We were serving in a destroyer (H.M.S. _Stour_) in 1915, steaming up
and down the East Coast. As we passed the different coastguard stations
the bunting-tosser had to signal each station for news.
One station, in particular, always had more to tell than the others.
One day this station signalled that a merchant ship had been torpedoed
and that German submarines were near the coast.
My Cockney chum--we called him Trunkey Turk because of his big
nose--asked the bunting-tosser for his news as he was coming down from
the bridge, and when he was told, said, "Why didn't you ask them if
they saw a tin of salmon in their tot of rum to-day?"--_J. Tucknott, 2
Wisbeach Road, West Croydon._