howing on the surface, and
the others must necessarily have been close underneath, the order was
given to stop all traffic. Unfortunately the traffic, and particularly
the south-bound portion of it, was very heavy that day, and before all
the vessels could be stopped and anchored many of them were in close
proximity to the minefield. All, however, were safely anchored, and
two hours later, when the flood tide was making, light-draught
steamers were set to sweep the area. The job was a difficult one, for
the sweepers had to twist and turn among the anchored vessels, and in
two cases mines were swept up within fifty feet of these.

In these circumstances it became apparent that the area could not be
properly cleared while the merchant vessels lay there at anchor, and
some further action was necessary. The officer in charge was faced by
a very difficult problem--either he had to keep the whole fleet held
up indefinitely, or take the risk of losing one or two of them. In the
words of one who told me this story, "If the officer in charge delayed
the traffic the powers that be would damn him, and if he lost any of
the ships he would be twice damned." So the officer in charge relied
upon his lucky star to preserve him from both calamities. Choosing the
most favourable time of tide, he ordered all vessels to weigh anchor
and steam out of the minefield on a course at right angles to it.
Happily all the ships got under weigh safely; the sweepers carried on
and swept up eight mines on the ground where the merchantmen had been
anchored, thus proving how dangerous had been the situation; and very
soon after there were sixty-five vessels in sight steaming north and
south along the line of buoys that mark the channel. As my informant
said to me, "If anyone spoke of this incident to the officer who gave
the order, he would probably shrug his shoulders and say, 'I was
lucky'; but he, and he alone, knows what that dreadful hour of anxiety
meant to him."

Despite all precautions, many merchant vessels were mined in the
War-Channel in the course of the war; but these disasters were largely
due to the carelessness of shipmasters, who at times neglected to
comply with the instructions that had been given to them. How well the
Harwich auxiliary vessels carried out their work, and how heavy that
work was, the following figures show. In the year 1917, the total
number of enemy mines swept up and destroyed by the mine-sweepers of
the thirty-th