feeling his perilous way through five lines of Turkish mines, though
the currents were very tricky, and more than once the side of his "sub"
actually touched the steel ropes holding the mines to their anchors.
When he reached Constantinople he torpedoed and sank the Turkish
battleship that was supposed to be guarding these very mines! Then he
dived back through the five rows of mines and rejoined the fleet
without a scratch.

Another British submarine stole into the Sea of Marmora with a couple
of land mines to blow up the railway near Constantinople. Lieutenant
D'Oyley-Hughes then swam ashore, pushing a little raft to which the
mines were lashed. He was quite alone, but armed with a bayonet ground
like a razor and an automatic seven-shooter. He also carried a
flash-light and whistle. He shouldered first one mine and then the
other, each the weight of a big man, took them up the hill, and put
them under a little brickwork bridge within a hundred and fifty yards
of the Turkish sentries, who were talking round their fire. Though he
muffled the fuse pistol it was heard by the Turks, who came running
toward him, firing as hard as they could. He let them have his first
clip of seven shots slap in the face and then raced a mile along the
line, doubled back a bit down the cliff, and swam off toward the
submarine. His whistle was not heard at first, as the submarine was in
the next bay; and he had to swim a mile before he came across her
backing out under fire from the Turks. But he slipped into her conning
tower safely, and no one on the British side was hurt.

So great is the danger from mines, unless they are watched and tackled
the whole time, that thousands of mine-sweeping vessels were always at
work, manned by British fishermen who had been handling gigantic nets
and mile-long steel hawsers (ropes) ever since they had gone afloat as
boys. These North Sea fishermen, in whom the Viking blood runs strong,
had always put in eleven months sea time every year of their lives. So
storm and fog and clammy numbing cold had no terrors for them as they
worked their "sweepers" to and fro, fishing for the deadly mines.
Sometimes, for all their skill and care, a mine would foul their tackle
and blow them to pieces. But usually they could "gentle" a mine to the
surface and set it off by rifle shots at a safe distance. Sometimes,
however, a hitch would happen and the mine would come close alongside.
Once a mine actually ca