heltered by the smokestack down on the main deck, one of our
party, who loved not the sea for its own sake, but endured it as a
passageway to the sight of the Grand Fleet, had found warmth, if not
comfort. Not for him that invitation to come below given by the chief
engineer, who rose out of a round hole with a pleasant "How d'y' do!"
air to get a sniff of the fresh breeze, wizard of the mysterious power of
the turbines which sent the destroyer marching so noiselessly. He
was the one who transferred the commander's orders into that
symphony in mechanism. Turn a lever and you had a dozen more
knots; not with a leap or a jerk, but like a cat's sleek stretching of
muscles. Not by the slightest tremor did you realize the acceleration;
only by watching some stationary object as you flew past.

Now a sweep of smooth water at the entrance to a harbour, and a
turn--and there it was: the sea-power of England!

XXVIII
Ships That Have Fought

But was that really it--that spread of greyish blue-green dots set on a
huge greyish blue-green platter? One could not discern where ships
began and water and sky which held them suspended left off.
Invisible fleet it had been called. At first glance it seemed to be
composed of phantoms, baffling, absorbing the tone of its
background. Admiralty secrecy must be the result of a naval dislike of
publicity.

Still as if they were rooted, these leviathans! How could such a shy,
peaceful-looking array send out broadsides of twelve and thirteen-five
and fifteen-inch shells? What a paradise for a German submarine!
Each ship seemed an inviting target. Only there were many gates
and doors to the paradise, closed to all things that travel on and
under the water without a proper identification. Submarines that had
tried to pick one of the locks were like the fish who found going good
into the trap. A submarine had about the same chance of reaching
that anchorage as a German in the uniform of the Death's Head
Hussars, with a bomb under his arm, of reaching the vaults of the
Bank of England.

And was this all of the greatest naval force ever gathered under a
single command, these two or three lines of ships? But as the
destroyer drew nearer the question changed. How many more? Was
there no end to greyish blue-green monsters, in order as precise as
the trees of a California orchard, that appeared out of the greyish
blue-green background? First to claim attention was the Queen
Elizabeth, wi