The seas swarm with them, they are to be found on every cargo tank
and collier and transport and ocean liner. You cannot rid yourself
of these nervous sea-farers. There was Davies, second officer of the
_Armenian_, who saved thirty-five of her crew; and Hetherington of the
_Jacona_, who in somewhat similar circumstances swam from the sinking
ship to a drifting boat, into which he dragged his shipmates clinging
to drifting wreckage. There were the engineers of the _Southport_, at
the Carolines, seized by the German corvette _Geier_. Left with her
machinery dismantled that she might serve as an enemy store ship, these
men in twelve days of feverish work replaced the essential parts, and
setting sail made Brisbane, 2,000 miles away, in a ship capable only
of steaming one way. There was the half hour's work of three men,
Engineers Wilson, East and the mate Gooderham, of a fishing boat mined
in the North Sea, the first of whom, heedless of the scalding steam
in the damaged engine-room, rushed in and after desperate exertions
plugged the hole caused by the explosion, while East dragged from an
almost hopeless position in the bunker the imprisoned stoker, and
Gooderham swung a boat over and rescued under the overhanging side
of another trawler, mined at the same time, seven of her crew. Look
through the long list of Admiralty rewards for timidity in rescue
work, in battles against odds, in seamanship. Germany, hanging on
the arm of the false jade to whom she has sold herself, the creed of
frightfulness, was very sure.
"Swept clear of ships," was her description of the Channel. Pathetic
delusion! Why it is more like a maritime fair. Never was there such
a bustle of shipping since the world was made. An average of over a
hundred merchant ships a day pass through the narrow gateway guarded
by the Dover patrol. Motor boats, flocks of them; scores of traders
at anchor in the Downs; busy transports on their way to Havre; up
to windward a cluster of mine-sweepers; down to leeward a line of
lean destroyers, it is night and day with them as with all the
ships, through every changing mood of the Channel--rain, storm, snow
blizzards, sunshine and sweet airs or "wind like a whetted knife." For
this is the gate of all the gates, the vital trade route, and from
Foreland to Start, from Start to Lizard in three years of war the
German fleet has not seen these famous headlands! Very busy, but very
much at home, are the British vessels in that long sea lane. Talkative
too, for the gossip never ceases. Hoarse megaphone conversations,
rocket and semaphore talk, wireless chatter without end. Within a few
hours steaming of the lively scene, when you may count as many as fifty
vessels within sight at one time, lies the magnificent German fleet,
for it is magnificent, save the British the finest the world has ever
seen, equipped with all the most destructive engines the heart of man
could devise. Hindenburg and his devoted divisions suffer terrible
things under the fire of 4,000 British guns, discharging 200,000 tons
of shells within the passage of a few short weeks. Admirals Von Scheer
and Von Hipper pace their quarter decks and take no notice. They know
that these guns, these shells, and the troops behind them can enter
France only by water.
Here surely was their opportunity, and yet only in the outer seas, and
there only by furtive attacks, is the transport upon which all depends
anywhere impeded. That the bridge from England to France stands firm,
that the Channel is no sundering gulf, but as it were solid land, may
seem to us as natural as it is essential, but that it does stand firm
is not merely, if we ponder it, a wonder in itself, it is perhaps the
greatest of the wonders that we have witnessed in these amazing years.
By the navy that vital area, that great and indispensable bridge has
been securely held, and when we say "the navy" let us now and always
mean nothing short of British ships and sailors anywhere, everywhere,
in all the range and variety of their sea-faring activities. Let us
separate them neither in our thoughts nor our affections, and say of
our merchant sailors and fishermen as of the Royal Navy that--what was
expected of them they accomplished, what was required of them they
gave; if courage it was there, if skill it was always forthcoming,
if death they offered their lives freely. There were among them no
strikers or conscientious objectors. In all the virtues that mankind
have held honourable they need not fear comparison either with their
own ancestors or with their adversaries. From "the stoker who put his
soul into his shovel" to the Captain who was the last to leave his ship
they upheld beyond reproach the chivalry of the great sea tradition.
And if we say that the last chapter of the Merchant Sailor's history,
tested by any standard you care to apply, is nobler than any previously
written, we do him no more than justice, and yet ask for him universal
and wondering admiration.
[Illustration: THE GERMAN SUBMARINE BLOCKADE AREA.--THUS MARKED IN
DEEP BLUE]
[Illustration: THE MARKETS OF THE WORLD.
OPEN TO GREAT BRITAIN: CLOSED TO GERMANY.]
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Obvious printer errors have been corrected. The following misspelled
words have been changed from:
immeasureable to immeasurable - page 33
inadmissable to inadmissible - page 39
metal to mettle - page 69
stearing to steering - page 90
Otherwise, the author's original spelling, punctuation and
hyphenation have been left intact.