thus passed down the Thames was H. M. S. _Queen
Mary_, one of the most formidable of England's sea fighters. It was
with such ships as the _Queen Mary_, supported by smaller and less
powerful craft, that Great Britain, for almost two years of the great
war, had maintained her supremacy of the seas.

This great ship was new in service, having been completed only a few
years before the outbreak of the war. She was constructed at a cost of
$10,000,000. She was 720 feet long, of 27,000 tons burden and had a
complement of almost 1,000 men. For fighting purposes she was equipped
with all that was modern.

In her forward turret she carried a battery of six 16-inch guns. Aft,
the turret was similarly equipped. Also the _Queen Mary_ mounted other
big guns and rapid firers. She was equipped with an even half-dozen
12-inch torpedo tubes. She was one of the biggest ships of war that
roved the seas.

The _Queen Mary_ was one of the fleet of battleships that had patrolled
the North Sea since the outbreak of hostilities. Already she had seen
her share of fighting, for she had led more than one attack upon the
enemy when the Germans had mustered up courage enough to leave the
safety of the great fortress of Heligoland, where the main German high
sea fleet was quartered.

It had been in a skirmish with one of these venturesome enemy vessels
that the _Queen Mary_ had received injuries that necessitated her going
into dry dock for a few days, while she was given an overhauling and
her wounds healed. True enough, she had sent the foe to the bottom; but
with a last dying shot, the Germans had put a shell aboard the _Queen
Mary._

Her damage repaired, the _Queen Mary_ was now steaming to the open
waters of the North Sea, where she would again take up patrol duty with
the other vessels that comprised the British North Sea fleet, under
command of Vice-Admiral Beatty, whose flagship, the _Lion_, had taken
up the additional burden of patrolling the _Queen Mary's_ territory
while the latter was being overhauled.

Aboard the battleship, the British tars, who had become fretful at the
delay, were happy at the thought of getting back into active service.
While they had been given an opportunity to stretch their legs ashore,
they, nevertheless, had been glad when the time to steam back into the
open sea had come. Now, as the _Queen Mary_ entered the mouth of the
Thames and prepared' to leave the shores of Old England for the broad
expanse of