rs laughing round the fire
while their elders are vainly trying to concentrate their minds on
the latest Press dispatches. Games are played and glasses clink merrily,
but in a gunroom there is a very strict limit as to both time and
quantity, though none regarding volume or discordance of sound.

* * * * *

Passing on to the organisation of the flotillas for sea, we find in this
large base six minesweeping units, two being composed of fast paddle
sweepers and four of trawlers. The former are used for distant
operations and comprise nine vessels. They work in pairs, but the extra
ship is available to sink mines cut up by the sweeps of the others, and
to be immediately ready to beat off submarine attacks.

The trawlers are engaged in sweeping _daily_ the approaches to the
harbour and a recognised channel up and down the coast. Their work
overlaps with that done by the ships belonging to the neighbouring
bases. In this way the "war channel," about which more will be said
later, was kept free of mines, and afforded a safe route for ships from
the Thames to the Tyne, and in reality to the northernmost limit of
Scotland.

This important duty was seldom left unperformed even for a day, except
during fierce gales. Often the discovery of a distant mine-field caused
many ships to be concentrated on clearing it, and the number available
for the "routine sweeps" was consequently reduced, but longer hours of
this arduous and dangerous work made up the difference, and the work
went on in summer fog and winter snow for over four years.

The anti-submarine patrols were composed of five ships each, under the
command of the senior officer of the unit--frequently a lieutenant with
the responsibility of a captain. Their work lay out on the wastes of sea
lying between England and Germany. It was seldom that the whole five
vessels of each unit cruised together, the usual method being to scatter
over the different "beats" and rendezvous in a given latitude and
longitude at a specified time and date. They were usually able to
communicate with each other and with the base on important matters by
wireless. Their periods at sea varied from ten days to three weeks, with
a four days' "stand off" when they came into harbour. But of this time
one day at least was spent in coaling and provisioning the ship ready
for the next patrol. This ceaseless vigilance on the grey-green seas of
England's frontier was seldom int