nt rushing on into the darkness at about
thirty knots. The men on board her could be heard yelling, but it was
quite impossible to do anything to save them as other enemy destroyers
were in the neighbourhood and the sea was far too bad for lowering
boats.

Nothing else of interest took place during the night, except that the
weather got worse and worse. The next morning, when we were steaming
against it, we were having a terrible doing, and it lasted for about
twenty-four hours, until we got under the lee of the coast. The sea
was one of the worst we had ever experienced, short and very steep, and
we couldn't steam more than about eight knots against it. The motion
was very bad, the ship crashing and bumping about in a most unholy
manner, and we were all wet through and rather miserable. No hot food,
either, for the galley fire had been put out.

The prisoner who had been badly wounded died early next morning. The
Doctor said he might have lived if the weather had been good, but the
motion finished him, poor fellow. He was buried at sea, the German
officer reading the burial service.

We eventually got back into harbour and disembarked the prisoners, and
never was I more pleased to get a decent meal and a little sleep. Aunt
Maria, having so many nephews, has just sent me another fountain pen,
the third since the war started. Also a pair of crimson socks knitted
by her cook. The pen will be useful.

Do you want any more cigarettes? You never acknowledged the last lot I
sent, you ungrateful blighter, and at any rate I think it's high time
you wrote me a letter. Your last one was a postcard.

Forgive this letter of mine if it is a bit disconnected, but it's the
best I can do at present.

Well, the best of luck and may you not stop a Hun bullet or a bit of
shrapnel.

Yours always,
T.

THE FOG

The _Rapier_ was an old destroyer, one of the 370-ton "thirty-knotters"
completed in about 1901. She burnt coal and was driven by
reciprocating engines, instead of using oil fuel and being propelled by
new-fangled turbines, while 23 to 24 knots were all she could be relied
upon to travel in the best of weather. She had a low, sharp bow and
the old-fashioned turtle-back forward instead of the high, weatherly
forecastle of the later destroyers, and in anything more than a
moderate breeze or a little popple of a sea she was like a half-tide
rock in a gale o' wind. In fact, except in the very calmest we