[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 pract