ssist in an active manner at the
discomfiture of some floating Hun. Their thoughts may not exactly be
pleasant when they read and hear of the warlike doings of their
seagoing sisters, but they may console themselves by recollecting that
the ship of 1916 is probably infinitely more valuable to the country
than that of 1900, and that at the present time the Navy could not do
without her.

She is still clean but is no longer a "yacht," for her purpose is
strictly utilitarian. She performs the multifarious duties of a depot
ship, and as such attends to the ailments, aches and pains of, caters
for the needs of, and generally acts as a well-conducted mother to a
large number of destroyers. You have only to ask these latter what
they think of their parent, and there is not one of them who would not
tell you that they could not get on without her. Of course they
cannot! For destroyers, like delicate children prone to catch mumps,
whooping-cough, and measles, cannot thrive without careful nursing,
particularly in war time.

And so, if the depot ship receives a plaintive wail by signal to say
that one of her children has been punctured through the bows by a
projectile from a belligerent Hun, or that another, in a slight
altercation at sea with one of her sisters, has developed a "slight
dent" in herself to the accompaniment of leaky rivets and seams, she
merely says, "Come alongside!"

The destroyer does so, and, lo! an army of workmen step on board with
their tools, and with much hammering and drilling, the outward
application of a steel plate, some oakum, and some white lead, her
hurts are plastered and she is rendered seaworthy once more.

Sometimes the defects may be even more serious, as, for instance, when
one of her charges, having been badly cut into in a thick fog or having
unwisely sat down upon a mine, limps back into harbour with several
compartments full of water and serious internal injuries as well. But
the depot ship is quite equal to the emergency. She sends her
shipwrights, carpenters, and other experts on board the afflicted one
and, with a large wooden patch, more oakum, and buckets of red and
white lead, the destroyer is made sufficiently seaworthy to proceed to
the nearest dockyard.

Again, there may be engine-room defects, such things as over-heated
thrust-blocks, stripped turbines, and leaky valves. There are boiler
troubles and the periodical cleaning of the boiler tubes. There can be
d