Such was my position, when I saw a piece of wreckage resembling a chicken coop, large enough to support four men. I reached it just ahead of another man who had been badly scalded. We were both exhausted and unable to help another man coming towards us. He was nearly done, and my companion, seeing his condition, shouted between breaths: "Come along, ole cock. Shake yer bloomin' feavers. There's a perch 'ere for anover rooster." Both were stokers on watch when torpedoed, and in a bad state from scalds. Exposure did the rest. I was alone, when picked up.--_W. Stevens (late R.M.L.I.), 23 Lower Range Road, Denton, near Gravesend._ Uncomfortable Cargo (_A 12-in. shell weighs about 8 cwt. High explosives were painted yellow and "common" painted black._) In October 1914 H.M.S. _Venerable_ was bombarding the Belgian coast and Thames tugs were pressed into service to carry ammunition to ships taking part in the bombardment. The sea was pretty rough when a tug came alongside the _Venerable_ loaded with 12-in. shells, both high explosive and common. Deck hands jumped down into the tug to sling the shells on the hoist. The tug skipper, seeing them jumping on the high explosives, shouted: "Hi! dahn there! Stop jumping on them yaller 'uns"; and, turning to the Commander, who was leaning over the ship's rail directing operations, he called out: "Get them yaller 'uns aht fust, guvnor, or them blokes dahn there 'll blow us sky high."--_A. Gill, 21 Down Road, Teddington, Middlesex._ Good Old "Vernon" Several areas in the North Sea were protected by mines, which came from the torpedo depot ship, H.M.S. _Vernon_. The mines floated several feet below the surface, being kept in position by means of wires attached to sinkers. In my submarine we had encountered very bad weather and were uncertain of our exact position. The weather got so bad that we were forced to cruise forty feet below the surface. Everything was very still in the control room. The only movements were an occasional turn of the hydroplanes, or a twist at the wheel, at which sat "Shorty" Harris, a real hard case from Shadwell. Suddenly we were startled by a scraping sound along the port side. Before we could put our thoughts into words there came an ominous bump on the starboard side. _Bump!_ ... _bump!_ ... seven distinct thuds against the hull. No one moved, and every nerve was taut. Then "Shorty" broke the tension with, "Good old _Vernon_, another blinkin' dud."--_T. White, 31 Empress Avenue, Ilford._ Any Time's Kissing Time! A torpedo-boat destroyer engaged on transport duty in the Channel in 1916 had been cut in two by collision whilst steaming with lights out. A handful of men on the after-part, which alone remained afloat, were rescued after several hours by another destroyer, just as the after-part sank. [Illustration: "Ain't nobody a-goin' ter kiss me?"] A howling gale was raging and some of the survivors had to swim for it.