course, keeping a good look-out for the periscope meanwhile, and all
the time the tramp kept getting closer and didn’t seem to worry about
our warning signals. Then the periscope was spotted, and the next
moment the tramp was between us and the submarine’s track. At the last
minute the Norwegian seemed to have suddenly realised that something
was wrong, and thinking the danger was to do with us, altered her
course away from us.
‘Even so, something must have been amiss in the boat, or I think she
would have gone clear, but the next moment we saw the wake of the
periscope under the steamer’s counter, and then it disappeared for
good. The Norwegian stopped in answer to our frantic signals, and
we went alongside and hailed the master. He said that his engineers
reported that the propeller had struck something, so we took his name
and port of registry and got the wireless going.
‘Two T.B.s arrived in a short time with divers and other gear, and the
tramp was taken into Portland for examination; but nothing was proved,
and she was not held to blame. In those days the submarine signals
weren’t generally known as they are now.
‘We’d marked and buoyed the spot where we last saw “02’s” periscope,
and the divers were just getting ready for a preliminary survey when a
man shot out of the water and right up in the air. He fell back with
a plop, and we had a boat out and the body on board inside three
minutes. It was Allison, the “Sub” of the boat, and he just managed
to tell us how things were and what had happened before he fainted.
Then the divers got to work, and we were waiting anxiously for news
when another body appeared. It was one of the stokers, and he was in a
bad condition with shock, and half drowned. We waited and waited, but
nobody else came up, and it was not for days afterwards that the boat
was raised, and they were all dead by then----’
The gray-haired man sighed and broke off.
‘I knew Allison,’ I said, breaking the silence that followed. ‘It was
he who told me practically all I know about “02.”’
‘Did you?’ said the gray-haired man; ‘and I knew Belton: I knew him
very well.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ I said, ‘I hope I haven’t----’
‘Not at all,’ replied my informant. ‘But I think I knew him better than
most people, because, you see, he was my son.’
* * * * *
I went home that night and I thought about it. Of Allison the cheery,
and Howell the Cockney, and of that lonely old Admiral who’d seen
his son die. I thought about it and I wondered. And the result was
that I asked myself this question: ‘Why do these men do this, and
what keeps them doing it?’ And then the answer came, and the answer
is, that in spite of modern machinery, and modern scepticism, and
modern commercialism, and all the money grubbing and scoffing of the
twentieth century, there is still, thank God, a touch of the loyalty
and ideal of honour and patriotism that nerved our fathers of the
middle ages. In the ordinary walks of life it is met with but rarely,
or if it does exist, it is denied and held to scorn by those who would
rather strike in war-time than do an extra hour’s work, and hold self
continually in the fore-ground and never cast a thought to State or
Country.
And that loyalty and those ideals are always met with in the Navy and
the Army, ay, and in the Merchant Service too--that Service who has
found her worth and come into her own since this World War began.
And why should these ideals remain in our Services when they have so
long left the ranks of civilian life? For the reason that the men of
the Services are trained in the same old way and live up to the same
ideals as their fathers of centuries ago; only a few of the details
have been altered.
For on joining the colours, whether White Ensign or Red Ensign, or his
regimental banner, the man whose father may be an agitator or a strike
leader learns to forget himself and to work for his surroundings, for
good work’s sake, and for the opinion of his superiors.
Thank God that it is so, and that there were those among us who
came forward in 1914 and in 1915 without having to be cajoled and
eventually forced to do what was our obvious and common duty.
May those who growl at the War and those who ask, as some have been
asking, ‘What is the Navy doing?’ gather from these few pages a glimpse
of the life of one small branch of the Service to which Britain owes
her immunity. And if they are not silent afterwards, then will it be
proof that the spirit of England is on the wane, and that her manhood
is not what it was in the days of Trafalgar and of Waterloo.
May that day never come, and may Englishmen, ay, and Irishmen, too,
when striving to do their duty look to the Navy and her sister Services
for their guide-star and example.
AMEN.
Call it a judgment ye who will,
Call it a scourge to punish Man;
Name it a curse that Man must kill,
And suffer God’s eternal ban.
Call it a scourge, a blasting breath,
Borne on the wings of pain and death.
So may it be and ye who think
The Lord’s avenging hand is nigh,
As ye draw near the Silent Brink,
Pray to the Lord who reigns on high.
All ye who use and fear the sword,
Fall on thy knees and pray the Lord.
‘God! Grant the anguish and the blood,
The corpses and the countless biers,
The pain, the misery, the flood,
Of broken hearts and mothers’ tears
May wash away the damning stain,
And cleanse from us the brand of Cain.
‘O God Almighty, Lord of All,
Have mercy on Thy people’s stress;
Hark to Thy people’s pleading call,
Who look to Thee to guide and bless.
Have mercy on us, we who live;
And for our dead ... we pray, forgive.’
FOOTNOTES
[1] When in parallel the batteries are said to be ‘grouped down’; when
in series they are ‘grouped up.’
[2] Leading Torpedo Man.
[3] Seaman Torpedo Man.
[4] Engine Room Artificer.
[5] Seamen.
[6] T.I. Torpedo Instructor.
[7] Periscope.
[8] Torpedo or Mine.
[9] Several submarines secured alongside each other to the depot ship.
[10] Periscope.
[11] Crossed anchor. The badge indicating the rating of Petty Officer.
[12] ‘Making’ a switch is switching on. ‘Breaking’ a switch is
switching off.
[13] Mines.
[14] Naval Store Officer.
[15] The overhang of the stern.
[16] Senior Naval Officer.
[17] Ampères.
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Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.
Footnotes, originally at the bottoms of pages, have been collected,
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before the advertisements.
Page 130: “made the sounds” was printed that way; may be a misprint for
“rounds.”