determination of all classes of seafarers, our shipping and
+that of our Allies and the neutral nations was being destroyed at a rate
+that foreshadowed disaster.
+
+Schemes of rapid ship construction were advanced, lavish expenditure
+incurred, plans and occupation designed--all to ensure a replacement of
+tonnage at a future date. More material in point of prompt effect were
+the efforts of the newly formed Ministry of Shipping to conserve
+existing tonnage by judicious and closely controlled employment. All but
+sternly necessary sea-traffic was eliminated: harbour work in loading
+and unloading was expedited: the virtues of a single control enhanced
+the active agency of the merchants' ships--now devoted wholly to State
+service. Joined to the provisional and economic measures of the bureaux,
+Admiralty reorganized their methods of patrol and sea-supervision of the
+ships. The entry of the United States into the world war provided a
+considerable increase of naval strength to the Allied fleets. Convoy
+measures, that before had been deemed impracticable, were now possible.
+Destroyers and sloops could be released from fleet duties and were
+available as escorts. American flotillas crossed the Atlantic to protect
+the sea-routes: Japanese war craft assisted us in the Mediterranean.
+
+In the adoption of the convoy system the Royal Navy was embarking on no
+new venture. Modern ships and weapons may have brought a novel
+complication to this old form of sea-guardianship, but there is little
+in seafaring for which the traditions of the Naval Service cannot offer
+text and precedent. The constant of protection by convoy has remained
+unaltered by the advance of armament and the evolution of strange war
+craft: the high spirit of self-sacrifice is unchanged. When, in October
+1917, the destroyers _Strongbow_ and _Mary Rose_ accepted action and
+faced three German cruisers, their commanders--undismayed by the
+tremendous odds--reacted the parts of the common sea-dramas of the
+Napoleonic wars. The same obstinate courage and unconquerable sea-pride
+forbade them to desert their convoy of merchantmen and seek the safety
+that their speed could offer. H.M.S. _Calgarian_, torpedoed and sinking,
+had yet thought for the convoy she escorted. Her last official signal
+directed the ships to turn away from the danger.
+
+[Illustration: BUILDING A STANDARD SHIP]
+
+The convoy system did not spring fully served and equipped from the
+earlier and less exacting control. Tentative measures had to be devised
+and approved, a large staff to be recruited and trained. The clerical
+work of administration was not confined to the home ports; similar
+adjustment and preparation had to be conducted in friendly ports abroad.
+As naval services were adapted to the new control, the system was
+extended. The comparatively simple procedure of sending destroyer
+escorts to meet homeward-bound convoys became involved with the timing
+and dispatch of a mercantile fleet sailing from a home port. The escorts
+were ordered out on a time-table that admitted of little derangement.
+Sailing from a British port with a convoy of outward-bound vessels, the
+destroyers accompanied that fleet to a point in the Atlantic. There the
+convoy was dispersed, and the destroyers swung off to rendezvous with a
+similar convoy of inward-bound vessels. While the outgoing merchantmen
+were allowed to proceed independently after passing through the most
+dangerous area, the homeward-bound vessels were grouped to sail in
+company from their port abroad. An ocean escort was provided--usually a
+cruiser of the older class--and there was opportunity in the longer
+voyage for the senior officer to drill the convoy to some unity and
+precision in manoeuvre.
+
+The commander of the ocean escort had no easy task in keeping his
+charges together. The age-old difficulty of grouping the ships in the
+order of their sailing (now steaming) powers has not diminished since
+Lord Cochrane, in command of H.M.S. _Speedy_, complained of the
+'fourteen sail of merchantmen' he convoyed from Cagliari to Leghorn. In
+the first enthusiasm of a new routine, masters were over-sanguine in
+estimation of the speed of their ships. The average of former passages
+offered a misleading guide. While it was possible to average ten and a
+half knots on a voyage from Cardiff to the Plate, proceeding at a speed
+that varied with the weather (and the coal), station could not easily be
+kept in a ten-knot convoy when--at the cleaning of the fires--the steam
+went 'back.' Swinging to the other extreme (after experience of the
+guide-ship's angry signals), we erred in reserving a margin that
+retarded the full efficiency of a convoy. Our commodores had no small
+difficulty in conforming to the date of their convoy's arrival at a
+rendezvous. The 'cruising speed' of ten knots, that we had so blithely
+taken up when sailing from an oversea port, frequently toned down to an
+average of eight--with all the consequent derangement of the destroyers'
+programme at the home end; a declared nine-knot convoy would romp home
+at ten, to find no escort at the rendezvous.
+
+In time, we adjusted our estimate to meet the new demands. Efforts of
+the Ministry of Shipping to evolve an order in our voyaging that would
+reduce irregularities had good results. The skilfully thought-out
+appointment of the ships to suitable routes and trades had effect in
+producing a homogeneity that furthered the employment of our resources
+to the full. The whole conduct of our seafaring speedily came within the
+range of governmental control, as affecting the timely dispatch and
+arrival of the convoys. The quality of our fuel, the state of the hull,
+competence of seamen, formed subject for close investigation. The rate
+of loading or discharge, the urgency of repairs and refitment, were no
+longer judged on the note of our single needs; like the states of the
+weather and the tide, they were weighed and assessed in the formula that
+governed our new fleet movements.
+
+The system of convoy protection had instant effect in curbing the
+activities of the U-boats. They could no longer work at sea on the lines
+that had proved so safe for them and disastrous for us. To get at the
+ships they had now to come within range of the destroyers' armament.
+Hydrophones and depth-charges reduced their vantage of submersion. The
+risks of sudden rupture of their plating by the swiftly moving keel of
+an escorting vessel did not tend to facilitate the working of their
+torpedo problem. In the coastal areas aircraft patrolled overhead the
+convoys, to add their hawk-sight to the ready swerve of the destroyers.
+The chances of successful attack diminished as the hazard of discovery
+and destruction increased. Still, they were no fainthearts. The German
+submarine commanders, brutal and hell-nurtured, are no cowards. The
+temptation of a massed target attracted them, and they sought, in the
+confusion of the startled ships, a means of escape from the destroyers
+when their shot into the 'brown' had run true.
+
+Convoy has added many new duties to the sum of our activities when at
+sea. Signals have assumed an importance in the navigation. The flutter
+of a single flag may set us off on a new course at any minute of the
+day. Failure to read a hoist correctly may result in instant collision
+with a sister ship. We have need of all eyes on the bridge to keep apace
+with the orders of the commodore. In station-keeping we are brought to
+the practice of a branch of seamanship with which not many of us were
+familiar. Steaming independently, we had only one order for the engineer
+when we had dropped the pilot. 'Full speed ahead,' we said, and rang a
+triple jangle of the telegraph to let the engineer on watch know that
+there would be no more 'backing and filling'--and that he could now nip
+into the stokehold to see to the state of the fires. Gone--our easy
+ways! We have now to keep close watch on the guide-ship and fret the
+engineer to adjustments of the speed that keep him permanently at the
+levers. The fires may clag and grey down through unskilful stoking--the
+steam go 'back' without warning: ever and on, he has to jump to the
+gaping mouth of the voice-tube: "Whit? Two revolutions? Ach! Ah cannae
+gi' her ony mair!"--but he does. Slowly perhaps, but surely, as he
+coaxes steam from the errant stokers, we draw ahead and regain our place
+in the line. No small measure of the success of convoy is built up in
+the engine-rooms of our mercantile fleets.
+
+Steaming in formation at night without lights adds to our 'grey heires.'
+The menace of collision is ever present. Frequently, in the darkness, we
+have no guide-ship in plain sight to regulate our progress. The
+adjustments of speed, that in the daytime kept us moderately well in
+station, cannot be made. It is best to turn steadily to the average
+revolutions of a former period, and keep a good look-out for the broken
+water of a sister ship. On occasion there is the exciting medley of
+encountering a convoy bound the opposite way. In the confusion of wide
+dispersal and independent alterations of course to avert collision,
+there is latitude for the most extraordinary situations. An incident in
+the Mediterranean deserves imperishable record: "We left Malta, going
+east, and that night it was inky dark and we ran clean through a
+west-bound convoy. How there wasn't an accident, God only knows. We had
+to go full astern to clear one ship. She afterwards sidled up alongside
+of us and steamed east for an hour and a half. Then she hailed us
+through a megaphone: 'Steamer ahoy! Hallo! Where are you bound to?'
+'Salonika,' we said. 'God Almighty,' he says. 'I'm bound to Gibraltar.
+Where the hell's _my_ convoy?'"
+
+[Illustration: THE THAMES ESTUARY IN WAR-TIME]
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+OUTWARD BOUND
+
+
+CUSTOMS clerks--may their name be blessed--are worth much more than
+their mere weight in gold. We do not mean the civil servants at the
+Custom House, who listen somewhat boredly to our solemn Oath and
+Compearance. Doubtless they, too, are of value, but our concern is with
+the owner's shipping clerk who attends our hesitating footsteps in the
+walk of ships' business when we come on shore. He greets us on arrival
+from overseas, bearing our precious letters and the news of the firm: he
+has the devious paths of our entry-day's course mapped out, down to the
+train we may catch for home. As an oracle of the port, there is nothing
+he does not know: the trains, the week's bill at the 'Olympeambra,' the
+quickest and cheapest way to send packages to Backanford, suitable
+lodging in an outport, the standing of the ship laundries, the merits of
+the hotels--he has information about them all. During our stay in port
+he attends to our legal business. He speeds us off to the sea again,
+with all our many folios in order.
+
+In peace, we had a settled round that embraced the Custom House for
+entry, the Board of Trade for crew affairs, the Notary for 'Protest.'
+(". . . and experienced the usual heavy weather!") War has added to our
+visiting-list. We must make acquaintance with the many naval authorities
+who control our movements; the Consuls of the countries we propose to
+visit must see us in person; it would be discourteous to set sail
+without a p.p.c. on the Dam-ship and Otter officers. Ever and on, a new
+bureau is licensed to put a finger in our pie: we spend the hours of
+sailing-day in a round of call and counter-call. The Consul wishes to
+_vise_ our Articles--the Articles may not be handed over till we produce
+a slip from the Consul, the Consul will grant no slip till we have seen
+the S.I.O. "Have we identity papers for every member of the crew, with
+photograph duly authenticated?"--"We are instructed not to grant
+passports!" Back and forward we trudge while the customs clerk at our
+side tells cheerfully of the very much more trying time that fell to
+Captain Blank.
+
+By wile and industry and pertinacity he unwinds the tangle of our
+longshore connections. He reconciles the enmity of the bureaux, pleads
+for us, apologizes for us, fights for us, engages for us. All we have to
+do is to sign, and look as though the commercial world stood still,
+awaiting the grant of that particular certificate. Undoubtedly the
+customs clerk is worth his weight in red, red gold!
+
+On a bright summer afternoon we emerge from the Custom House. We have
+completed the round. In the case which the clerk carries we have
+authority to proceed on our lawful occasions. Customs have granted
+clearance; our manifests are stamped and ordered; the Articles of
+Agreement and the ship's Register are in our hands. The health of our
+port of departure is guaranteed by an imposing document. Undocking
+permit, vouchers for pilotage and light dues, discharge books,
+sea-brief, passports, and store-sheets, are all there for lawful
+scrutiny. In personal safe-keeping, we have our sea-route ordered and
+planned. The hard work is done. There is no more _business_--nothing to
+do but to go on board and await the rise of tide that shall float us
+through the river channels to sea.
+
+Cargo is stowed and completed; the stevedores are unrigging their gear
+when we reach the ship. Our coming is noted, and the hatch foremen (in
+anticipation of a 'blessing') rouse the dockside echoes with carefully
+phrased orders to their gangs: "T' hell wit' yes, now! Didn't Oi tell
+ye, Danny Kilgallen, that _th' Cyaptin_ wants thim tarpolyan sames
+turned fore an' aff!" (A shilling or two for him!)--"Beggin' yer pardon,
+sir--I don't see th' mate about--will we put them fenders below _for ye_
+before we close th' hatch?" (Another _pourboire_!)--Number three has
+finished his hatchway, but his smiling regard calls for suitable
+acknowledgment. (After all, we shall have no use for British small
+coinage out West!) The head foreman, dear old John, is less ambitious.
+All he wants is our understanding that he has stowed her tight--and a
+shake of the hand for good luck. Firmly we believe in the good luck that
+lies in the hand of an old friend. "'Bye, John!"
+
+In groups, as their work is finished, the dockers go on shore, and leave
+to the crew the nowise easy task of clearing up the raffle, lashing
+down, and getting the lumbered decks in something approaching sea-trim.
+Fortunately, there is time for preparation. Usually, we are dragged to
+the dock gates with the hatches uncovered, the derricks aloft, and the
+stowers still busy blocking off the last slings of the cargo. This time
+there will be no hurried (and improper) finish--the stevedores hurling
+their gear ashore at the last minute, slipping down the fender lanyards,
+scurrying to a 'pier-head jump,' with the ship moving through the lock!
+Some happy chance has brought completion within an hour or two of
+tide-time. The mate has opportunity to clear ship effectively, and we
+have leisure to plot and plan our sea-route (in anticipation of hasty
+chart glances when we get outside) before the pier-master hails
+us--"Coom along wi' t' _Massilia_!"
+
+Tugs drag us through the inner gates, pinch and angle our heavy hull in
+the basin, and enter us into the locks. The massive gates are swung
+across, the sluices at the river-end eased to an outflow and, slowly,
+the great lock drains to the river level. The wires of our quay-fasts
+tauten and ring out to the tension of the outdraft, as we surge in the
+pent water-space and drop with the falling level. Our high bridge view
+over the docks and the river is pared in inches by our gradual descent;
+the deck falls away under cope of the rough masonry; our outlook is
+turned upwards to where the dockmaster signals his orders. The ship
+seems suddenly to assume the proportions of a canal-boat in her contrast
+with the sea-scarred granite walls and the bulk of the towering gates.
+
+At level with the flood, the piermen heave the outer lock-gates open for
+our passage. We back out into the river, bring up, then come ahead,
+canting to a rudder pressure that sheers us into the fairway. The river
+is thronged by vessels at anchor or under way, docking and undocking on
+the top of the tide, and their manoeuvres make work for our pilot. At
+easy speed we work a traverse through the press at the dock entrances
+and head out to seaward.
+
+[Illustration: DROPPING THE PILOT]
+
+Evening is drawing on as we enter the sea-channels--a quiet close to a
+fine summer day. Out on the estuary it is hard to think of war at sea.
+Shrimpers are drifting up on the tide, the vivid glow of their tanned
+canvas standing over a mirrored reflection in the flood. The deep of the
+fairway is scored by passage of coasting steamers, an unending
+procession that joins lightship to lightship in a chain of transport.
+The sea-reaches look in no way different from the peaceful channels we
+have known so long, the buoys and the beacons we pass in our courses
+seem absurdly tranquil, as though lacking any knowledge that they are
+signposts to a newly treacherous sea. Only from the land may one draw a
+note of warning--on shore there are visible signs of warfare. The
+searchlights of the forts, wheeling over the surface of the channels,
+turn on us and steady for a time in inspection. Farther inland, ghostly
+shafts and lances are sweeping overhead, in ceaseless scrutiny of the
+quiet sky.
+
+At a bend in the fairway we close and speak the channel patrol steamer
+and draw no disquieting impression from her answer to our hail. The port
+is still open and we may proceed on our passage to join convoy at ----.
+An escort will meet us in 1235 and conduct us to 5678. 'Carry on!'
+
+It is quite dark when we round the outer buoy and reduce speed to drop
+our pilot. The night is windless and a calm sea gives promise of a good
+passage. We bring up close to the cutter, and, shortly, with a stout
+'Good-bye,' the pilot swings overside and clambers down the long
+side-ladder to his boat. We shut off all lights and steer into the
+protecting gloom of the night.
+
+[Illustration: EXAMINATION SERVICE PATROL BOARDING AN INCOMING STEAMER]
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+RENDEZVOUS
+
+
+ALMOST hourly they round the Point, turning in from seaward with a fine
+swing and thrash of propellors to steer a careful course through the
+boom defences. Screaming gulls wheel and poise and dive around them,
+exulting to welcome the new-comers in, and the musical clank and rattle
+of anchor cables, as the ships bring up in the Roads, mark emphatic
+periods to this--the short coasting section of the voyage.
+
+"Safe here!" sing the chains, as they link out over the open hawse.
+"Thus far, anyway, in spite of fog and coast danger, of mine and
+submarine," and the brown hill-side joins echo to the clamour of the
+wheeling gulls, letting all know the ships have come in to join the
+convoy.
+
+The bay, that but a day ago lay broad and silent and empty, now seems to
+narrow its proportions as each high-sided merchantman comes in; the
+hills draw nearer with every broad hull that anchors, wind-rode, in the
+blue of the bay. As if in key with the illusion, the broad expanse of
+shallow, inshore water, that before gave distance to the hills, now
+sheds its power, cut and furrowed as it becomes by thrash and wake of
+tugs and launches all making out to serve the larger vessels.
+
+On the high mound of the harbour-master's look-out, keen eyes note all
+movements in the bay. The signal-mast and yard bear a gay setting of
+flags and symbols, and rapid changes and successions show the yeoman of
+signals and his mates at work, recording and replying, taking mark and
+tally of the ships as they arrive. Up and down goes the
+red-and-white-barred answering pendant to say that it is duly
+noted--"_War Trident_, _Marmion_, and _Pearl Shell_ report arrival"--or
+the semaphore arms, swinging smartly, tell H.M.S. _03xyz_ that
+permission to enter harbour (she having safely escorted the trio to
+port) is approved.
+
+Out near the entrance to the bay, where the 'gateships' of the boom
+defences show clear water, the patrol steamer of the Examination Service
+lays-to, challenging each incoming vessel to state her name and
+particulars. These, in turn, are signalled to the shore and the yeoman
+writes: "Begins war trident for norfolk va. speed nine knots is ready
+for sea stop marmion for Bahia reports steering engine broken down will
+require ten hours complete repairs stop pearl shell nine and half
+short-handed one fireman two trimmers report agents stop ends."
+
+If room is scanty, the convoy office has at least an atmosphere in
+keeping with its mission. Nestling close under the steep brow of the
+harbour-master's look-out, it was, in happier days, the life-boat
+coxswain's dwelling, and a constant reminder of sea-menace and emergency
+almost blocks the door--the long boat-house and launch-ways of the
+life-boat. Four square and solid, the little house only has windows
+overlooking the bay, as if attending strictly to affairs at sea and
+having no eyes for landward doings; the peering eaves face straight out
+towards the 'gateships' as though even the stone and lime were intent on
+the sailing of the convoys, whose order and formation are arranged
+within their walls. The upper room has a desk or two, a telephone, a
+chart table, and a typewriter, and here the port convoy officer and his
+assistants trim and index and arrange the ships in order of their
+sailing. At the window a seaman-writer is typing out 'pictures' for the
+next sailing--signal tables, formation and dispersal diagrams, call
+signs, zigzags, constantly impressing that Greenwich Mean Time is the
+thing (no Summer Time at sea), and that courses are True, _not_
+Magnetic. The clack and release of his machine seem quite a part of
+conversation between the convoy officer and his lieutenant; the whole is
+so apparently disjointed in references to this ship and that, to repairs
+and tides, and shortage of 'hands' and water-supply and turns in the
+hawse, and even Spanish influenza! To one accustomed to single-ship
+work the whole is mildly bewildering, and one readily understands that
+sailing a merchant convoy calls for more than the simple word of
+command.
+
+"_War Trident_, nine knots," reads the junior, from a signal slip.
+"_Marmion_, a doubtful starter--steering-gear disabled. _Pearl Shell_,
+three stokehold hands short."
+
+"_Trident_ only nine! That be damned for a yarn!" says his senior,
+reaching for the slip. "Nine will reduce the speed of the whole convoy a
+knot. She must be good for more--new ship, isn't she?"
+
+"Yes. One of these new standards--built for eleven knots and chocked up
+afterwards with fancy gear and 'gadjets' to rob the boilers."
+
+"Lemme see--nine knots"--turning to the pages of a tide-book, the convoy
+officer makes a rough sum of it. "High water at Oysterpool--so--arrived
+here--distance--and seventy-one. Why, he's come on from Oysterpool at
+ten, no less, and that's not allowing for the zigzag either!"
+
+The lieutenant looks round for his cap. Clearly there is a definite
+'drill' for captains who come on from Oysterpool at ten and declare
+their speed as nine, and he is ready when the P.C.O. passes orders. "All
+right. You go off and see the captain. Try to get him to spring at least
+half a knot. I expect he's allowing a bit for 'coming up,' and going
+easy till he knows his new ship. . . . I'll 'phone _Pearl Shell's_
+agents and warn 'em to hustle round for firemen. _Marmion?_ Yes. Board
+_Marmion_ on your way back. Wants ten hours--she should be able to keep
+her sailing." A year agone there would have been but moderate and
+passive interest in the varying troubles of the ships and their crews,
+but much water has flowed over the Red Ensign since then, and we are
+learning.
+
+The convoy lieutenant goes down a winding path to the boat-slip and
+boards his launch to set off for the Roads. The morning, that broke fair
+and unclouded, has turned grey; a damp sea-mist is wandering over the
+bay in thin wraiths and feathers, but sunlight on the brown of the
+distant hills promises a clearing as the day draws on. Fishing-smacks,
+delayed by want of wind, are creeping in to the market steps under sweep
+of their long oars, and their lazy canvas rustles, and the booms and
+sheet-blocks creak as the wash of the picket-launch sets them swaying.
+In from the sea channels, with their sweeps still wet and glistening,
+come the _Agnes Whitwell_, _Fortuna_, the _Dieudonne_, and _Brother
+Fred_, each with a White Ensign aloft and a naked grey gun on their high
+bows. They are late in their return, and one can guess at deadly iron
+spheres stirred from the depths of the fairways, thrown buoyant in the
+wash astern, and destroyed by crack of gunfire. The commodore of the
+sisterly pairs, a young lieutenant of Reserve, waves a cheery greeting
+as we pass.
+
+[Illustration: DAWN: CONVOY PREPARING TO PUT TO SEA]
+
+And now the Roads, windless and misty, the anchored merchantmen swung at
+different angles, in their gay fantasy of dazzle-paint, borrowing
+further motley from the mist, and leering grotesquely through the thin
+vapours. But for her lines, undeniably fine and graceful, _War Trident_
+is the standardest of standards. Dazzle-painters have slapped their
+spite at her in lurid swathes and, not content, have draped her sheer in
+harlequin crenellations. Her low pipe-funnel upstands in rigid
+perpendicular. ("Chief! Pit yer haun' up an' feel if th' kettle's
+bilin'!") No masts break the long length of her, saving only a midship
+signal-pole that serves her wireless aerials and affords a hod-like
+perch for the look-out aloft. She is stark new, smooth of plating, and
+showing even the hammer-strokes on her rivets. Through the thin paint on
+her sides, marks and symbols of construction appear, the letters of her
+strakes painted in firm white, with here and there an unofficial
+shipyard embellishment--"Good old Jeemy Quin," or "Tae hell wi' the
+Kiser!" She is ready for sea, and life-boats and davits, swung outboard,
+tower overhead as the picket-launch draws up at her gaunt side. She is
+in ballast trim, and it is evident that her standard carpenters hold
+strictly to a rule that ignores a varying freeboard--the side ladder is
+short by eight feet, and only by middling the rungs (a leap at the
+bottom, a long swaying climb, and a drag at the top) are we able to
+clamber on board.
+
+A special 'drill' for conducting affairs with masters of brand-new ships
+should be devised immediately by Admiralty, and the mildest of
+Low-Church curates (trimmed by previous dire tortures to the utter limit
+of exasperation) be provided, on whom officials may be well practised.
+Usually the master has been hurried out of port by the last rivet driven
+home, with strange officers and the very weakest of new crews, in a ship
+jam-full of the newest 'gadjets,' and the least possible reserve of gear
+to work them. Quickly and bitterly the fourth sentence of Confession at
+Morning Prayer is recalled to him--the things undone crowd round, and
+there is nothing in the bare hull to serve as a makeshift. The engines
+and _auxiliaries_ (that, with a builder's man at every bearing, worked
+well on trials) now develop tricks and turns to keep the chief engineer
+and his fledgling juniors on the run; the mate cries "Kamerad" to all
+suggestions, pointing to his hopeless watch of one. (Eight deck: four in
+a watch, less one helmsman and two look-outs, equals one.) Add to the
+sum of difficulties that the captain has probably been ashore since he
+lost his last ship, and finds the new tactics and signals and zigzags
+unfamiliar; through it all the want of familiar little trifles and
+fixings (that go so far to help a ready action), sustains a feeling of
+irritation.
+
+It is little wonder that the convoy lieutenant goes warily, and, indeed,
+but for the brilliant inspiration of using the 'last ship,' it seems
+probable that the convoy will have to proceed at _Trident's_ modest
+nine knots. Bluntly, the captain is in undisguised ill-humour. He has
+been on deck practically since leaving the builder's yard, and his weary
+eyes suggest a need for prompt sleep. His room, still reeking of new
+paint and varnish, is in some disorder, and shows traces of an anxious
+passage along the coast. 'Notices to Mariners' lie open at the minefield
+sketches, with a half-smoked pipe atop to keep the pages open; chart
+upon chart is piled (for want of a rack) on bed and couch; oilskins,
+crumpled as when drawn off, hang over the edge of a door--not a peg to
+hang them on; an open sextant case, jammed secure by pillows, lies on
+the washstand lid; books of sailing directions, a taffrail log, some red
+socket-flares, are heaped awry in a corner of the room; the whole an
+evidence that lockers and minor ship conveniences are not yet
+standardized. Pray goodness he may have a stout honest thief of a chief
+mate, able and willing to find a baulk or two of timber, and a few nails
+and brass screws and copper tacks and a curtain-rod or two and a bolt of
+canvas!
+
+The convoy lieutenant, unheeding a somewhat surly return of his
+greeting, produces Convoy Form No. AX, and starts in cheerfully to fill
+the vacant columns. "Tonnage, captain?--register will do. Crew? Guns?
+Coal?--consumpt. at speeds. Revolutions per half-knot?" The form
+completed, he hands it over for signature, thus tactfully drawing the
+captain's attention to the secretarial work he has done for him. "What's
+the speed? Nine and a half?" "Speed!" answers the Old Man. "Hell! This
+bunch of hair-springs can't keep out of her own way! Speed? The damned
+funnel's so low we can't get draught to burn a cigarette-paper; and
+these new pumps they've given her! . . . Well, we might do nine, but
+only in fine weather, mind you. Nine knots!"
+
+"You'll have to do better for this convoy, captain. There's not a ship
+under nine and a half; but there may be a bunch of eight-knotters going
+out in five days."
+
+"Nothing under nine and a half! What? Why, there's _Pearl Shell_ came in
+with us. She hasn't a kick above nine. When I was in the old _Collonia_,
+we. . . ."
+
+"The _Collonia_? A fine ship, Gad! Were you in her, captain, when she
+was strafed? Let's see--Mediterranean, wasn't it?" The captain nods
+pleasantly, as if accepting a compliment.
+
+"_Umm!_ Mediterranean--troops--a hell of a job to get them off. Lost
+some, though"--regretfully.
+
+The convoy lieutenant turns a good card. "Must be a change to come down
+to ten knots, captain, after a crack ship like _Collonia_. What could
+she do? Sixteen?"
+
+"Oh no. We could get an eighteen-knot clip out of her--more, if we
+wanted!" (If _War Trident's_ speed be low and doubtful, the Old Man can
+safely pile the knots on his stricken favourite.) "_She_ was a ship, not
+a damned parish-rigged barge like this--a poverty-stricken hulk
+that. . . ."
+
+"Yes. I heard about her from Benson, of _War Trumpet_. He sailed in last
+convoy. Said he was glad he wasn't appointed here."
+
+"Wasn't appointed here, be damned! Didn't have the chance. Why, that
+ship of his isn't in the same class at all. The _Trident_ can steer,
+anyway, and when we get things fixed up. . . . She has the hull of a
+fine ship. If only we could get a decent funnel on her. . . . Here, I'll
+try her at your nine and a half knots! I'll bet _War Trumpet_ can't do a
+kick above nine!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Be it noted that the convoy officers have the wavy gold lace of the
+R.N.R. for their rank stripes; plain half-inch ones of the Royal Navy
+might have had to let the convoy sail at nine, after all--not knowing
+the 'grip' of the 'last ship.'
+
+[Illustration: EVENING: PLYMOUTH HOE]
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+CONFERENCE
+
+
+"A LAUNCH will be sent off at 3 p.m., S.T., to bring masters on shore
+for conference. You are requested to bring"--etc. So reads the notice,
+and p.m. finds the coxswain of the convoy office picket-boat steaming
+and backing from ship to ship, and making no secret of his disapproval
+of a scheme of things that keeps him waiting (tootling, perhaps, an
+impatient blast), while leisurely shipmasters give final orders to their
+mates at the gangways. ("That damned ship's cat in the chart-room again,
+sir!")
+
+More ships have come in since the clearing of the morning mist, and calm
+weather and vagaries of the tide have combined to crowd the ships in the
+anchorage into uncomfortably close quarters; perhaps, after all, it
+would be rather the counter-swing of that River Plate boat, anchoring
+close abeam ("Given me a foul berth, damn him!"), than the insanitary
+ways of the ship's cat that kept the captain, one leg over the rail, so
+long in talk with his mate.
+
+Never, since the days of sailing ships and the leisurely deep-sea
+parliaments in the ship-chandler's back room, have we been brought so
+much together. The bustle and dispatch of steamer work, in pre-war days,
+kept us apart from our sea-fellows; there were few forgatherings where
+we could exchange views and experiences and abuse 'square-heads' and
+damn the Board of Trade. Now, the run of German torpedoes has banded us
+together again, and in convoy and their conferences, we are coming to
+know one another as never before. At first we were rather reserved, shy
+perhaps, and diffident, one to another. Careless, in a way, of longshore
+criticism and opinion, we were somewhat concerned that conduct among our
+peers should be dignified and seaworthy; then, the fine shades of
+precedence--largely a matter of the relative speeds of our commands--had
+to average out before the 'master' of an east-coast tramp and the
+'captain' of an R.M.S. found joint and proper equality. In this again,
+the enemy torpedo served a turn, and we are not now surprised to learn
+that the 'captain' of a modest nine-knot freighter had been (till she
+went down with the colours apeak) 'master' of His Majesty's Transport of
+16,000 tons.
+
+So we crowd up together in the convoy launch, and introduce ourselves,
+and talk a while of our ships and crews till stoppage of the engines and
+clatter of hardwood side-ladders mark another recruit, sprawling his way
+down the high wall-side of a ballasted ship. The coxswain sighs relief
+as he pockets his list--the names all now ticked off in order of their
+boarding--and puts his helm over to swing inshore. "A job o' work," he
+says. "Like 'unt th' slipper, this 'ere! 'Ow can I tell wot ships they
+is, names all painted hover; an' them as does show their names is only
+damn numbers!"
+
+In pairs, colloguing as we go, we mount the jetty steps and find a way
+to the conference-room. We make a varied gathering. Some few are in
+their company's service uniform, but most of us, misliking an array but
+grudgingly tolerated in naval company, wear longshore clothes and, in
+our style, affect soft felt hats and rainproof overcoats. Not very
+gallant raiment, it is true, but since brave tall hats and plain brass
+buttons and fancy waistcoats and Wellingtons went out with the lowering
+of the last single topsail, we have had no convention in our attire. In
+conference we come by better looks--bareheaded, and in stout blue serge,
+we sit a-row facing the blackboard on which our 'drills' are chalked.
+Many find a need for eyeglasses, the better to read the small typescript
+(uniformly bad) handed round to us, that sets forth our stations and
+the order of our sailing, and one wonders if the new look-out has
+brought us at last to the hands of the opticians; certainly, our eyes
+are 'giving' under the strain.
+
+Of all the novel routine that war has brought to seafaring, convoy work
+is, perhaps, the most apart from our normal practice. We have now to
+think of concerted action, outboard the limits of our own bulwark; we
+have become subject to restriction in our sailing; we conform to
+movements whose purpose may not, perhaps, be plainly apparent. Trained
+and accustomed to single and undisputed command, it was not easy to
+alter the habits of a lifetime at sea. We were autocrats in our small
+sea-world, bound only by our owner's instruction to proceed with
+prudence and dispatch. We had no super-captain on the sea to rule our
+lines and set our courses and define our speeds. We made 'eight bells!'
+
+But the 'bells' we made and the courses we steered and the rate we sped
+could not bring all of us safely to port. They gave us guns--and we used
+them passing well--but guns could not, at that date, deflect torpedoes,
+and ships went down. Then came convoy and its success, and we had to
+pocket our declarations of independence, and steer in fleets and
+company; and gladly enough, too, we availed ourselves of a union in
+strength, though it took time to custom us to a new order at sea.
+
+At first we were resentful of what, ill-judging, we deemed interference.
+Were we not master mariners, skilled seamen, able to trim and handle our
+ships in any state or case? And if, on our side, the great new machine
+revolved a turn or two uneasily, it is true that the naval spur-wheel
+was not itself entirely free of grit. The naval officers, who drilled us
+down, were at first distant and superior; masters were a class,
+forgotten since sail went out, who had now no prototype in His Majesty's
+Service; there was no guide to the standard of association. Having
+little, if any, knowledge of merchant-ship practice, naval officers
+expected the same many-handed efficiency as in their own service. Crew
+troubles were practically unknown in their experience; all coal was
+'Best Welsh Navigation'; all ships, whatever their lading, turned, under
+helm, apace! Gradually we learned--as they did. We saw, in practice,
+that team work and not individual smartness was what counted in convoy;
+that, be our understanding of a signal as definite and clear as the loom
+of the Craig, it was imperative, for our own safety, that the reading of
+out-wing and more distant ships should be as ready and accurate. In
+this, our convoy education, the chief among our teachers were the
+commodores, R.N. and R.N.R., who came to sea with us, blest, by a happy
+star, with TACT!
+
+[Illustration: A CONVOY CONFERENCE]
+
+So, we learned, and now sit to listen, attentively and with respect, to
+what the King's Harbour Master has to say about our due and timely
+movements in forming up in convoy. On him, also, the happy star has
+shone, and we are conscious of an undernote that admits we are all good
+men and true and know our work. One among us, a junior by his looks,
+dissents on a movement, and not all-friendly eyes we turn on him; but he
+is right, all the same, and the point he raises is worthy the discussion
+that clears it. Our ranks are evidence of a world-wide league of
+seafarers against German brutality. While his frightfulness has barred
+the enemy for ever from sea-brotherhood, it has had effect in banding
+the world's seamen in a closer union. We are not alone belligerents
+devising measures of warfare; in our international gathering we
+represent a greater movement than a council of arms. British in
+majority, with Americans, Frenchmen, a Japanese, a Brazilian--we are at
+war and ruling our conduct to the sea-menace, but among us there are
+neutrals come to join our convoy; peaceful seamen seeking a place with
+us in fair trade on the free seas. Two Scandinavian masters and a
+Spaniard listen with intent preoccupation to the lecture--a recital in
+English, familiar to them as the Esperanto of the sea.
+
+The K.H.M.'s careful and detailed routine has a significance not
+entirely connected with our sailing of the morrow; in a way it impresses
+one with the extent of our sea-empire. Most of us have taken station as
+he orders, have all the manoeuvres by rote, but even at this late
+date, there are those among us, called from distant seas, to whom the
+instructions are novel. For them, we say, the emphasis on clearing hawse
+overnight, the definition of G.M.T., the exactitude of zigzag, and the
+necessity of ready answer to signals. We are old stagers now, _we_ know
+all these drills, _we_-- Damn! We, too, are becoming superior! In turn,
+the commodore who is to sail with us has his say. Signals and look-out,
+the cables of our distance, wireless calls, action guns and
+smoke-screen, the rubbish-heap, darkening ship, fog-buoys and
+hydroplanes, he deals with in a fine, confident, deep sea-voice. Only on
+question of the hearing of sound-signals in fog do we throw our weight
+about, and we make reminiscent tangents not wholly connected with the
+point at issue. Yarn-spinners, courteously recalled from their
+digressions, wind up somewhat lamely, and commodore goes on to deal with
+late encounters with the enemy in which a chink in our armour was bared.
+Methods approved to meet such emergencies are explained, and his part is
+closed by attention to orders detailed for convoy dispersal. The
+commander of the destroyer escort has a few words for us; a brief detail
+of the power of his under-water armament, a request for a 'fair field in
+action.' Conference comes to an end when the shipping intelligence
+officer has explained his routes and given us our sailing orders.
+
+Till now we have been actually an hour and a half without smoking, and
+our need is great. As one man we fumble for pipes and tobacco (a few
+lordly East-Indiamen flaunt cheroots), and in the fumes and at our ease
+arrange, in unofficial ways, the small brotherly measures that may help
+us at sea.
+
+"Oh yes, _Chelmsford_, you're my next ahead. Well, say, old man, if it
+comes fog, give me your brightest cargo 'cluster' to shine
+astern--daytime, too--found it a good----" "Fog, egad! What about fog
+when we are forming up? Looked none too clear t' the south'ard as we
+came ashore!"
+
+Somewhat late, we realize that not a great deal has been said about
+weather conditions for the start-off. The port convoy officer is still
+about, but all he can offer is a pious hope and the promise that he will
+have tugs on hand to help us out. "No use 'making almanacks' till the
+time comes," says our Nestor (a stout old greybeard who has been twice
+torpedoed). "We shall snake into column all right, and, anyhow, we're
+all bound the same way!" "What about towing one another out?" suggests a
+junior, and, the matter having been brought to jest, we leave it at
+that.
+
+The caretaker jangles his keys and, collecting our 'pictures,' we go out
+to the quayside, where thin rain and a mist shroud the harbour basin,
+and the dock warehouses loom up like tall clippers under sail. The
+coxswain comes, clamping in heavy sea-boots and an oilskin, to tell that
+the launch is at the steps, ready to take us off. Two of us have
+business to conclude with our agent, and remain on the jetty to see our
+fellows crowd into shelter of the hood and the launch back out. We call
+cheerfully, one to another, that we shall meet at Bahia or New York or
+Calcutta or Miramichi, and the mist takes them.
+
+Up the ancient cobbled street we come on an old church and, the rain
+increasing to a torrent, we shelter at the porch. Who knows, curiosity
+perhaps, urges us farther and we step quietly down-level to the old
+stone-flagged nave. The light is failing, and the tombs and monuments
+are dim and austere, the inscriptions faint and difficult to read. A
+line of Drakes lie buried here, and tablets to the memory of old
+sea-captains (whose bones may lie where tide is) are on the walls. A
+sculptured medallion of ships on the sea draws our attention and we
+read, with difficulty, for the stone is old and the lines faint and
+worn.
+
+         ". . . INTERRED YE BODY OF EDMOND LEC----, FORMERLY
+         COMMANDER OF HER MAJ---- SHIP YE _LINN FRIGOT_,
+         17-- . . . A FRENCH CORVAT FROM WHOM HE PROTECTED A
+         LARGE FLEET OF MERCHANT SHIPS ALL INTO SAFETY. . .
+         . AND BRAVELY HE GAVE YE ENEMY BATTEL AND FORCED
+         HIM TO BEAR AWAY WITH MUCH DAMMAGE. . . ."
+
+
+We looked at one another. A good charge to take to sea in 1918! Quietly
+we closed the door and came away.
+
+[Illustration: THE OLD HARBOUR, PLYMOUTH]
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+THE SAILING
+
+
+FOG, AND THE TURN OF THE TIDE
+
+RAINY weather overnight has turned to fog, and the lighthouse on the
+Point greets breaking dawn with raucous half-minute bellows. Less
+regular and insistent, comes a jangle of anchor-bells, breaking in from
+time to time, ship after ship repeating, then subsiding a while until
+the syren of a moving tugboat--as if giving time and chorus to the
+din--sounds a blast, and sets the look-outs on the anchored ships to
+their clangour again. From the open sea distant reedy notes tell that
+the minesweeping flotilla is out and at work, clearing the course for
+draught of the out-bound convoy, and searching the misty sea-channels
+for all the enemy may have moored there. The 'gateships' of the boom
+defences rasp out jarring discords to warn mariners of their bobbling
+floats and nets. Inshore the one sustained and solemn toll of bell at
+the pier-head measures out time to the sum of a dismal dayspring.
+
+By all the sound of it, it is ill weather for the sailing of a convoy.
+In time of peace there would not be a keel moving within harbour limits
+through such a pall. "Call me when the weather clears," would be the
+easy order, and we would turn the more cosily to blanket-bay, while the
+anchor-watch would pace athwart overhead, in good content, to await the
+raising of the curtain. Still and all, it is yet early to assess the
+rigour of the fog. Sound-signals, started late in the coming of it,
+became routine and mechanical, and persist--through clearing--till their
+need is more than over. The half-light of breaking day has still to
+brighten and diffuse; who knows; perhaps, after all, this may be only
+that dear and fond premise of hopeful sailormen--the pride o' the
+morning!
+
+The elder fishermen (the lads are out after the mines) have no such
+optimism. Roused by the habits of half a century, they turn out for a
+pipe and, from window and doorway, assure one another that their idle
+'stand-by' decreed by harbour-master for outgoing of the convoy, is
+little hardship on a morning like this. "'Ark t' them bells," they say,
+thumb over shoulder. "All 'ung up. Thick as an 'edge out there, an' no
+room t' back an' fill. There won't be no move i' th' Bay till 'arf-ebb,
+my oath!"
+
+But they are wrong in that, if right in their estimation of the weather
+and congestion in the roads, for we are at war, and the port convoy
+officer, hurrying to his launch, is already sniffing for the bearings of
+the leader of the line. Prudently he has mapped their berths as they
+came in to anchor, and has, at least, a serviceable, if rough, chart to
+guide him on his rounds.
+
+[Illustration: CONVOY SAILING FROM PLYMOUTH SOUND]
+
+So far there are no reports from the sea-patrols that would call for an
+instant alteration of the routes, and for that the P.C.O. has a thankful
+heart. A 'hurrah's nest,' a panic on Exchange, a block at the Bank
+crossing, would be feeble comparison to the confusion he might look for
+in a combination of dense fog, counter-mandates, and a congested
+roadstead, for, even now, the ships to form up the next convoy are
+thrashing their way down the coast and (Article XVI of the Rule of the
+Road being lightly held by in war-time) may be expected off the
+'gateships' before long. To them, as yet, the port is 'closed,' but
+every distant wail from seaward sets him anxiously wondering whether it
+be a minesweeper signalling a turn to his twin or a distant
+deep-waterman, early on the tide, standing in for the land. The sailor's
+morning litany--"Who wouldn't sell a farm and go to sea"--is near to him
+as he turns up the collar of his oilskin and gives a rough course to
+his coxswain. "South, s'west, and ease her when you hear th' Bell buoy.
+_British Standard_ first--she's lying close south of it." Turning out,
+the picket-boat sets her bows to the grey wall of mist and her wash and
+roundel of the screws (that on a clear busy day would scarce be noted)
+sound loud and important in the silence of the bay. The coxswain,
+cunning tidesman, steers a good course and reduces speed with the first
+toll of the buoy. The clamour of its iron tongue seems out of all
+relation to the calm sea and the cause is soon revealed. Silently,
+closely in line ahead, four grey destroyers break the mist, fleet
+swiftly across the arc of vision ahead, and disappear. "Near it," says
+the coxswain (and now sounds a blast of _his_ whistle). "Them fellers
+ain't 'arf goin' it!" Cautiously he rounds the buoy, noting the gaslight
+crown shining yet, though pale and sickly in the growing day. Out now,
+in seven fathoms, the lingering inshore fog has given place to a mist,
+through which the ships loom up in sombre grey silhouette. Full speed
+for a turn or two brings the launch abeam of a huge oil-tanker that,
+sharp to the tick of Greenwich Mean Time, already has her Convoy
+Distinguishing Flags hoisted and the windlass panting white steam to
+raise anchor. A small flag in the rigging assures the P.C.O. that the
+pilots have boarded in good time, and it is with somewhat of growing
+satisfaction that he hails the bridge and asks the captain to 'carry
+on!'
+
+Doubts and hesitancies that may have lingered in the prudent captain's
+mind are dispelled by the P.C.O.'s appearance. "It is decided, then,
+that the orders stand," and there is at least a certain relief in his
+tone as he orders, "Weigh anchor!"
+
+The _British Standard_ is deep-loaded, in contrast to the usual empty
+war-time outward bound, but her lading is clean salt water, no less, run
+into her compartments on the sound theory that Fritz, by a strafe, may
+only 'change the water in the tanks.' Homeward, from the west, there
+will be no such fine assurance, for a torpedo may well set her ablaze
+from stem to stern, and the enemy takes keen and peculiar delight in
+such _Schrecklichkeit_. Still, there is little thought to that; _British
+Standard_ is to lead the line, and her anchor comes to the hawse and she
+backs, then comes ahead again, swinging slowly under helm towards the
+sound of 'gateships'' hand-horns. High on the stern emplacement her men
+are uncovering her gun and clearing the ranges, and the long grey barrel
+is trained out to what will be the sun-glare side of the first tangent
+of her sea-course. Close astern of her comes _War Ordnance_, her pushful
+young captain having taken heed of the sounds of _Standard's_ weighing.
+"Good work," says the P.C.O. cheerfully, and cons his rough chart for
+the whereabouts of Number Three.
+
+As though the devil in the wind had heard him, down comes the fog
+again, dense this time, a thick blanket-curtain of it that shuts off
+the misty stage on which the prompter had hoped, passably, to complete
+his dispatch of the fleet.
+
+The compass again. "East 'll do," and the launch slips through the grey
+of it. All around in the roadstead the clank of cable linking over the
+spurs, and hiss and thrust of power windlasses are indication that
+_British Standard's_ movement has given signal to weigh, that it is
+plain to the others--"Convoy will proceed in execution of previous
+orders." A propellor, thrashing awash in trial, looms up through the fog
+ahead, but 'East' has brought the launch wide of her mark, and
+_Massilia_ is answer to the P.C.O.'s hail. _Massilia_ is Number Four,
+but needs must when the fog drives, so he advises the captain to get
+under way and head out.
+
+Number Three has stalled badly and is hot in a burst of graceless
+profanity from bridge to forecastle-head, and (increasing in volume and
+blood-red emphasis) from there to the chain-locker. There is a foul
+stow. Her nip-cheese builders have pared the locker-space to the
+mathematical limit (to swell her carrying tonnage), and the small crew
+that her nip-cheese owners have put on her are unable to range the
+tiers. Twenty fathoms of chain remain yet under water, the locker is
+jammed, and the mate, roughed (and through a megaphone, too), from the
+bridge, is calling on strange deities to take note that, 'of all the
+damn ships he ever sailed in. . . .' The pilot calls out from the bridge
+that they are going to pay out and restow, and the convoy officer,
+blessing the forethought that had bade him send off Number Four, swings
+off to speed the succession.
+
+High water has made and the tide ebbs, swinging the ships yet anchored
+till they head inshore, and adding to the pilots' worry of narrowed
+vision the need to turn short round in crowded waters. For this the tugs
+have been sent out in readiness, and the convoy launch has a busy
+mission in casting about to find and set them to the task of towing the
+laggards round. It is nothing easy, in the fog and confusion of moving
+ships, to back the _Seahorse_ in and harness her by warp and hawser, but
+with every vessel, canted, that straightens to her course, the press is
+lightened by so much sea-room cleared. Gradually the hail and
+counter-hail, hoarse order and repeat, whistle-signals, protest of
+straining tow-ropes, die away with the lessening note of each sea-going
+propeller.
+
+To Number Three again, last of the line and out of her station, the
+convoy officer seeks to return. The fog is denser than ever, and the
+echoes of the bay, now transferred to seaward, augment the uneasy
+short-blast mutterings where the ships, closed up at the narrow
+'gateway,' are slowing and backing to drop their pilots. In his traverse
+of the anchorage the coxswain has lost bearing of the _Cinderella_ and
+steers a zigzag course through the murk. The sun has risen, brightening
+the overhead but proving (in sea glare and misty daze) an ally to the
+veil. No sound of heaving cable or thunder of escaping steam that would
+mark a vessel hurrying to get her anchor and make up for time lost is to
+be heard. Frankly puzzled, the coxswain stops his engines. "Must 'a
+sailed, sir," he says at length. "There ain't nothin' movin' this end o'
+th' bay."
+
+The convoy officer nods. "_Mmm!_ She may have gone on, while we were
+dragging _Marmion_ clear of th' stern of that 'blue funnel' boat. A good
+job. Well, carry on! Head in--think that was th' pier-head bell we heard
+abeam!"
+
+At easy speed the launch turns and coxswain bends to peer at the
+swinging compass-card. As one who has held out to a job o' work
+completed, the P.C.O. stretches his arms and yawns audibly and
+whole-hearted. "A good bath now and a bite o' breakfast and-- Oh, hell!
+What's that astern?"
+
+The turn in the wake has drawn his eye to a grey blur in the glare of
+the mist. An anchored ship!
+
+Keeping the helm over, the coxswain swings a wide circle and steadies on
+the mark. "Damn if it ain't her!" he says, as the launch draws on.
+
+The _Cinderella_ lies quiet with easy harbour smoke rising straight up
+from her funnel and no windlass party grouped on the forecastle-head;
+quiet, as if fog and convoy and the distant reverberations of her sister
+ships held no concern for her. To the P.C.O.'s surprised and somewhat
+indignant hail there is returned a short-phrased assurance that the
+ruddy anchor is down--and is going to remain down! "Think I'm going out
+in this to hunt my place in the pack? No damn fear!" says the captain.
+"Why, I can scarce see who's hailing me, less a line o' ships barging
+along!"
+
+The pilot, in a tone that suggests he has already 'put out an oar'--with
+little effect--joins in to reassure. "Clearin' outside now, captain. I
+haven't heard th' lighthouse syren for twenty minutes or more! The
+fog'll be hangin' here in harbour a bit."
+
+"Aye, aye! But it's here we are, pilot--not outside yet. A clearing out
+there doesn't show us th' leading marks, and I'll not risk it. I've no
+fancy for nosing into th' nets and booms. I know where I am here, and I
+won't stir a turn--unless"--bending over the light screen towards the
+launch--"unless you lead ahead!"
+
+The convoy officer is somewhat embarrassed. Certainly the weather is as
+thick as a hedge; there is no 'drill' of convoy practice that empowers
+him to order risks to be taken--navigation of the ships is not his
+province. It is enough for him to arrange and advise and assist. If he
+leads out and anything _does_ happen?
+
+Still, it is maddening to think of one hitch in a good
+programme--'almost a record, too!' He looks at his watch and notes that
+only fifty minutes have elapsed since _British Standard_ weighed.
+
+"Oh, hell! Right, captain," he says. "Heave up and I'll give you a lead
+out to clear weather!"
+
+
+'IN EXECUTION OF PREVIOUS ORDERS'
+
+WE are Number Four in the line; _Vick--beer--code_ is our address, and
+we steam somewhat faster than the fog warrants to keep touch with our
+next ahead. She, in turn, is packing close up on the leader, and if, in
+the strict ruling of a 'line ahead,' we are stepping out a trifle wide,
+at least we keep in company. The farthest we can see is the thrash of
+foam, white in the grey, of _War Ordnance's_ propeller--a good moving
+mark, that, though faint, draws the eye by the lead of broken water.
+Nearer, we have a steering-guide in her hydroplane, cutting and dancing
+under the bows and throwing a sightly feather of spray. The sea is flat
+calm, save for our leader's wake--a broad ribbon of troubled water
+through which we steer. Our eyes, now limited in range by the fog, seem
+to focus readily on trifles; for want of major objects, roving glances
+take in driftwood and ship-litter, and turn on minute patches of seaweed
+with an interest that a wider range would dissipate. Spurring,
+black-crested puffins come at us from under the misty pall, floating
+still, as if set in glass, till our bow wash plays out and sets them,
+squawking in distress, to an ungainly splutter on the surface, or
+dipping swiftly to show white under-feathers and the widening rings of
+their dive.
+
+Astern of us, a medley of sound and steering-signals marks the gateway
+of the harbour where our followers are striving to drop their pilots and
+join in convoy; one loud trumpeter is drawing up at speed and showing,
+by the frequency of her whistle-blasts, anxiety to sight our wake. The
+lighthouse syren roars a warning of shoal-water out on the landward
+beam, a raucous discord of two weird notes. These, with the rare
+mournful wail of our leader, are our guiding sounds, but we have sight
+now and then of the destroyer escort passing and turning mistily on the
+rim of our narrowed vision, like swift sheep-dogs folding the stragglers
+of a scattered flock.
+
+The fog, that settled dense and deep as we got under way, shows a little
+sign and promise of thinning, a small portent that draws our eyes to the
+lift above the funnel. There is no wind, but our smoke-wrack, after
+curving with our speed to masthead height, seems turned by light upper
+draughts to the eastward. The sun has risen and peers mistily over the
+top of the grey curtain that surrounds us. The day is warming up. Pray
+fortune, a stout west wind may come out of it all, to clear the muck and
+give us one good honest look at one another, when we are due for that
+'six-point' turn to the south'ard!
+
+To keep in station on our pacemaker, we call for constant alterations in
+the speed--a range of revolutions that rattles up scale and down, like
+first lessons on the piano, and sets the engineers below to a plaintive
+verge of tears. The junior officer at the voice-pipe looks reflective,
+after each order he passes, as though comparing the quality of the reply
+with the last sulphurous rejoinder. The fog has added to our starting
+vagaries and postponed a happy understanding, but we shall do better
+later on when we have gauged and discovered--and pitied--the tiresome
+vacillations of the _other_ ships!
+
+Meantime, as best we can, we chase the sheering hydroplane ahead that
+seems endowed with every chameleon gift of the classic gods. It
+vanishes, invisible, in a drift of fog, and though we con a course as
+steady as a cat on eggs, a clearing comes to show us its white feather
+broad on the bows and edging off at an angle to dip under the thick of
+the mist! It drops down to us; we sheer aside and slow a pace, and it
+lingers and dallies sportively abeam. It slips suddenly ahead, with a
+rush and a rip, as though, like a child among the daisies, it recalls a
+parent in advance.
+
+The trumpeter astern has come up and sighted our wake and fog-buoy, and
+the clamour of her questing syren is stilled. She looms up close on our
+quarter, a huge menacing bulk of sheering steel with the foam thundering
+under her bows and curling and shattering on her grey hull. _They_ have
+great difficulty in adjusting to our speed. She slows and fades back
+into the mist, grows again from gloomy shadow to threatening detail,
+steadies at a point for a few minutes, and resumes the round of her
+previous motions in irritating cycle. "Whatever can be the matter with
+them?" (We take the stout point of a position as steady as the Rock, and
+grow scornful of their clumsy efforts to keep station.) "_Huh!_ These
+gold-laced London men! Why can't they steady up a bit? Why can't
+they----" We note that our steering-mark and the wash of _War
+Ordnance's_ propeller are no longer in sight ahead, and set in to count
+the beats of the screw. ". . . t'-one, t'-two, t'-three, t'-- _Hell!_
+Didn't we order seventy? Go full speed!" Jumping to the tube, the junior
+attends. "_I_ said seven-owe, sir, but he thought I said six-four! Says
+th' bl--, th' engines working, sir--can't hear properly!"
+
+Grudgingly, as though loath to give us our sight again, the fog clears.
+The first of the tantalizing rift in the curtain is signalled by the
+high look-out, who calls that he can see the topmasts of our near
+neighbours piercing the low-lying vapours. The sun shines through,
+showing now and then a clear-cut limb in place of the luminous misshapen
+brightening that has been with us since sunrise. In fits and starts the
+fog thins, and thickens again, at the will of wandering airs.
+
+A west wind comes away, freshens, and stirs the vapour till it whips
+close overhead in wraiths and streamers, raises here and there a fold on
+the distant horizon, then dies again. Growing in vigour, the breeze
+returns; a gallant breath that ruffles the smooth of the sea and sweeps
+the round of it, routing the lingering flurries that settle, dust-like,
+when the mass is cleared.
+
+The clearing of our outlook produces a curious confusion to the eye. We
+have become accustomed to a limited range in sight, and the sudden
+change to distant vision, in which there is no standard of position, no
+mark to judge by, effects an illusion as of a photographer's plate
+developing. Fragments, wisps, and sections of the sea-rim appear,
+breaking through as the fog lifts, and seeming strangely high and
+foreign in position. Topmasts and a funnel-wreath of black smoke loom up
+almost in mid-air; the water-line of a ship's hull grows to sight, low
+in the plane as though dangerously close. Distant, obscure, and blurred
+formations sharpen suddenly to detail and show our destroyer escort as
+almost suspended in mirage, floating in air. Piece by piece, the plate
+develops in sensible gradation, fitting and joining with exactitude; the
+ships ahead take up their true proportions, the sea-horizon runs to a
+definite hard line. Mast and funnel and spar stand out against the piled
+and shattered fog-bank, whose rear-guard lingers, sinking but slowly and
+sullenly, on the rim of the eastern horizon.
+
+The fog cleared, and a busy seascape in sight, we shake ourselves
+together and take heed of appearances. Our convoy signal hangs damp and
+twisted on the halyards, and needs to be cleared to blow out for
+recognition; the mirrored arc-lamp that we turned astern to aid the
+trumpeter is switched out. With the fog-buoy we are less urgent; it will
+be time enough to haul it aboard when we are assured the new-born breeze
+is healthy and likely to remain with us. The press of work about the
+decks has lessened with the hawsers and docking gear stowed away.
+Sea-trim is the order now--a war sea-trim, in which the boats, swung
+outboard and ready for instant use, rafts tilted to a launching angle,
+hoses rigged to lead water, and crew at the guns, form a constant
+reminder (if that be needed) of lurking under-water peril. In marked
+contrast to less exciting days, when we could afford to disregard
+whatever might go on behind us, we place look-outs to face all ways. The
+enemy may gamble on our occupation with the view ahead, but, with a new
+war wariness, we have grown eyes to search the sea astern.
+
+In the clearing weather we become sensitive to the strict and proper
+reading of our sailing orders. There must be no more faults in the
+voice-tube to let us down from confidence in our right to a sudden
+sense of guilt. We adjust our station in the line by sextant angles of
+the leader, measuring his height to fractions, and set an ear to the
+note of our engine-beats to ensure a steady gait.
+
+Clearing our motes, we turn a purged and critical eye on our fellows,
+now all clear of the mist, and steaming in sight. To far astern, where
+the land lies and the sun plays on wet roof and flashing window-pane, a
+long line of ships snakes out in procession, their smoke blowing and
+curling merrily alee to join the cumulus of the foundering fog-banks.
+There are gaps and kinks in our formation that would, perhaps, call for
+angry signals in a line of battle, but the laggards are closing up in
+hasty order to right the wayward tricks of sound and distance in the
+fog. If not quite ruled and ordered to figures of our text, at least we
+conform to the spirit, and are all at sea together, steering out on our
+ventures.
+
+Our distance run, _British Standard_ puts her helm over and turns out.
+Forewarned, all eyes have been focused on the line of her masts, and her
+sheer gives signal for a general cut and shuffle. We change partners.
+Curtsying to full rudder pressure, we join the dance, and swing to her
+measure, adjusting speed to mark time while other important leaders of
+columns draw up abeam. The flat bright sea is cut and curved by
+thrashing wakes as the convoy turns south. Ahead and abeam, round and
+about, the destroyers wheel and turn, fan in graceful formation and
+swerve quickly on their patrolling courses.
+
+We are less expert in the figures of our cotillion. It cannot be
+pretended that we slip into our convoy stations with anything
+approaching their speed and precision. We are too varied in our types,
+in turning periods, in the range of our dead-weight, to manoeuvre
+alike. Most of us have but a slender margin of speed to draw on, and,
+'all bound the same way,' the spurt to an assigned position proves the
+stern a long chase. The fog, at starting, has thrown many of us out of
+our proper turn, and we zigzag, unofficially, this way and that, to gain
+our stations without reduction of speed. In the confusion to our surface
+eyes, there is this consoling thought--that the same perplexing
+evolutions (calling for frequent appeals to the high gods for
+enlightenment as to the 'capers' of the _other_ fellows) have, at least,
+no better meaning in the reflected angles of a periscope.
+
+Now the hum and drone that has puzzled us in the fog reveals itself as
+the note of a covey of seaplanes searching the waters ahead. They have
+come out at first sign of a clearing, and now fly low, trimming and
+banking in their flight like gannets at the fishing. A winking electric
+helio on one of them spits out a message to the leader of the
+destroyers, and she flashes answer and acknowledgment as readily as
+though the seaplane were a sister craft. A huge coastal airship thunders
+out across the land to join our forces. She grows to the eye as though
+expanding visibly, and noses down to almost masthead height in a sharp
+and steady-governed decline; abeam, she turns broad on, manoeuvring
+with ease and grace, and the sunlight on her silvered sides glints and
+sparkles purely, as though to shame the motley camouflage of the ships
+below.
+
+The commodore poises the baton as his ship draws up to her station. Till
+now we have steamed and steered 'in execution of previous orders' and,
+considering the dense fog and the press of ships at the anchorage and
+pilot-grounds, we have not been idle or neglectful. Now we are in sea
+order, and, with the ships closing up in formation, we attend our senior
+officer's signals as to course and speed. A string of flags goes up,
+fluttering to the yard of his ship, and we fret at the clumsy fingers
+that cannot get a similar hoist as quickly to ours. Anon, on all the
+ships, a gay setting of flags repeats the message, and we stand by to
+take measure and sheer of a tricky zigzag, at tap of the baton.
+
+The line of colour droops and fades quickly to the signalman's
+gathering; the convoy turns and swings into the silver-foil of the
+sun-ray.
+
+[Illustration: INWARD BOUND]
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+THE NORTH RIVER
+
+
+THE broad surface of the Hudson is scored by passage of craft of all
+trades and industries. Tugs and barges crowd the waterway in unending
+succession, threading their courses in a maze of harbour traffic;
+high-sided ferry-boats surge out from their slips and angle across the
+tide--crab-wise--towards the New Jersey shore; laden ocean steamers hold
+to the deeps of the fairway on their passage to the sea. Up stream and
+down, back and across, sheering in to the piers and wharves, the harbour
+traffic seems constantly to be scourged and hurried by the lash of an
+unseen taskmaster. The swift outrunning current adds a movement to the
+busy plying of the small craft--a hastening sweep to their progress,
+that suggests a driving power below the yellow tide. The stir of it! The
+thrash of screw and lapping of discoloured water, the shriek of
+impatient whistle-blasts, the thunder of escaping steam!
+
+As we approach from seaward, there is need for caution. The railway
+tugmen--who live by claims for damages from ocean steamers--are alert
+and determined that we shall not pass without a suitable parting of
+their hawsers, damage to barges, strain to engines and towing
+appliances. Off the Battery, they sidle to us in coy appeal, but we
+carry bare steerageway. As the pilot says: "Thar ain't nothin' doin'!"
+We disengage their ardent approach, and make a slow progress against the
+tide to our loading-berth. There, we drop in towards the pier-head and
+angle our bows alongside the guarding fenders. A flotilla of panting
+tugboats takes up station on our inshore side and 'punches' into
+us--head on--to shove our stern round against the full pressure of the
+strong ebb tide. The little vessels seem absurdly small for their task.
+They 'gittagoin',' as instructed by the pilot, and wake the dockside
+echoes with the strain of their energy. White steam spurts from the
+exhausts with every thrust of their power. The ferry-boats turning in to
+their slips come through the run of a combined stern wash that sets them
+on the boarding with a heavy impact. Power tells. Our stern wavers, then
+we commence to bear up-stream in a perceptible measure. The Hudson
+throws a curl of eddying water to bar our progress, but we pass
+up--marking our progress by the water-side of the west shore. Anon, the
+thunder of the tugs' pulsations eases, then stops: they back away, turn,
+and speed off on a quest for other employment--while we move ahead, out
+of the run of the tide, and make fast at the pier.
+
+Our ship is keenly in demand. The dockers are there, ready with gear and
+tackle to board and commence work. The wharf superintendent hails us
+from the dockside before the warps are fast. He is anxious to know the
+amount of ballast coal to be shifted from the holds before he can
+commence loading. "Toosday morning, capt'n," he adds, as reason for his
+anxiety--"Toosday morning--an' she's gotta go!" Tuesday, eh! And this is
+Saturday morning! They will have to hustle to do it.
+
+[Illustration: A TRANSPORT LOADING]
+
+'Hustle'--as once he told us--is the superintendent's maiden name.
+Already the narrow water-space between us and our neighbour is jammed
+tight by laden barges, brought in to await our coming. Billets of steel,
+rough-cast shells, copper ingots, bars of lead and zinc are piled ready
+for acceptance. The shed on our inshore tide is packed by lighter and
+more perishable cargo, all standing to hand for shipment. Preparation
+for our rapid dispatch is manifest and complete. Before the pilot is off
+the ship with his docket signed, the blocks of our derricks are rattling
+and the stevedores are setting up their gear for an immediate start.
+Barred, on the sea-passage, from communication by wireless, we have been
+unable to give a timely advice of our condition to the dock. The factor
+of the coal to be shifted--till now unknown to them--is the first of
+many difficulties. We have no cargo to discharge (having crossed in
+ballast trim), but--the storms of the North Atlantic calling for a
+weight to make us seaworthy--we have a lading of coal sufficient to
+steam us back to our home port. This has all to be raised from the holds
+and stowed in the bunker spaces: the holds must be cleaned for
+food-stuffs: for grain in bulk there is carpenter-work in fitting the
+midship boards to ensure that our cargo shall not shift. Tuesday morning
+seems absurdly near!
+
+With a thud and jar to clear the stiffening of a voyage's inaction, our
+deck winches start in to their long heave that shall only end with the
+closing of the hatches on a laden cargo. The barges haul alongside at
+the holds that are ready for stowage and loading begins. The slings of
+heavy billets pass regularly across the deck and disappear into the void
+of the open hatchways. In the swing and steady progression there seems
+an assurance that we shall keep the sailing date, but our energy is
+measured by the capacity of the larger holds. In them there is the bulk
+of fuel to be handled. The superintendent concentrates the efforts of
+his gangs on this main issue: the loading of the smaller compartments is
+only useful in relieving the congestion of the barges overside.
+
+Under his direction the coalmen set to work at their hoists and stages
+and soon have the baskets swinging with loads from the open hatchways.
+The coal thunders down the chutes to the waiting barges, and raises a
+smother of choking dust. The language of South Italy rings out in the
+din and clatter. "Veera, veera," roars the stageman (not knowing that he
+is passing an ancient order on a British ship). It is a fine start.
+Antonio and Pasquali and their mates are fresh: they curse and praise
+one another alternately and impartially: they seem in a fair way to earn
+their tonnage bonus by having the holds cleared before the morning.
+
+It is almost like an engagement in arms. Good leadership is needed.
+There are grades and classes in the army of dockers; groups as clearly
+specialized in their work as the varied units that form an army corps.
+Italian labourers handle the coal; coloured men are employed for the
+heavy and rough cargo work; the Irish are set to fine stowage. There is
+little infringement of the others' work. Artillery and infantry are not
+more set apart in their special duties than the grades of the dockers.
+Certainly there is a rivalry between the coloured men and the Irish--the
+line that divides the cargo is perhaps lightly drawn. "Hey! You nigger!
+You gitta hell out o' this," says Mike. The coloured man bides his time.
+The thunder of the winches pauses for an instant--he shouts down the
+hatchway: "Mike! Ho, Mike!" An answering bellow sounds from below. "Ah
+say, Mike! When yo' gwine back hom' t' fight fo' King Gawge?"
+
+Sunday morning, the 'macaroni' gangs knock off work for a term. The
+holds are cleared, but our fuel has again to be hove up from the barges
+and stowed in the bunkers. That can be done while loading is in
+progress. Meantime--red-eyed and exhausted--the coalmen troop ashore and
+leave the ship to one solitary hour of Sunday quiet. At seven the
+turmoil of what the superintendent calls a 'fair start' begins.
+Overnight a floating-tower barge for grain elevation has joined the
+waiting list of our attendant lighters. She warps alongside and turns
+her long-beaked delivery-pipes on board; yellow grain pours through and
+spreads evenly over the floor-space of our gaping holds. Fore and aft we
+break into a full measure of activity. The loading of the cargo is not
+our only preparation for the voyage. The fittings of the 'tween-decks,
+thrown about in disorder by the coal-gangs, have to be reconstructed and
+the decks made ready for troops. Cleaning and refitting operations go on
+in the confusion of cargo work: conflicting interests have to be
+reconciled--the more important issues expedited--the fret of interfering
+actions turned to other channels. At the shore end of the gangways there
+is riot among the workers. Stores and provisions are delivered by the
+truckmen with an utter disregard for any convenience but their own. The
+narrow roadway through the shed is blocked and jammed by horse and motor
+wagons that, their load delivered, can find no way of egress. Cargo work
+on the quayside comes to a halt for want of service. The dockers roar
+abuse at the truckmen, the truckmen--in intervals of argument with their
+fellows--return the dockers' obloquy with added embellishment. The
+'house-that-Jack-built' situation is cleared by the harassed
+pier-foreman. The shed gates are drawn across: outside the waiting
+charioteers stand by, their line extended to a block on the Twenty-Third
+Street cars.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The roar and thrust and rattle of the straining winches ceases on Monday
+evening. We are fully stowed: even our double-bottom tanks--intended for
+water-ballast alone--carry a load of fuel oil to help out the
+difficulties of transport. The superintendent goes around with his chest
+thrown out and draws our attention to the state of affairs--the ship
+drawing but eighteen inches short of her maximum draught, and the
+'tween-decks cleared and fitted. "Fifty-four working hours, capt'n," he
+says proudly. It is no mean work!
+
+The silence of the ship, after the din and uproar of our busy week-end,
+seems uncanny. The dock is cleared of all our attendant craft, and the
+still backwater is markedly in contrast to the churned and troubled
+basin that we had known. From outside the dock a distant subdued murmur
+of traffic on the streets comes to us. Cross-river ferries cant into a
+neighbouring slip, and the glow of their brilliant lights sets a
+reflection on the high facades of the water-front buildings. Overhead,
+the sky is alight with the warm irradiance of the great city. Ship-life
+has become quiescent since the seamen bundled and put away their gear
+after washing decks. Only the dynamos purr steadily, and an occasional
+tattoo on the stokehold plates tells of the firemen on duty to raise
+steam. In the unfamiliar quiet of the night and absence of movement in
+the dock there is countenance to a mood of expectancy. It seems
+unreasonable that we should so lie idle after the past days of strenuous
+exertion in preparing for sea. The flood in the North River, dancing
+under the waterside lights, invites us out to begin the homeward voyage.
+Why wait?
+
+We are not yet ready. In our lading we have store of necessities to
+carry across the sea. Food, munitions and furniture of war, copper,
+arms, are packed tightly in the holds: power-fuel for our warships lies
+in our tanks. There is still a further burthen to be embarked--we wait a
+cargo of clear-headed, strong-limbed, young citizens bound east to bear
+arms in the Crusade.
+
+They come after midnight. There are no shouts and hurrahs and
+flag-waving. A high ferry-boat crosses from the west shore and cants
+into the berth alongside of us. The dock shed, now clear of goods, is
+used for a final muster. Encumbered by their heavy packs, they line out
+to the gangways and march purposely on board. The high-strung mimicry of
+jest and light heart that one would have looked for is absent. There is
+no boyish call and counter-call to cloak the tension of the moment.
+Stolidly they hitch their burdens to an easier posture, say '_yep_' to
+the call of their company officer, and embark.
+
+The troops on board, we lose no time in getting under way. Orders are
+definite that we should pass through the booms of the Narrows at
+daybreak, and join convoy in the Lower Bay with the utmost dispatch. We
+back out into the North River, turn to meet the flood-tide, and steer
+past the high crown of Manhattan.
+
+[Illustration: A CONVOY IN THE ATLANTIC]
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+HOMEWARDS
+
+
+THE ARGONAUTS
+
+THE boat guard (one post, section A) stir and grow restive as the hour
+of their relief draws on. Till now they have accepted wet quarters, the
+reeling ship, black dark night with fierce squalls of rain and sleet, as
+all a part of the unalterable purgatory of an oversea voyage. With a
+prospect of an end to two hours' spell of acute discomfort, of hot
+'kawfee,' dry clothes, and a snug warm bunk, their spirits rise, and
+they show some liveliness. Muffled to the ear-tips in woollens and heavy
+sodden greatcoats, their rifles slung awkwardly across the bulge of
+ill-fitting cork life-belts, they shift in lumbering movement from foot
+to foot, or pace--two steps and a turn--between the boat-chocks of their
+post. A thunder of shattering salt spray lashes over from break of a sea
+on the foredeck, and they dodge and dive for such poor shelter as the
+wing of the bridge affords.
+
+Scraps of their protest to the fates carry to our post in breaks of the
+wind "Aw, you guys! Say! Wisha was back 'n li'l old N'yok, ringin' th'
+dial 'n a Twanny-Thoid Street car!" "Whaddya mean--a Scotch highball?
+Gee! I gotta thoist f'r all th' wet we soak!" "Bettcha Heinie's goin'a
+pay _me_ cents an' dallers f'r this!" ". . . an' a job claenin' me
+roifle. . . . th' sargint, be damn but, he . . . ."
+
+"Cut it! Less talk 'round there!" orders their duty officer from
+somewhere in the darkness; the talk ceases, though stamp and bustle of
+expectant relief persist, and we are recalled to survey and reflection
+on the gloom ahead.
+
+Midnight now, and no sign of a change! Anxiously we scan sea and sky for
+hope or a promise--not a token! A squall of driving sleet has passed
+over, and has left the outlook moderately clear, but a quick-rising bank
+of hard clouds in the nor'east threatens another, and a heavier, by the
+look, soon to follow. A moonless night, not a star shines through the
+sullen upper clouds to mark even a flying break in the lift of it. A
+hopeless turn for midnight, showing no relief, no prospect!
+
+Ahead, the dark bulk of our column leader sways and thrashes through the
+spiteful easterly sea, throwing the wash broad out and taking the spray
+high over bow and funnel. In turn, we lurch and drive at the same sea
+that has stirred her, and find it with strength enough to lash over and
+fill the fore-deck abrim. Weighed down forward, we throw our stern high,
+and the mad propeller thrashes in air, jarring every bolt and rivet in
+her. We cant to windward, joggling in an uneasy lurch, then throw
+swiftly on a sudden list that frees the decks of the encumbering water.
+We ease a pace or two as the propeller finds solid sea to churn, steady,
+then gather way to meet the next green wall. With it the squall breaks
+and lashes furiously over us, driving the icy slants of hard sleet to
+our face, cutting at our eyes in vicious persistence. Joined to the
+wind-burst, a heavy sea shatters on fore-end of the bridge, and ring of
+the steel bulkhead sounds in with the crash of broken water that floods
+on us.
+
+In this succession the day and half the night have passed. No 'let-up'
+in the round of it. Furious wind-bursts marking time on the face of a
+steady gale. Rain--and now sleet. Sleet! Who ever heard of icy sleet in
+North Atlantic, this time of the year? Gad! Every cursed thing seems to
+weigh in against us on this voyage! The weather seems in league with the
+enemy to baulk our passage. Every cursed thing! Head winds and heavy
+seas all the way. Fog! These horse transports having to heave-to, and
+forcing the rest of the convoy to head up and mark their damned time!
+And now this, just when we were looking for a 'slant' to make the land!
+Maddening!
+
+The bridge is astir with the change of the watch. A fine job they make
+of it! Like a burst of damned schoolboys! Oilskin-clad clumsy ruffians
+barging up the ladders, trampling and stumbling in their heavy
+sea-boots, across and about, peering to find their mates! Are they all
+blind? Why can't they arrange set posts for eight bells? Why can't they
+look where--"Th' light, damn you! Dowse that light! _Huh!_ Some blasted
+idiot foul of that binnacle-screen again! Th' way things are done on
+this ship! Egad! Would think we were safe in th' Ship Canal, instead of
+dodging submar----" A slat of driving spray cuts over and we dip quickly
+under edge of the weather-screen.
+
+The second officer arrives to stand his watch, and the Third, who goes
+below, is as damnably cheerful and annoying as the other is dour.
+"North, --ty-four east, th' course. She's turning seven-six just now,
+but you'll have to reduce shortly--drawing up on our next ahead.
+Seven-three or four sh'd keep her in station. _Neleus_ ahead there, two
+cables. Rotten weather all th' watch. Squalls, my hat! There's another
+big 'un making up now! Th' Old Man over there--like a bear with a
+sore--raisin' hell 'bout----"
+
+"Oh, a--ll right! Needn't make a song and dance of it! North, --ty-four
+east? Right!" Picking up binoculars, the Second scans the black of it
+ahead, as though now definitely set for business.
+
+The watch is taken over and all seems settled, but the Third is not yet
+completely happy. He gloats a while over the Second's gloomy outlook,
+and yawns in that irritating _arpeggio_, the foretaste of a good sound
+sleep. "Oh, d'ya read in orders 'bout th' zigzag for th' morning
+watch?--a new stunt, fours and sixes; start in at----"
+
+"Oh, g'rr out! How can a man keep a watch, you chewin' th' rag? Yes,
+I--read--the orders!" _S-snap!_
+
+"_Huh!_ A pair of them!" It comes to us that something will have to be
+said about the way the damned bridge is relieved in this ship!
+
+Into the chart-room, to fumble awkwardly for light ('_T'tt!_ That switch
+out of order again!') and search for a portent in the jeering glassy
+face of the aneroid. _Tip, tip, whap!_ The cursed thing is falling
+still. 'Twenty-nine owe two--half an inch since ten o'clock! Whatever
+can be behind all this? That damn glass was never right, anyway!'
+
+[Illustration: THE BOWS OF THE _KASHMIR_ DAMAGED BY COLLISION]
+
+Drumming of the wireless-cabin telephone sounds out, and we listen to a
+brief account of Poldhu's war warning. An S.O.S. has been heard, but a
+shore station has accepted it. (They can identify the ship--might be the
+harping of a Fritz.) There is a long code message through, and the
+quartermaster brings it--a jumble of helplessly ugly consonants that
+looks as though the German Fleet, at last, is out--but resolves (after a
+wearisome cryptic wrestle) to back-chat that has little of interest for
+us. Poldhu has the reports of the day--mines and derelicts, wreckage,
+the patrols, and enemy submarines in the channels. Chart work for a
+while. The wrecks and the derelicts are figured and placed, and we dally
+with the subs, plotting and measuring to find a clue to their movements.
+'Fifteen hours at six, and ten to come or go! _Mmm!_ That 'll be the
+same swine working to the nor'east. Hope he makes a good course into the
+minefield! This one is solo--and that! A ghastly bunch, anyway!' We
+project a line of our course, but hesitate at position. 'Not one decent
+observation in the last three days. Only a muggy guess at a horizon.
+Dead-reckoning? Of course, there is our dead-reckoning, but--but--wonder
+where the commodore got his position from? Must have added on th' day of
+th' month, or fingers and toes or something! Damned if we can see how,
+at twelve knots, we could be where----'
+
+The outspread chart, glaring white under the electric light, with a maze
+of heights and soundings, grows strangely indistinct, and it calls for
+an effort to set the counts and figures in their places. We realize that
+wandering thought and a warm chart-room are not the combination for
+wakefulness. So, on deck again, to steady up at the doorway and wonder
+why the night has become suddenly as hellish black as the pit!
+
+The second officer has found his composure at the bottom of a cup of
+steaming coffee, and seems mildly astonished that we are unable to pick
+up _Neleus_ in the darkness ahead. "Quite plain, sir, when these squalls
+pass. A bit murky while they blow over, but--see her clear enough, sir.
+Reduced two revolutions, and keeping good station on her at that!"
+Somewhat slowly (for we have been afoot since six yesterday morning) our
+eyes focus to the gloom and line out the sea and sky in their shaded
+proportions. _Neleus_ grows out of the sombre opacous curtain--a
+definite guide with the sea breaking white in her wake. Dark patches of
+smoke-wrack, around and about, mark bearings on the sea-line where our
+sisters of the convoy are forging through. The next astern has dropped
+badly in cleaning fires, and is now throwing a whirl of green smoke in
+the effort to regain her station. The sea seems to have lessened since
+last we viewed it. Our hot coffee may have had effect in producing a
+more impressionable frame of mind, but certainly the weather is no
+worse. The rain and sleet have beaten out a measure of the toppling
+sea-crests. We see the forecastle-head, black and upstanding, for longer
+periods, and only broken spray flies over, where, but a little ago, were
+green whelming seas. A sign of modest content comes from the boat-deck,
+where the guards are humming, "_Over there, over there, over there! Th'
+Yanks are coming!_"
+
+The duty officer (troops) comes to us to pass the time of the morning.
+He salutes with punctilio. (He has not yet learned that we are only a
+damn civilian, camouflaged, and not entitled to such respect.) It is
+reported to him that one of the ship's boats had been badly damaged by a
+sea during the night. "In event of--of an accident, is it in orders that
+the troops allocated [his word] to that boat shall not go in any other?"
+
+Good lad! For all that darkness and the gale, he looks very fine and
+bold, standing stiffly, if somewhat unsteadily, demanding detail of the
+Birkenhead Drill! We assure him that there will be no immediate need for
+regrouping the men, that measures have already been taken to repair the
+damaged planking, that half an hour of daylight will serve us--and turn
+the talk to less disquieting affairs. He is very keen. Till now he has
+never been farther out to sea than the Iron Steamboat Company would take
+him--to Coney Island or the more subdued delights of the Hook. A
+New-Yorker, he tempers quite natural vaunts to be the more in keeping
+with the great and impending trial that awaits. For all that, he is
+gravely concerned that we should recognize his men as good and
+true--"the best ever, yessa!" With a good experience of their conduct,
+under trying conditions, we assent.
+
+". . . They kin number us up all they wanna, but we're the--th N' Yok
+National Guard--a right good team! Down there on th' Mexican barder, we
+sure got trimmed, good and planny! Hot! My! Saay, cap'n, I guess-- Ah
+well, a' course you've been through some heat, too--but it was sure some
+warm hell down there! Yes--sir!" A bright lad!
+
+His words recall to us a windy afternoon on Fifth Avenue, in the days
+when our Uncle Sam was dispassionate and neutral. Flags whipping noisily
+in the high breeze, the crowds, the bands, and the long khaki column in
+fours winding towards the North River ferries to embark for Mexico, on a
+task that called for inhuman restraint. Newsboys were shouting aloud the
+peril of Verdun, and the thought came to us then--"Will that stream of
+manhood ever march east?" And now, under our feet and in our charge,
+fourteen hundred--"the best ever, yessa!"--are bound east by every
+thrust of the screw, and out on the heaving waste of water around us are
+fifteen thousand more; and the source is sure, and the stream, as yet,
+is but trickling.
+
+
+ON OCEAN PASSAGE
+
+THE weather has certainly moderated. In but an hour the sea has gone
+down considerably. There is no longer height enough in the tumble of it
+to throw us about like a Deal lugger. We steam on a more even keel; the
+jar and racket of the racing propeller has altered to a steady rhythmic
+pulse-beat that thrusts our length steadily through the water. At times
+the rain lashes over and shuts out sight of our neighbours, but we have
+opportunity to regulate our station in the lengthening intervals between
+the squalls. Improvement in the wind and sea has brought our somewhat
+scattered fleet into better and closer order. The rear horse-transports
+have come up astern and seem to have got over the steering difficulties
+that their high topsides and small rudder-immersion effected in the
+heavier sea. Only the barometer shows no inclination to move, in keeping
+with the better conditions--the rain, perhaps, is keeping the mercury
+low.
+
+It seems plain sailing for a while. The Second can look out for her; no
+use having too many good men on the bridge. We are only in the way out
+here, stamping and turning on the wet foot-spars, or throwing bowlines
+in the 'dodger' stops to pass the night. Four bells--two a.m.--the time
+goes slowly! We are somewhat footsore. Perhaps, sea-boots off, a seat
+for a minute or two in the chart-room may ease our limbs for the long
+day that lies before us.
+
+A long day, and the best part of another long day before we reach port!
+A wearisome stretch of it! We ought to have some system of relief. Why
+not? Why not take a relief? The chief officer is as good a man as the
+master. Why not let him run the bus for a spell? Oh, just--just--just a
+rotten way we have of doing! In the Navy they make no bones about
+turning over to their juniors; why should we make it so hard for our--
+"_Says it is hazy, sir! Told me to let you know he hasn't seen any of
+the ships for over an hour!_"
+
+Whatever is the man talking about! "_Ships?_" What ships? "_An hour?_"
+
+The quartermaster, in storm-rig of dripping oilskin, stands sheepish in
+the doorway. "Aff-past-three, sir," he says.
+
+"_Htt!_" In drowsy mood we don oilskin and sea-boots. Overhead the rain
+is drumming, heavy and persistent, on the deck. A glance at the
+barometer shows an upward spring. _Tip, tip, tip_--a good glass, that!
+Well-balanced! The Second is apologetic, almost as though his was the
+hand that had accidentally turned the tap. "Been like this for over an
+hour, sir! Was always hoping it would pass off, but there has been no
+sign of clearing. Would have called you sooner, but thought it would
+lift. I've kept her steady at average revolutions for the last eight
+hours' run--seven-three. Haven't seen a thing since shortly after you
+went below." A query brings answer that the fog-buoy has been streamed
+and gun's crew cautioned to a sharp look-out astern. Not that there is
+great need; our sailing experience has been that A---- will drop astern
+when 'the gas is turned down!'
+
+The wind has fallen and has hauled to south. It is black dark, with a
+heavy continuous downpour of rain. The air is milder, and the sea around
+has a glow of luminous milky patches. So, it is to be southerly
+weatherly for making the land! It might be worse! At least, this thrash
+of heavy rain will 'batten hatches' on a rise of the sea, and make a
+good parade-ground for our destroyer escort when they join company. We
+should be able to shove along at better speed when daylight comes. The
+mist or the haze or whatever combination it may be, is puzzling. From
+the outlook it is not easy to gauge the range of our vision. Near us the
+wash from our bows is sharply defined by phosphorescence in the broken
+water, a white scum churns and curls alongside, brightening suddenly in
+patches as though our passage had set spark to the fringe. Outboard the
+open sea merges away into the gloomy sky with no horizon, no ruling of a
+division. We seem to be steaming into a vertical face of vapour. There
+is no sound from the ships around us, not a light glimmers in the
+darkness. The eerie atmosphere through which we pass has effect on the
+night-life of the ship. On deck there is an inclination to move quietly,
+to preserve a silence in keeping with the weird spell that seems to
+environ us. There is no longer chatter and small talk among the duty
+troops; they sit about, huddled in glistening _ponchos_, peering out at
+the ghostly glow on the water. From far down in the bowels of the ship
+the rattle of a stoker's shovel on the plates rings out in startling
+clamour, and rouses an instant desire to suppress the jarring note. It
+seems impossible that there can be ships in our company--vessels moving
+with us through mystic seas. We peer around, on all the bearings, but
+see nothing on our encircling wall. Smell? We nose at the air, seeking a
+waft of coal-smoke, but the rain is beating straight down, basting the
+funnel-wraiths on the flat of the sea.
+
+An average of eight hours' steaming, seven-three revolutions, may be no
+good guide, considering the racing and the plunging we have gone
+through. In proper station we ought to see the loom of _Neleus_ ahead,
+or, at least, the wash of her fog-buoy. It is important that we should
+be in good touch at daybreak. We go full speed for a turn or two and
+post an officer in the bows to scan for our leader.
+
+New and vexing problems come at us as time draws on. We are due to start
+a zigzag, 'in execution of previous orders,' before the day breaks. We
+see a royal 'hurrah's nest'--a rough house--before us if we lay off
+without a proper sight of our fellows. So far there has come no negative
+to our orders; we are somewhat concerned. A message cannot have been
+missed, surely! "Nothing through yet, sir," is the wakeful assurance
+from the wireless operator. "X's fierce with this rain, but should get
+any near message all right."
+
+At eight bells we come in sight of one unit of the convoy. She shows
+up, broad off on our lee bow, in a position we had hardly looked for.
+There is little to see. A darkling patch, a blurred shadow, in the face
+of sea and sky, with a luminous curl of broken water astern. We cannot
+identify her in the darkness; flashing signals are barred in the
+submarine areas; we must wait daylight for recognition. She should be
+_Neleus_, but a hair-line on our steering-card may have brought us to
+the leader of the outside column. In any case we are in touch, and it is
+with some relief we ease speed to a close approximation of hers. Anon,
+our anxiety about the zigzag is dispelled by a message from the
+commodore, cancelling former orders. He has sat tight on it to nearly
+the last minute, hoping for a clearance.
+
+[Illustration: THE MAYFLOWER QUAY, THE BARBICAN, PLYMOUTH]
+
+With the coming of the chief officer's watch we feel that the 'day' is
+beginning. Twelve to four are unholy hours that belong to no proper
+order of our reckoning. They are past the night, and have no kinship
+with the day: bitter, tedious, helpless spaces of time that ought only
+to be passed in slumber and oblivion. By five, and the lift greying,
+there is something in the movement about the decks that suggests an
+awakening of the ship to busy life and action, after the sullen torpor
+of an uneasy night. The troop 'fatigue men' turn out to their duties,
+and traffic to the cooking-galleys goes on, even under the unceasing
+downpour that falls on us. The guard get busy on their rounds,
+challenging the men as they step out of the companionways, to show their
+life-belts in order and properly adjusted. Complaint and discussion are
+frequent, but the guard are firm in their insistence. "I should worry!"
+is the strange request, appeal, exhortation, demand, reply, aside, that
+punctuates each meeting on the decks below. In nowise influenced by the
+sinister import of the questioning, the duty troops on the boat-deck
+waken up. The spirit of matutinal expression descends on them, despite
+the rain, and they whistle cheerful 'harmonic discords,' till barked to
+silence by Sergeant 'Jawn.'
+
+The watch on deck trail hoses and deck-scrubbers from the racks and set
+about preparations for washing down, bent earnestly on their standard
+rites though the heavens fall! The carpenter and his mate are assembling
+their gear and tools, awaiting better daylight to get on with their
+repairs to the damaged lifeboats. On the bridge we seem congested. Extra
+'day' look-outs obstruct our confined gangways and the bulk of their
+weather harness, plus life-belts and megaphones, restricts a ready
+movement. In preparation for busy daylight, the signalmen put out their
+bunting on the lettered hooks, and ease off the halyards that are set
+'bar-tight' by the soaking rain. There is, withal, an air of freshness
+in the morning bustle that comes in company with the dawn.
+
+With gloom sufficient for our signal needs (and light enough for
+protection) we flash a message to our consort. She is _Neleus_, and
+answers that she has other vessels of the convoy in sight to leeward. We
+sheer into our proper position astern of her and find the outer column
+showing through the mist in good station. On our report that we had no
+others in sight, _Neleus_ alters course perceptibly to converge on the
+commodore, and daylight coming in finds us steaming in misty but visible
+touch with the other columns. The horse transports have dropped astern,
+and one is bellowing for position. She gets a word or two on the
+'buzzer,' comes ahead, and lets go the whistle lanyard.
+
+If commodore's reckoning is right, we should now be on the destroyer
+rendezvous, but our wireless operator, who has been listening to the
+twitter of the birds, assures us that they are yet some distance off. We
+hope for a clearing to enable them to meet us without undue search; it
+will not be a simple matter to join company in the prevailing weather
+conditions, particularly as we are working on four days of
+dead-reckoning. By seven o'clock there is no sign of the small craft,
+and we note our ocean escort closing in to engage the commodore with
+signals. The rain lessens and turns to a deep Scotch mist, our range of
+vision is narrowed to a length or two. Anon, our advance guardship sets
+her syren sounding dismal wails at long intervals, as she swings over
+from wing to wing of the convoy.
+
+By what mysterious channel does information get about a ship? Is there a
+voice in the aerials? Are ears tuned to the many-tongued whisperings of
+rivet and shell-plate, that all hands have an inkling of events? The
+rendezvous is an official secret; the coming of the destroyers is
+supposedly unknown to all but the master, the navigators, and the
+wireless operator, but it is not difficult to see a knowing expectancy
+in the ranks of our company. Despite the wet and clammy mist, ignoring
+the dry comforts of the ''tween-decks,' the troops crowd the upper
+passages and hang long over the rails and bulwarks, pointing and
+shouting surmise and conjecture to their mates. The crew are equally
+sensitive. Never were engine-room and stokehold ventilators so
+tirelessly trimmed to the wind. At frequent intervals, one or other of
+the grimy firemen ascends to the upper gratings, cranks the cowls an
+inch or two this way or that, then stands around peering out through the
+mist for first sight of a welcome addition to our numbers. The official
+ship look-outs are infected by a new keenness, and every vagary in the
+wind that exposes a glimpse of our neighbours is greeted by instant
+hails from the crow's nest.
+
+Eight bells again! The watch is changed and, with new faces on the
+bridge, the length of our long spell is painfully recalled. With
+something of envy we note the posts relieved and the men gone below to
+their hours of rest. "What a life!" The wail of the guardship's syren
+fits in to our mood--_Wh-o-o-owe!_
+
+Quick on the dying note a new syren throws out a powerful reedy blast,
+sounding from astern. Thus far on the voyage, with fog so long our
+portion, we have come to know the exact whistle-notes of our neighbours,
+down to the cough and steam splutter of the older ships. This is new--a
+stranger--a musical chime that recalls the powerful tug-boats on the
+Hudson. Our New-Yorker troops are quick to recognize the homely note.
+"Aw! Saay!" is the chorus. "Lissen! Th' _Robert E. Lee_!"
+
+The rear ships of the convoy now give tongue--a medley of confused
+reverberations. No reply comes to their tumult, but a line of American
+destroyers emerges from the mist astern and steams swiftly between the
+centre columns. There is still a long swell on the sea and they lie over
+to it, showing a broad strake of composition. They are bedizened in
+gaudy dazzle schemes, and the mist adds to the weird effect. The Stars
+and Stripes flies at each peak, standing out, board-like, from the speed
+of their carriers. As they pass, in line ahead, a wild tumult of
+enthusiasm breaks out among the troops. They join in a full-voiced
+anthem, carried on from ship to ship, "The Star-spangled Banner!"
+
+
+'ONE LIGHT ON ALL FACES'
+
+A SLIGHT lift in the mist, edging from sou'west in a freshening of the
+wind, extends our horizon to include all ships of the convoy. With this
+modest clearing, the shield of vapour that has cloaked us from
+observation since early morning is withdrawn. Although still hazy, there
+is sight enough for torpedo range through a periscope, and the
+long-delayed zigzag is signalled by the commodore.
+
+There is no time lost in settling to the crazy courses. At rise of the
+mist we are steaming through the flat grey sea in parallel columns, our
+lines ruled for us by the wakes of our leaders. The contrasts of build
+and tonnage, the variegations of our camouflage, are dulled to a drab
+uniformity by the lingering mist, and we make a formal set-piece in the
+seascape, spaced and ordered and defined. The angle of the zigzag
+disturbs our symmetry. As one movement, on the tick of time, we swing
+over into an apparent confusion, like the flush of a startled covey. We
+make a pattern on the smooth sea with our stern wash. Wave counters wave
+and sets up a running break on the surface that draws the eye by its
+similarity to a sheering periscope; not for the first time we turn our
+glasses on the ripples, and scan the spurt of broken water in
+apprehension.
+
+Our escort is now joined by British sloops returning from their deep-sea
+patrols. The faster American destroyers spur out on the wings and far
+ahead, leaving the less active warships to trudge and turn in rear of
+the convoy. With our new additions, ship by ship steering to the east,
+we make a formidable international gathering on the high seas, a
+powerful fleet bringing the Pilgrim sons back over the weary sea-route
+of their fathers' _Mayflower_!
+
+Having far-flung scouts to safeguard our passage, there seems no reason
+for concern about our navigation, but the habits of a sea-routine urge
+us to establish a position--to right the uncertainty of four days'
+dead-reckoning. The mist still hangs persistently about us, but there is
+a prospect that the sun may break through. The strength of the wind
+keeps the upper vapours moving, but ever there are new banks to close up
+where a glimpse of clear vision shows a 'pocket' in the clouds. The
+westering sun brightens the lift and plays hide-and-seek behind the
+filmy strata. Time and again we stand by for an observation, but, should
+a nebulous limb of the sun shine through, the horizon is obscured--when
+the sea-line clears to a passable mark, the sun has gone! A vexing round
+of trial after trial! We put away the sextant, vowing that no
+tantalizing promise shall tempt us. "Bother the sun! 'We should worry!'
+We have got an approximation by soundings, we can do without--we-- _Look
+out, there!_"--we are hurrying for the instrument again and tapping
+'stand by' to the marksman at the chronometer!
+
+At length a useful combination of a clean lower limb and a definite
+horizon gives opportunity for contact, and it is with a measure of
+satisfaction we figure the result on the chart, and work back to earlier
+soundings for a clue to the latitude. Busied with pencil and dividers,
+our findings are disturbed by gunfire--the whine of a slow-travelling
+shell is stifled by a dull explosion that jars the ship!
+
+On deck again; the men on the bridge have eyes turned to the inner
+column. The rearmost transport of that line has a high upheaval of
+debris and broken water suspended over her; it settles as we watch, and
+leaves only a wreath of lingering dust over the after part of the ship;
+she falls out of line, listing heavily; puffs of steam on her whistle
+preface the signal-blasts that indicate the direction from which the
+blow was struck. From a point astern of us a ruled line of disturbed
+water extends to the torpedoed ship--the settling wake of the missile!
+The smack and whine of our bomb-thrower speaks out a second time, joined
+by other vessels opening fire.
+
+Events have brought our ship's company quickly to their stations. The
+chief officer stands, step on the ladder, awaiting orders. "Right! Lay
+aft! Cease fire, unless you have a sure target! Look out for the
+destroyers blanking the range!" He runs along, struggling through the
+mass of troops. The men are strangely quiet; perhaps the steady beat of
+our engines measures out assurance to them--as it does to us. Their
+white-haired colonel has come to the bridge, and stands about quietly.
+Other officers are pushing along to their stations. There is not more
+than subdued and controlled excitement in a low murmur. The men below
+crowd up the companionways from the troop-decks. In group and mass, the
+ship seems packed to overflowing by a drab khaki swarm; the light on all
+faces turned on the one cant, arms pointing in one direction, rouses a
+haunting disquiet. However gallant and high of heart, they are standing
+on unfamiliar ground--at sea, in a ship, caged! If--
+
+Two destroyers converge on us at frantic speed, tearing through the flat
+sea with a froth in their teeth. As the nearest thunders past, her
+commander yells a message through his megaphone. We cannot understand.
+Busied with manoeuvres of the convoy, with the commodore's signal for
+a four-point turn, we miss the hail, and can only take the swing and
+wave of his arms as a signal to get ahead--"Go full speed!" The jangle
+of the telegraph is still sounding, when we reel to a violent shock. The
+ship lists heavily, every plate and frame of her ringing out in clamour
+with the impact of a vicious sudden blow. She vibrates in passionate
+convulsion on recovery, masts oscillate like the spring of a
+whip-shaft, the rigging jars and rattles at the bolts, a crash of broken
+glass showers from the bridge to the deck below!
+
+The murmur among the troops swells to a higher note, there is a crowding
+mass-movement towards the boats. The guard is turned to face inboard.
+The colonel is impassive; only his eyes wander over the restless men and
+note the post of his officers. He turns towards us, inquiringly. What is
+it to be? His orderly bugler is standing by with arm crooked and trumpet
+half raised.
+
+Our lips are framing an order, when a second thundering shock jars the
+ship, not less in violence and shattering impact than the first. A high
+hurtling column of water shoots up skyward close astern of the ship. We
+suppress the order that is all but spoken, stifle the words in our
+throat. We are not torpedoed! Depth-charges! The destroyers' work! At a
+sign, the bugler sounds out "_Still!_" and slowly the tumult on deck is
+arrested.
+
+The commodore's _half-right_ has been instantly acted on, and we are
+steadied on a new course, bearing away at full speed, with the torpedoed
+horse transport and the racing, circling destroyers astern. Suddenly our
+bows begin to swing off to port, falling over towards the outer column.
+The helmsman has the wheel hard over against the sheer; we realize that
+our steering-gear has gone; the second depth-charge has put us out of
+control. We swing on the curve of a gathering impetus--it is evident
+that the rudder is held to port; converging on us at full speed, the
+rear ship of the outer column steams into the arc of our disorder!
+
+The signalman is instant with his 'not under command' hoist, the crew
+are scattered to throw in emergency gear, but there is no time to arrest
+the sheer. The first impulse is to stop and go astern. If we arrest the
+way of the ship, a collision is inevitably assured, but the impact may
+be lessened to a side boarding, to damage that would not be vital; if we
+swing as now, we may clear--our eye insists we should clear. If our
+tired eyes prove false, if the strain of a long look-out has dulled
+perception, our stem will go clean into her--we shall cut her down!
+Reason and impulse make a riot of our brain. The instinct to haul back
+on the reins, to go full astern on the engines, is maddening. Our hand
+curves over the brass hood of the telegraph, fingers tighten vice-like
+on the lever; with every nerve in tension, we fight the insane desire to
+ring up and end the torturing conflict in our mind!
+
+A confusion of minor issues comes crowding for settlement, small stabs
+to jar and goad in their trifling. There is a call to carry on
+side-actions. Every bell on the bridge clamours for attention. The
+engine-room rings up, the chief officer telephones from aft that the
+starboard chain has parted, the rudder jammed hard to port. From the
+upper spars, the signalman calls out a message from an approaching
+destroyer--"What is the matter? Are you torpedoed?" Through all, we
+swing out--swiftly, inexorably!
+
+Troops and look-outs scurry off the forecastle-head, in anticipation of
+a wrecking blow. On the other ship, there is outcry and excitement. She
+has altered course and her stern throws round towards us, further
+encroaching on the arc of our manoeuvre. So near we are, we look
+almost into the eyes of her captain as we head for the bridge. Troops,
+the boat-guard, are scrambling aboard from the out-swung lifeboats,
+their rifles held high. On her gun-platform the gunners slam open their
+breech, withdraw the charge, and hurry forward to join the mass of men
+amidships. All eyes are centred on the narrowing space of clear water
+that separates us, on our high sheering stem that cuts through her
+out-flung side-wash.
+
+Strangely the movement seems to be all in our sweeping bow. The other
+vessel appears stationary, inert--set motionless against the flat
+background of misty cloud; our swinging head passes point upon point of
+the chequered camouflage on her broadside; subconsciously we mark the
+colours of her scheme--red and green and grey. We clear her line of
+boats, and sway through the length of her after-deck--waver at the
+stern-house, then cover the grey mounting of her gun-emplacement. In
+inches we measure the rails and stanchions on her quarter, as our
+upstanding bow drives on. Tensely expectant, our mind trembles on the
+crash that seems inevitable.
+
+It does not come. Our eye was right--we clear her counter! With some
+fathoms to spare we sheer over the thrash of her propellers, the horizon
+runs a line across our stem, we have clear yielding blue water under the
+bows!
+
+The illusion of our sole movement is reversed as the mass of the other
+vessel bears away from us. The unbroken sea-line offers no further mark
+to judge our swing; we seem to have become suddenly as immobile as a
+pier-head, while our neighbour starts from our forefoot in an apparent
+outrush, closing and opening the line of her masts and funnels like
+shutting and throwing wide the panels of a door.
+
+With no indecision now we pull the lever over hood of the telegraph. One
+case is cleared; there still remains the peril of the lurking submarine.
+The destroyers are busy on the chase, manoeuvring at utmost speed and
+exploding depth-charges in the area. We are now some distance from them
+but the crash of their explosion sends an under-running shock to us
+still. Our sheer has brought us broadside on to the position from which
+the enemy loosed off his torpedo. At full astern we bring up and swing
+over towards the receding convoy. If we are barred from carrying on a
+zigzag by the mishap to our helm, we can still put a crazy gait on her
+by using the engines. Backing and coming ahead, we make little progress,
+but at least we present no sitting target.
+
+Reports come through from aft that the broken chain, springing from a
+fractured link, has jammed hard under the quadrant; the engineers are at
+work, jacking up to release the links; they will be cleared in ten
+minutes! The chief asks for the engines to be stopped; sternway is
+putting purchase on the binding pressure of the rudder. Reluctantly we
+bring up and lie-to. In no mood to advertise our distress, we lower the
+'not under command' signals, and summon what patience may be left to us
+to await completion of repairs.
+
+A long 'ten minutes!' Every second's tick seems fraught with a new
+anxiety. Fearfully we scan the sea around, probing the line of each
+chance ripple for sight of an upstanding pin-point. Anon, steam pressure
+rises and thunders through the exhaust, throwing a battery of spurting
+white vapour to the sky, and letting even the sea-birds know we are
+crippled and helpless.
+
+The torpedoed ship still floats, though with a dangerous list and her
+stern low in the water. A sloop is taking her in tow, and we gather
+assurance of her state in the transport's boats still hanging from the
+davits; they have not abandoned. She falters at the end of the long
+tow-rope and sheers wildly in the wake of her salvor. The convoy has
+vanished into the grey of the east, and only a lingering smoke-wreath
+marks the bearing where they have entered the mist. The sun has gone,
+leaving but little afterglow to lengthen twilight; it will soon be dark.
+Apparently satisfied with their work the destroyers cease fire; whether
+there is oil on their troubled waters we cannot see. They linger a
+while, turning, then go on in the wake of the convoy. One turns north
+towards us, with a busy windmiller of a signalman a-top the
+bridge-house. "_What is the matter? Do you wish to be towed?_" We
+explain our case, and receive an answer that she will stand by, "_but
+use utmost dispatch effect repair_."
+
+'Use utmost dispatch'! With every minute, as the time passes, goes our
+chance of regaining our station in the convoy; we are in ill content to
+linger! We have a liking for our chief engineer--a respect, an
+admiration--but never such a love as when he comes to the bridge-ladder,
+grimy, and handling his scrap of waste. "They're coupling up now! A job
+we had! Chain jammed and packed under th' quadrant, like it had been set
+by a hydraulic ram! If that one landed near Fritz, he'll trouble us no
+more!"
+
+[Illustration: EVENING: THE MERSEY FROM THE LANDING-STAGE]
+
+With the engines turning merrily, and helm governance under our hand, we
+regain composure. Our task is yet none too easy. Even at our utmost
+speed we cannot now rejoin the convoy before nightfall; snaking through
+the ships in the dark to take up station offers another harassing night
+out! Still, it might be worse--much worse! We think of the torpedoed
+ship towing so slowly abeam--of the khaki swarm on our decks, 'the
+light on all faces turned on one cant.' Surely our luck is in! The
+infection of the measured beat in our progress recalls a job unfinished;
+we step into the chart-room and take up pencil and dividers.
+
+[Illustration: THE STEERSMAN]
+
+[Illustration: THE WORK OF A TORPEDO]
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+'DELIVERING THE GOODS'
+
+
+OCTOBER on the Mersey is properly a month of hazy autumn weather, but
+the few clear days seem to gain an added brilliance from their rarity,
+and present the wide estuary in a vivid, clear-cut definition. The
+distant hills of North Wales draw nearer to the city, and stand over the
+slated roofs of the Cheshire shore as though their bases were set in the
+peninsula. Seaward the channel buoys and the nearer lightships are
+sharply distinct, cutting the distant sea-line like the topmast spars of
+ships hull down. Every ripple and swirl of the tide is exaggerated by
+the lens of a rare atmosphere; the bow wash of incoming vessels is
+thrown upward as by mirage.
+
+[Illustration: TRANSPORTS DISCHARGING IN LIVERPOOL DOCKS]
+
+On such a day a convoy bears in from the sea, rounding the lightships
+under columns of drifting smoke. Heading the merchantmen, the destroyers
+and sloops of the escort steam quickly between the channel buoys and
+pass in by New Brighton at a clip that shows their eagerness to complete
+the voyage. A sloop detaches from the flotilla and rounds-to off the
+landing-stage. Her decks are crowded by men not of her crew. Merchant
+seamen are grouped together at the stern, and a small body of Uncle
+Sam's coloured troops line the bulwarks in attitudes of ease and
+comfort. They are a happy crowd, and roar jest and catchword to the
+passengers on the crossing ferries. The merchantmen are less boisterous.
+They watch the preparations of the bluejackets for mooring at the stage
+with a detached professional interest; some of them gaze out to the
+nor'ard where the transports of the convoy are approaching. Doubtless
+their thoughts are with the one ship missing in the fleet--their ship.
+The sloop hauls alongside the stage and a gangway is passed aboard.
+Naval transport officers and a major of the U.S. Army staff are waiting,
+and engage the commander of the man-of-war in short conversation. The
+men are disembarked and stand about in straggling groups. There is
+little to be said by the sloop's commander. "A horse transport torpedoed
+yesterday. No! No losses. Tried to tow her for a bit, but had to cast
+off. She went down by the stern."
+
+The trooper horse-tenders are marshalled in some order and pass over to
+the waiting-rooms under charge of the American officer. With a word or
+two and a firm handshake to the sloop's commander, the master of the
+torpedoed ship comes ashore and joins his men. No word of command! He
+jerks his head in the direction of the Liver Buildings and strides off.
+The seamen pick up their few bundles of sodden clothing and make after
+him, walking in independent and disordered groups. As they straggle
+along the planking of the stage, a military band--in full array--comes
+marching down from the street-way. They step out in fine swing, carrying
+their glittering brasses. "Here, Bill," says one of the seamen, hitching
+his shoulder towards the burdened drummers, "who said we was too late
+for th' music!"
+
+The transports have come into the river. Every passing tug and
+ferry-boat gives _rrr--oot_ on her steam-whistle to welcome them as they
+round-to off the docks and landing-stage. Loud bursts of cheer and
+answering cheer sound over the water. The wide river, so lately clear of
+shipping, seems now narrowed to the breadth of a canal by the huge
+proportions of the liners bringing up in the tideway. The bizarre
+stripes and curves and the contrasted colours of their dazzle schemes
+stand out oddly against the background of the Cheshire shore. It is not
+easy to disentangle the lines of the ships in the massed grouping of
+funnel and spar and high topsides. They are merged into a bewildering
+composition with only the mastheads and the flags flying at the trucks
+to guide the eye in attempting a count. Fifteen large ships, brimming at
+the bulwarks with a packed mass of troops, all at a deep draught that
+marks their load below decks of food and stores and munitions.
+
+The landing-stage becomes rapidly crowded by disembarkation officers and
+their staffs. Transport wagons and cars arrive at the south end and run
+quietly on the smooth boarding to their allotted stands. A medical unit,
+gagged with fearsome disinfectant pads, musters outside their temporary
+quarters. Most prominent of all, tall men in their silver and blue, a
+sergeant and two constables of the City police stand by--the official
+embodiment of law and order.
+
+A flag is posted by the stage-men at the north end, and its flutter
+calls an answering whistle-blast from the nearest transport. Steadily
+she disengages from the press of ships and closes in towards the shore.
+The tugs guiding her sheer strain at the hawsers and lie over in a cant
+that shows the tremendous weight of their charge. A row-boat dances in
+the wash of their screws as it is backed in to the liner's bows to pass
+a hawser to the stage. Sharp, short blasts indicate the pilot's orders
+from the bridge: the stage-master keeps up a commentary on the
+manoeuvres through a huge megaphone. Stir and bustle and high-spirited
+movement! The troops that pack the liner's inshore rails give tongue to
+excited gaiety. A milkgirl (slouch hat, trousers and gaiters complete)
+passes along the stage on her way to the restaurant and is greeted with
+acclaim, "Thatta gel--thatta goil--oh, you kid!" The policemen come in
+for it: "Aw, say! Looka th' guys 'n tha lodge trimmings. What's th'
+secret sign, anyway!" An embarrassed and red-faced junior of the
+Transport Service is forced to tip it and accept three cheers for "th'
+Brissh Navy!"
+
+The opening bars of 'The Star-spangled Banner' brings an instant stop to
+their clamour. The troops spring to attention in a way that we had not
+observed before in their own land. The spirit of patriotism, pronounced
+in war! 'God Save the King' keeps them still at attention. As strong as
+war and patriotism--the spirit of a new brotherhood in arms!
+
+The transport makes fast and high gantries are linked to a position on
+the stage and their extensions passed on board. The stage-men make up
+their heaving-lines and move off to berth a second vessel at the south
+end. The tide is making swiftly in the river, and there must be no delay
+if the troops are to be disembarked and the ships cast off in time to
+dock before high water has passed.
+
+[Illustration: TROOP TRANSPORTS DISEMBARKING AT THE LANDING-STAGE,
+LIVERPOOL]
+
+Viewed from the low tidal stage, almost at a level with the water, the
+ship--that had appeared so delicate of line in the river--assumes a new
+and stronger character at close hand. The massive bulk of her, towering
+almost overhead, dwarfs the surrounding structures. The shear that gave
+her beauty at a distance is lost in the rapid foreshortening of her
+length: her weathered plating, strake upon strake bound by a pattern
+of close rivet-work, attracts the eye and imposes an instant impression
+of strength and seaworthiness. On her high superstructure the figures of
+men seem absurdly diminished. The sense of their control of such a
+vessel is difficult of realization. Pouring from her in an apparently
+endless stream of khaki, her living cargason passes over the gangways.
+
+They move rapidly from the ship to the shore. Waiting-sheds and the
+upper platforms are soon littered by their packs and equipment, and the
+troops squat on the roadway to await formation of their group. Large
+bodies are marched directly to the riverside station to entrain for
+camp, but the assortment and enumeration of most of the companies and
+detachments is carried through on the broad planking of the stage. In
+and out the mustered files of men, transport cars make a noisy
+trumpeting progress, piled high with baggage and stores, and each
+crowned by a waving party of high-spirited soldiers. A second transport
+is brought in at the other end of the stage, and adds her men to the
+throng of troops at the water-side. The disembarkation staff have work
+with the sheep and the goats. There is the natural desire to learn how
+'th' fellers' got on in the other ship, and the two ships' complements
+are mixed in a fellowship that makes a tangle of the 'nominal rolls' and
+drives the harassed officers to an outburst of profanity. Ever and on, a
+block occurs on the gangways where the inevitable 'forgetters' are
+struggling back through the press of landing men, to search for the
+trifles of their kit.
+
+A prolonged blast of her siren warns the military officers that the
+first transport is about to cast off, and the movement of the troops is
+accelerated to a hurried rush and the withdrawal of the gangways. The
+waiting tugs drag the ship from the stage, and she moves slowly
+down-stream to dock at the Sandon entrance, there to discharge the
+burden of her packed holds. Another huge vessel takes her place, canting
+in at the north end, and shortly sending out more men to the already
+congested landing. She carries two full battalions, and they are
+disembarked with less confusion than the former varied details. Forming
+fours, and headed by their own band, they march off up the long
+bridgeway to the city streets.
+
+The tide is approaching high water and the pilots are growing anxious
+lest they should lose opportunity of docking on the tide. Already the
+dock gates are open, and the smaller vessels of the convoy have dropped
+out of the river into the basins. With three ships disembarked and a
+fourth drawing alongside, the Naval Transport officers decide that they
+can handle no more men on the stage, and send the remaining steamers to
+land their men in dock. There, with the troops away, an army of dockers
+can get to work to unload the store of their carriage from overseas.
+
+[Illustration: 'M N']
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+'M N'
+
+
+SHIMMERING in gilt sunlit threads, the grey North Sea lay calm and
+placid, at peace with the whip of the winds after days of storm and
+heavy weather. The sun had come up to peer over a low curtain of vapour
+that hung in the east. Past the meridian, the moon stood clear-cut in
+the motionless upper sky. The ring of quiet sea accepted the presence of
+the waiting ships as of friendly incomers, familiar to the round of the
+misty horizon. Two British destroyers, a flotilla of motor-vessels,
+drifters--the brown sails of Thames barges appearing, then vanishing, in
+the wisps of fickle vapour. A breathless dawn. Sun, the silver moon, the
+grey flat sea bearing motionless ships, were witness to the drama--the
+giving up of the murder craft, the end of piracy.
+
+Growing out of the mist, a squadron of British light cruisers and their
+convoy approached the rendezvous where the destroyers lay in readiness
+to take over charge of the German submarines. Two enemy transports under
+their commercial flags, headed the line of the water-snakes. Aircraft
+circled overhead and turned and returned on the line of progress. The
+leading ships swung out on approaching the destroyers and engaged them
+by signal. The destroyers weighed anchor and proceeded to carry out
+their orders. Each carried a number of officers and men to be placed
+aboard the submarines, to accept their surrender, to direct their
+further passage to within the booms at Harwich.
+
+The commander of _Melampus_ focused his glasses on the eleventh
+submarine of the long straggling line. The U-boat had a wash over his
+screws and was apparently steaming ahead to overtake his fellows, now
+fading into the mist in the direction of their prison gates.
+
+"Our group," he said: then, to the signalman, "Tell him to stop
+instantly!"
+
+The bluejacket stood out on the sparring of the bridge and signalled
+with his hand-flags. The submarine still moved ahead at speed, his
+exhaust panting at pressure. The German commander could not (or would
+not) understand, and it was necessary to hoist 'M N' of the
+International Code. The two flags were sufficient: he threw his engines
+astern and brought up to await further orders. His followers arrived on
+the station. Some cast anchor, others slowed and stopped. All took note
+of the flags--St. Andrew's cross over blue and white checquers, hoisted
+at the destroyer's yard-arm--and obeyed the summary signal.
+
+'M N!' International Code! The old flags of the days when there was
+peace on the sea, when the German commercial ensign was known and
+familiar and respected in the seaports of the world!
+
+How many of the Germans would understand the full significance of the
+hoist that brought them to a standstill--the import of the flags
+drooping in the windless air--the beckoning of the coloured fabric that
+ended their murder trade. The day had long passed since they had used
+this warning signal for a procedure in law and order. No 'M N' to
+_Lusitania_ before littering the Irish Sea with wreckage and the pitiful
+bodies of women and small children: no signal to _Arabic_ or _Persia_:
+no warning to _Belgian Prince_, to _California_, to all the long and
+ghastly list: no summons to the hospital ships--alight and blazoned to
+advertise their humane mission. And now--their ensign dishonoured, their
+name as seamen condemned to the everlasting tale of infamy, their proud
+commercial seafaring destroyed--to come in with the blood on their
+hands, and render and submit to the mandate of a two-flag hoist!
+
+'M N!' The Code of the Nations! The summons to peaceful seafarers! 'Stop
+instantly!' Disobey at your peril! At last, at long last, the Freedom of
+the Seas--the security of the ships--the safety of all who pass on their
+lawful occasions--completely re-established by the flaunt of the old
+flags!
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+COMPELLED by the nature of their work to be long absent from home ports,
+seamen are frequently in ignorance of the current of longshore opinion.
+Newspapers do not reach out to the sea-routes (as yet), and the media of
+Guild Gazettes and Association Reporters come somewhat late on the tide
+of an appreciation. The tremendous historical importance of the Nation's
+Thanks to its Fighting Forces (in which the Merchants' Service was
+included) has not adequately been realized by the merchantmen. Some do
+not even know of it. For these reasons--not in a spirit of 'pride above
+desert'--the writer quotes the following:
+
+The Resolution of Parliament of October 29, 1917, placed upon record--
+
+          "That the thanks of this House be accorded to the
+          officers and men of the Mercantile Marine for the
+          devotion to duty with which they have continued to
+          carry the vital supplies to the Allies through
+          seas infested with deadly perils."
+
+A year later, an equally generous appreciation of the work of the
+Merchants' Service was issued by the Board of Admiralty.
+
+          "On the occasion of the first Meeting of the Board
+          of Admiralty after the signing of the German
+          Armistice, their Lordships desire, on behalf of
+          the Royal Navy, to express their admiration and
+          thanks to the Owners, Masters, Officers, and Crews
+          of the British Mercantile Marine, and to those
+          engaged in the Fishing Industry, for the
+          incomparable services which they have rendered
+          during the War, making possible and complete the
+          Victory which is now being celebrated.
+
+          "The work of the Mercantile Marine has been
+          inseparably connected with that of the Royal Navy,
+          and without the loyal co-operation of the former,
+          the enemy's Submarine Campaign must inevitably
+          have achieved its object. The Mercantile Marine
+          from the beginning met this unprecedented form of
+          warfare with indomitable courage, magnificent
+          endurance, and a total disregard of danger and
+          death, factors which the enemy had failed to take
+          into account and which went far towards defeating
+          his object.
+
+          "In no small measure also has the success achieved
+          against the submarine been due to the interest
+          taken by Owners in the defensive equipment of
+          their ships, and to the ability, loyalty, and
+          technical skill displayed by Masters and Officers
+          in carrying out Admiralty regulations which,
+          though tending to the safety of the vessels from
+          submarine risks, enormously increased the strain
+          and anxiety of navigation. The loyal observance of
+          these precautions has been the more commendable
+          since the need for absolute secrecy, on which
+          safety largely depended, has prevented the reasons
+          for their adoption being in all cases disclosed.
+
+          "Further, the Convoy System, which has played such
+          an important part in frustrating the designs of
+          the enemy and securing the safe passage of the
+          United States Army, could never have attained its
+          success but for the ability and endurance
+          displayed by Masters, Officers, and crews of the
+          Merchant Service forming these Convoys. This
+          system has called for the learning and practising
+          of a new science--that of station-keeping--the
+          accuracy of which has depended in no small measure
+          on the adaptability and skill of the Engineers and
+          their Departments.
+
+          "Their Lordships also desire to acknowledge the
+          ready response of Owners to the heavy calls made
+          on the Merchant Service for Officers and men to
+          meet the increasing requirement of the Navy. On
+          board our ships of every type, from the largest
+          Dreadnought down to the smallest Patrol Boat are
+          to be found Officers and men of the Merchant Navy
+          who have combined with those of the Royal Navy in
+          fighting the enemy and defeating his nefarious
+          methods of warfare at sea.
+
+          "The Merchant Service and the Royal Navy have
+          never been so closely brought together as during
+          this War. In the interests of our glorious Empire
+          this connection must prove a lasting one."
+
+The Resolution of Parliament of August 6, 1919, placed upon record--
+
+          "That the thanks of this House be accorded to the
+          officers and men of the Mercantile Marine for the
+          fine and fearless seamanship by which our people
+          have been preserved from want and our cause from
+          disaster."
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  ABERDEEN, 82
+
+  Admiralty, xiii, 11, 32, 35-37, 41, 42, 64, 110, 113, 144, 178, 195,
+      255
+
+  Adriatic, 25, 99
+
+  _Agnes Whitwell_, 192
+
+  Aleppo, 4
+
+  "Allo," 118, 119
+
+  Amadas, 6
+
+  _Anglo-Californian_, 18
+
+  Antwerp, 45, 78
+
+  _Aquitania_, 13, 100
+
+  _Arabic_, 253
+
+  Arctic Ocean, 25
+
+  Arklow, 82
+
+  Arlington, 108
+
+  Armada, The Great, 4, 6
+
+  _Atalanta_, 82
+
+  Atlantic, 107, 117, 128, 178, 218, 224, 225
+
+  Atlantic City, 104, 109
+
+  _Augustine_, 62, 63, 66
+
+  Australia, 126
+
+  Austrian Navy, 99
+
+  _Avocet_, 85
+
+
+  BABYLON, 4
+
+  Backhouse, John, 5
+
+  Baffin, 6
+
+  Bahia, 191, 204
+
+  Balsara, 4
+
+  Barlow, 6
+
+  Barnegat Lighthouse, 109
+
+  Beaumaris, 78
+
+  Beaverbrook, Lord, xiii
+
+  _Belgian Prince_, 173, 253
+
+  Bell, Captain, 79
+
+  Bengal, 9
+
+  Bennett, Arnold, xiii
+
+  Bermuda, 107, 108
+
+  Berry, 11
+
+  Biggatt, William, 5
+
+  _Birchgrove_, 85
+
+  Black Middens, 78
+
+  Blake, 10
+
+  Board of Trade, 61-66, 121, 131, 185
+
+  Boer War, 22
+
+  Boom defences, 100, 191, 206
+
+  Bordeaux, 55
+
+  Boston, 108
+
+  _Boy Ernie_, 101
+
+  _Boy Jacob_, 78
+
+  Bremen Hansa Line, 31
+
+  Brennell, Captain, 85
+
+  Bridgwater, 10
+
+  Bristol Channel, 80, 116
+
+  _Britannic_, 78
+
+  _British Standard_, 209, 210, 211, 215
+
+  Brixham, 101
+
+  _Brother Fred_, 192
+
+  Brownrigg, Rear-Admiral Sir Douglas, xiii
+
+  _Brussels_, 79
+
+
+  _Cabotia_, 114
+
+  Cagliari, 181
+
+  Calcutta, 204
+
+  _Calgarian_, 178
+
+  _California_, 253
+
+  _Cameronia_, 140
+
+  Canada, 126, 128
+
+  Canute, 141, 142
+
+  Cape Cod, 108
+
+  Cardiff, 181
+
+  Caspian Sea, 4
+
+  Cats, 198-99
+
+  Cavendish, Thomas, 6
+
+  Cerigo Channel, 114, 132
+
+  Channel, The, 88, 89, 95, 96, 131, 147
+
+  Charles II, 57
+
+  Chaucer, 55
+
+  _Chelmsford_, 204
+
+  Cheshire, 244, 247
+
+  China, 22, 165
+
+  _Cinderella_, 210, 211
+
+  Clyde, xi, 100, 116
+
+  Cochrane, Lord, 181
+
+  Collins, Captain Greenville, 57, 58, 64
+
+  _Collonia_, 196
+
+  _Commissioner_, 82
+
+  Coney Island, 230
+
+  Constantinople, 4
+
+  Contalmaison, 51
+
+  Cook, James, 10
+
+  Copenhagen, 11
+
+  _Coquet_, 173
+
+  Cork, 85
+
+  Cornford, L. Cope, xiii
+
+  Costello (boatswain of _Gull_, trawler), 99
+
+  _Cottingham_, 80, 81
+
+  Coverley, Captain, 114
+
+  _Crane_, 99
+
+  Crimea, 22
+
+  Crystal Palace, 122
+
+  Cunard Line, 118, 119
+
+  Custom House, 184, 185
+
+
+  DAEDALUS Light, 170
+
+  Dampier, 10
+
+  Davis, 6
+
+  Deal, 77, 89, 230
+
+  Deptford, 56, 58
+
+  _Deutschland_, 104
+
+  _Devonshire_ (East Indiaman), 9
+
+  Dieppe, 31
+
+  _Dieudonne_, 192
+
+  Dixon, W. Macneile, xiii
+
+  Dogger Bank, 99
+
+  Doiran, 133
+
+  Downs, The, 9, 88-90, 96
+
+  Drake, 6
+
+  _Drei Geschwister_, 85
+
+  Dublin, 15
+
+
+  EAST India Company, 9
+
+  Eddystone Lighthouse, 91
+
+  Egypt, 22, 126
+
+  Elbow Buoy, 97
+
+  _Emden_, 164
+
+  _Empress of Fort William_, 95
+
+  Esperanto, 169, 203
+
+
+  FAIR Head, 117
+
+  _Falaba_, 164
+
+  _Fermo_, 101
+
+  Fishermen, 98-102, 206, 255
+
+  Flanders, 51, 79, 126
+
+  _Floandi_, 99
+
+  Foley, 11
+
+  Forbes, Captain, 63
+
+  Foreign consuls, 185
+
+  _Formidable_, 101
+
+  _Fortuna_, 192
+
+  France, 125, 126
+
+  _Franz Fischer_, 85
+
+  Frobisher, 6
+
+  Fryatt, Captain, 79
+
+  _Fuerst_, 27, 28
+
+
+  GALATZ, 170
+
+  Gallipoli, 127
+
+  "Gamecock" Fleet, 99
+
+  Garron Head, 116
+
+  German Navy, 17, 24, 26, 28, 41, 253
+    Crimes on the sea, 170-74, 253
+      Fishing-boats, 79, 100, 101
+      Hospital ships, 92, 173, 253
+      Lightships, 92
+      Merchantmen, 17, 81, 82, 85, 114, 164, 173
+      Mines, 92, 95
+      Rafts and open boats, 92
+      Submarine minelayers, 80, 92
+      _See under_ Merchants' Service: German _Schrecklichkeit_, and
+          Submarine piracy
+    Submarines, 17-20, 37, 41-43, 79-86, 95, 96, 107-9, 113-15, 118-19,
+      173, 177, 181, 182, 237-40, 252-53, 255-56
+
+  Gibbs, Richard, 5
+
+  Gibraltar, 126, 183
+
+  Glasgow, 33, 39, 78, 116
+
+  Goodwin Sands, 89, 96
+
+  _Gowan Lea_, 99, 100
+
+  Grand Banks, 103
+
+  Gravesend, 3, 59
+
+  Greece, King of, 63
+
+  Greenwich Mean Time, 191
+
+  _Gulflight_, 109
+
+  _Gull_ (trawler), 99
+
+
+  HAKLUYT, Richard, 4, 5, 9
+
+  Halifax, 108
+
+  Hardy, 11
+
+  Harwich, xi, 90, 253
+
+  Hawkins, Sir John, 6
+
+  Henderson, Algernon C. F., v
+
+  Henry VIII, 6
+
+  Hohenzollern, 174
+
+  Hollesay Bay, 90
+
+  Holy Land, 54
+
+  Horn, Cape, 77
+
+  Hudson, 6
+
+  Hudson Bay, 86
+
+  Hudson River, 217, 218
+
+  Hull, 90
+
+
+  ICELAND, 170
+
+  Imperial War Museum, xiii
+
+  India, 22, 126
+
+  International Code of Signals, 169
+
+  Islay, 117
+
+  Isle of Man, 32
+
+  Istria, 55
+
+
+  _Jane Williamson_, 82
+
+  Japan, 178
+
+  Java, 13
+
+  Johnson, Dr., 47-48
+
+  _Justitia_, 78
+
+
+  _Karlsruhe_, 104
+
+  _Kashmir_, 227
+
+  Keith, Captain, 131
+
+  Kiel, 24
+
+  King John, 55
+
+  Kingsdown, 89
+
+  King's Harbour Master, 203
+
+  Kingsway, 124
+
+  _Koelnische Zeitung_, 81
+
+  _Kronprinz Wilhelm_, 104
+
+
+  _Lady of the Lake_, 79
+
+  Lamport and Holt Line, 109
+
+  Langton, Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, 55
+
+  Leggatt (of _Crane_), 99
+
+  Leghorn, 181
+
+  _Leviathan_, 135
+
+  Leyland Line, 117, 118, 119
+
+  Liege, 27
+
+  Lightships, 57, 91-96
+    Gull Lightship, 53, 89, 93, 96
+    Ostend Lightship, 92
+    Royal Sovereign Lightship, 95
+    Shambles Lightship, 95
+    South Goodwin Lightship, 95
+
+  _Linn_ ("frigot"), 204
+
+  Liver Buildings, 49, 247
+
+  Liverpool, 62, 69, 78, 103, 116, 135, 245, 249
+
+  _Lobelia_, 100
+
+  London, 89, 213
+
+  Louis XIV, of France, 91
+
+  Lowestoft, 90
+
+  _Lusitania_, 164, 173, 253
+
+
+  MALAY pirates, 165
+
+  _Maloja_, 95
+
+  Malta, 126, 128, 132, 182
+
+  Manchester, 124
+
+  _Manchester Commerce_, 164
+
+  Manhattan, 223
+
+  "Manual on Seamanship," 144
+
+  Marconi, 123
+
+  Marconi Company, 110
+
+  _Marechal de Villars_, 82
+
+  _Margaret_, 15
+
+  _Mariston_, 173
+
+  Maritime Code, 54 _seq._
+
+  _Marmion_, 191, 192, 211
+
+  Marseilles, 128, 131, 132
+
+  _Mary Rose_, 178
+
+  _Massilia_, 186, 210
+
+  _Mayflower_, 236
+
+  Mayo, Walter H., xiii
+
+  Meadowside, 140
+
+  Mediterranean, 30, 114, 127, 128, 178, 182, 196
+
+  _Melampus_, 253
+
+  Merchant Adventurers, 4, 5
+
+  Merchants' Service:
+    Growth, 3-5;
+    parent of Navy, 6, 18;
+    Imperial significance, xii, 10, 12, 14, 15, 126;
+    unrecognized work, 10, 46 _seq._;
+    educational function, 11;
+    introduction of steamships, 11, 12, 13;
+    international supremacy, 12, 13;
+    outbreak of Great War, 14, 24, 163;
+    submarine piracy, 17, 18 _seq._, 51, 177, _passim_;
+    arming of, 19, 37 _seq._, 113-5;
+    differences with Navy, 7, 21-25;
+    reconciliation, 25 _seq._;
+    liaison with Navy, 14, 18-19, 21-43, 120-3, 134, 191, 197, 199-203,
+      255-6 _passim_;
+    commerce-raiders, 28, 51;
+    Naval War Staff, 30 _seq._;
+    transporting of troops, 14, 30 _seq._, 44, 45, 125-40, 223, 224-51;
+    popular recognition of, and the longshore view, 46 _seq._, 254;
+    discipline, 64, 68-71;
+    wanted, a Ministry of Marine, 66;
+    manning, 68-73;
+    German _Schrecklichkeit_, 72, 73, 80-85, 92, 173, 203, 209;
+    coastal Services, 77-86;
+    war-time navigation, 85-6, 87-95;
+    traditions, 4, 5, 9-13, 23, 98, 99-100;
+    signals and wireless, 110-3, 120-4, 169-70, 191;
+    destroyer escort, 29-30, 126-8, 178, 203, 235;
+    torpedoing of a transport, 137-40, 237-40;
+    camouflage and dazzle, 163-7;
+    naming of standard ships, 168;
+    owners' customs clerks, 184, 185;
+    clearing for sea, 184-9;
+    convoy conference, 198-204;
+    putting to sea, 205-16;
+    unloading and loading, 217-23, 247-51. _See under_ Navy
+
+  Merchant Shipping Act, 67
+
+  Mersey, 49, 80, 107, 241, 244
+
+  Mexico, 230
+
+  Middleton, 6
+
+  Minesweeping, 25, 88, 89, 91, 95, 97-99, 102, 205
+
+  Ministry of Information, xiii
+
+  Ministry of Shipping, 178, 181
+
+  Miramichi, 204
+
+  'M N', 252-53
+
+  Mobbs, Engineman, 99
+
+  Mons, 126
+
+  Monson, 6
+
+  Muscovy Company, 5
+
+
+  NANTUCKET Lightship, 104, 107, 109
+
+  _Nautical Magazine_, xiii
+
+  Navesink, 109
+
+  Navy:
+    Offshoot from Merchants' Service, 6, 18;
+    press-gangs, 9;
+    naval science, 11;
+    arming of merchantmen, 19, 37;
+    War Staff, 30 _seq._, 128;
+    Naval Transport Officer, 32 _seq._, 131, 247, 251;
+    Shipping Intelligence Officer, 36 _seq._, 185;
+    D.A.M.S., 37-8, 185;
+    'Otters,' 38, 185;
+    convoys, 41, 110, 121, 178-83, 189-97, 198-204, 205-12, 255;
+    anti-submarine measures, 41-3, 95-6, 110, 113, 203, 255;
+    'Q. ships,' 42;
+    gunnery, 43;
+    wireless on sea-going merchantmen, 110-3;
+    Transport Department, 126, 127;
+    Salvage Section, 144-7;
+    Examination Service, 190. _See under_ Merchants' Service
+
+  _Nebraskan_, 109
+
+  _Neleus_, 226, 229, 232, 233, 234
+
+  Nelson, 11, 22
+
+  _Nelson_, 79
+
+  _Nemesis_, 139
+
+  Neutral shipping, 17, 91, 177, 203
+
+  New Brighton, 247
+
+  Newhaven, 31
+
+  New Jersey, 217
+
+  Newport, U.S.A., 107
+
+  New York, 27, 103, 109, 204
+
+  _New York Herald_, 109
+
+  Nichols, Skipper, 99
+
+  Nile, 11
+
+  Nore, 97
+
+  Norfolk, Va., 104, 191
+
+  North River, 217-23, 230
+
+  North Sea, 85, 88, 252
+
+
+  _Olympic_, 131
+
+  'Otters,' 38, 80, 166
+
+  Oversay, 117
+
+
+  PADRIG Flats, 148
+
+  _Palermo_, 81
+
+  _Palm Branch_, 18, 19, 20
+
+  Patrols, 28, 114, 117, 128, 150, 189, 190, 236
+
+  _Pearl Shell_, 191, 192
+
+  _Persia_, 253
+
+  Philanthropic Seamen's Societies, 65
+
+  Pilots, 59, 87-91, 98, 149, 187, 189, 210, 218, 251
+
+  Plymouth, 205, 233
+    Hoe, 198
+    Sound, 207
+
+  Poldhu, 226
+
+  Portliskey, 81
+
+  _Present Help_, 97, 98
+
+  Prince Line, 109
+
+  _Provident_, 101
+
+  Prussian Guard, 51
+
+  Psiloriti, 132
+
+  Purchas, 5
+
+
+  _Queen Alexandra_, 131
+
+  Quetta Staff College, 30
+
+
+  RAMSGATE, 56, 98
+
+  Rate of Exchange, 103, 109
+
+  Rathbone, Master John, 11
+
+  Rathlin Island, 116
+
+  Rathlin Sound, 116
+
+  Rea (of _Crane_), 99
+
+  _Redcap_, 82
+
+  Richard Coeur de Lion, 54, 55
+
+  _Rifleman_, 139
+
+  River Plate, 4, 13, 181, 199
+
+  Roles d'Oleron, 54 _seq._
+
+  Rowlatt, Mr. Justice, 62
+
+  _Royal Edward_, 127
+
+  Royal Naval Reserve, 23-25, 36-37, 41, 64, 122, 197
+
+  Royal Naval Reserve (_Temporary_), 18, 25, 26
+
+  Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, 122
+
+  Rozhdestvensky, 98
+
+  Rue Point, 117
+
+
+  ST. HELENS, 131
+
+  _St. Paul_, 108
+
+  Salonika, 128, 132, 133, 183
+
+  Salvage, 141-62
+    Salving a merchantman, 147-56
+    Repairing in dry dock, 156-62
+
+  Sandon, 251
+
+  Sandy Hook, 230
+
+  San Miguel, 170
+
+  _Sarah Pritchard_, 78
+
+  _Seahorse_, 210
+
+  Seaplanes, 85, 92, 150, 182, 215
+
+  Sea-slang, 26
+
+  Selsey Bill, 95
+
+  _Serapis_, 173
+
+  Shanghai, 42
+
+  Sir Ralph the Rover, 91
+
+  Skullmartin, 116
+
+  Smeaton, 91
+
+  Smith (of _Crane_), 99
+
+  South Africa, 126
+
+  Southampton, 65, 67, 129, 131
+
+  Southampton Water, 131
+
+  _Speedy_, 181
+
+  Stevedores, 185, 186, 218
+
+  Straits of Dover, 85
+
+  Strand, 124
+
+  _Strongbow_, 178
+
+  Suda Bay, 128, 132
+
+  Suez Canal, 137
+
+  Sutherland, 132
+
+
+  THAMES, 78, 79, 86, 184, 252
+
+  _Thordis_, 79
+
+  _Thracia_, 173
+
+  _Titan_, 149-55
+
+  _Titanic_, 123
+
+  Tor Point, 116
+
+  Trafalgar, 11
+
+  Trinity Bay, 89
+
+  Trinity House, 56-61, 88, 95, 149
+
+  Tripolis, 4
+
+  Turkey Company, 9
+
+  _Tuscania_, 15
+
+  Tyne, 78, 86
+
+
+  _Umaria_, 173
+
+  United States, 72, 89, 103, 128, 178
+
+  United States Seamen's Act, 72
+
+  U 53, 109
+
+
+  VALENCIA, 13
+
+  Valparaiso, 42
+
+  _Vanilla_, 101
+
+  Verdun, 230
+
+  Virginia, 104
+
+  _Virginia_, 114
+
+  Volapuek, 169
+
+  _Volturno_, 123
+
+  _Vosges_, 17, 18
+
+
+  WALMER, 89
+
+  _Wandle_, 79
+
+  'War Channel,' 86, 88
+
+  _War Ordnance_, 209, 211, 213
+
+  War Risks Associations, 36
+
+  _War Trident_, 191, 192, 195-97
+
+  Waterford, 30
+
+  Watt, Skipper Joseph, 99
+
+  Westmark Shoal, 149, 150
+
+  White Star Line, 109
+
+  Whymper, F., xiii
+
+  Wilhelmshaven, 24, 100
+
+  _William_, 82
+
+  _William_ (East Indiaman), 9
+
+  Wood, Walter, xiii
+
+
+  YARMOUTH, 90
+
+  Yarmouth, I. of W., 141
+
+
+  ZEPPELINS, 85, 92
+
+
+            PRINTED AT
+            THE COMPLETE PRESS
+            WEST NORWOOD
+            LONDON
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Text uses both propeller and propellor.
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+Page 47, "hard" changed to "herd" (herd with his high-heeled)
+
+Page 56, "Brethern" changed to "Brethren" (Brethren of Trinity held
+their)
+
+Page 78, "vayage" changed to "voyage" (a coasting voyage could not)
+
+Page 86, "upChannel" changed to "up Channel" (that passes up Channel)
+
+Page 92, "Ostende" changed to "Ostend" (they shelled the Ostend
+Lightship)
+
+Page 153, "mess-kids" changed to "mess-kits" (of pots and mess-kits)
+
+Page 178, "warcraft" changed to "war craft" to match rest of usage (of
+strange war craft)
+
+Page 196, "knoters" changed to "knotters" (bunch of the eight-knotters)
+
+Page 226, "slatt" changed to "slat" (A slat of driving spray)
+
+Page 257, "5 ," changed to "57," (Collins, Captain Greenville, 57,)
+
+Page 258, "254-55" changed to "255-56" (252-53, 255-56)
+
+Page 259, "254" changed to "255" (Fishermen, 98-102, 206, 255)
+
+Page 259, "8" changed to "9" (traditions, 4, 5, 9-13)
+
+Page 259, the reference to page 136 was removed as this is a blank page
+following an illustration. The original read (coastal Services, 77-86,
+136;)
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Merchantmen-at-Arms, by David W. Bone
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MERCHANTMEN-AT-ARMS ***
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+American Merchant Marine, from June 29, 1942-August 15,
+1945.
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