k water" varies considerably
in different places and different weather conditions, but plays an
important part in all minesweeping operations.

In this way many a ship has passed over a mine-field all unconscious of
the fate which would have befallen her had she traversed the same area
of sea an hour or so earlier or later.

Mines which break adrift, or are laid without moorings of any kind, are
called _floating mines_. The latter are a direct violation of
International Law, as they cannot be recovered when once they have been
laid, and become a danger to neutral as well as to enemy shipping. The
laws of civilised warfare also require even a moored mine to be fitted
with some mechanical device which renders it safe when once it has
broken adrift from the wire and heavy sinker which holds it in a stated
position. The reason for this humanitarian rule is that neutrals can be
warned not to approach a given area of sea in which there are moored
mines, but if these weapons break adrift--as they frequently do in heavy
weather--and float all over the oceans, they would seriously endanger
the lives and property of neutral states unless something were done to
render them innocuous.

The total disregard of all the laws and customs of civilised warfare by
the Germans in 1914-1919 has now been so well established that it seems
almost unnecessary to give yet another instance of this callousness. In
the case about to be quoted, however, there is, as the reader will
observe, an almost superlative cunning.

Any cursory examination of a German moored mine will show that there is
a device fitted ostensibly to ensure the weapon becoming safe when it
breaks adrift from its moorings and thus complying with The Hague
Convention. For several months after the outbreak of war it puzzled many
minesweeping officers and men why, with this device fitted, every German
_floating_ or _drifting_ mine was dangerous. A few, relying on these
weapons being safe when adrift, had endeavoured to salve one and had
paid for the experiment with the lives of themselves and their comrades.
This caused every mine, whether moored or adrift, to be regarded by
seamen as dangerous, notwithstanding the oft-repeated assurances that
German mines fulfilled all International requirements in this respect.
Then a mine which had broken away from its moorings was successfully
salved, in face of the great danger involved, and the truth came out.

A device _was_ fitted to re