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