A jumpy, uncertain tidal sea was running. Yet our destroyer glided over the waves, cut through them, played with them, and let them seem to play with her, all the while laughing at them with the power of the purring vitals that drove her steadily on. “Look out!” which at the front in France was a signal to jump for a “funk pit.” We ducked, as a cloud of spray passed above the heavy canvas and clattered like hail against the smokestack. “There won’t be any more!” said the commander. He was right. He knew that passage. One wondered if he did not know every gallon of water in the North Sea, which he had experienced in all its moods. Sheltered by the smokestack down on the main deck, one of our party, who loved not the sea for its own sake but endured it as a passageway to the sight of the Grand Fleet, had found warmth, if not comfort. Not for him that invitation to come below given by the chief engineer, who rose out of a round hole with a pleasant, “How d’y do!” air to get a sniff of the fresh breeze, wizard of the mysterious power of the turbines which sent the destroyer marching so noiselessly. He was the one who transferred the captain’s orders into that symphony in mechanism. Turn a lever and you had a dozen more knots; not with a leap or a jerk, but like a cat’s sleek stretching of muscles. Not by the slightest tremor did you realise the acceleration; only by watching some stationary object as you flew past. Now a sweep of smooth water at the entrance to a harbour, and a turn-- and there it was: the sea power of England! XXVIII SHIPS THAT HAVE FOUGHT The “invisible” fleet--No chance for German submarines--No end to the greyish blue-green monsters--the _Queen Elizabeth_-- Sea-power and world power--Ships that have been under fire--A German “mistake”--Sir David Beatty--“Youth for action”--On board the _Lion_--Sensations during the fighting--Importance of accurate marksmanship--Crashing blasts and the scream of shells--Watching the hits--The precious turret--Result of German gunfire--A city of steel--Its brain-center--A panoply of tubes, levers, push-buttons--Methods of British gunfire-- One of the great guns--Its human complement--The gun-pointer-- From the upper bridge--An impressive beauty--The chase off Heligoland--Safe return of the _Lion_. But was that really it? That spread of greyish blue-green dots set on a huge greyish blue-green platter? One could not discern where ships began and water and sky which held them suspended left off. Invisible fleet it had been called. At first glance it seemed to be composed of baffling phantoms, absorbing the tone of its background. Admiralty secrecy must be the result of a naval dislike of publicity.