The chief officer of a steamer under charter to the Admiralty tells
a very amusing story concerning an encounter with a mine, though he
candidly admits that he didn't see the humor of it until some time
after the incident occurred.
His ship was lying alongside the quay at X----, taking in some hundreds
of tons of explosives. He himself, having nothing particular to do at
the moment, was leaning over the bridge-rails looking thoughtfully out
to sea. All of a sudden he noticed an aged waterman rowing towards the
ship, with some odd-looking object towing astern of his bluff-bowed
craft. The old man seemed to have difficulty in getting along, and the
officer watched him curiously, speculating as to what he was hauling.
At first sight it looked like a mooring-buoy, but as the boat came
nearer the watcher got the shock of his life. The fisherman was towing
a German mine of the very largest type!
There flashed through the officer's mind the thought of the latent
power stored away in that wicked-looking sphere, only needing a slight
shock to set it free; he thought, too, of the vast store of explosives
under his feet and on the quay. If that mine exploded against the
steamer's side there would not be one stone of X---- left upon another!
"Hi, you!" he shouted to the oncoming rower. "Sheer off with that
thing! We've got explosive aboard!"
By way of answer the old man--now scarce a dozen yards away--cupped his
hand behind his ear.
"What d'yer say, sir?" he called back, mildly. "I found this 'ere in
the tideway, an' I knew there was a bit of a reward offered, an' so----"
The big mine was now bobbing dangerously close to the steamer's side,
and the officer, frantic with anxiety, literally bellowed orders
for the man to remove himself and his prize. In his excitement he
suggested regions where it is possible the temperature might have had
a disastrous effect.
The fisherman looked up at him with a smile. "That's all right, sir,"
he replied. "He 'on't do no harm. I knocked the horns off he with a
boat-hook."
And so it proved. The old man, in his ignorance, had taken a million to
one chance, and it had come off. They say there is a special Providence
that looks after fools, but it must be peculiarly irritating to the
apostle of "frightfulness" to know that an aged waterman, encountering
a drifting mine, can lightheartedly knock off the detonator-equipped
"horns" or projections and live to bring his prize into port and
receive a reward. The chief officer aforesaid, however is not anxious
for another experience of the kind; he says they are too trying to the
nerves.