The openings appear long enough to permit British craft, whether trawlers, or flotillas, or cruisers, or battleships, to go and come. Lying as close together as fish in a basket, I saw at one place a number of torpedo boats home from a week at sea. “Here to-day and gone to-morrow,” said an officer. “What a time they had last winter! You know how cold the North Sea is--no, you cannot, unless you have been out in a torpedo boat dancing the tango in the teeth of that bitter wind, with the spray whipping up to the tops of the smoke-stacks. In the dead of night they would come into this pitch-dark harbour. How they found their way is past me. It’s a trick of those young fellows, who command.” Stationary they seemed now as the quay itself; but let a signal speak, an alarm come, and they would soon be as alive as leaping porpoises. The sport is to those who scout and hunt. But, again, do not forget those who watch, those who keep the blockade, from the Channel to Iceland, and those trawlers who plod over plotted sea-squares with the regularity of mowing machines cutting a harvest, on their way back and forth sweeping up mines. They were fishermen before the war and are fishermen still. Night and day they keep at it. They come into the harbours stiff with cold, thaw out, and return to hardships which would make many a man prefer the trenches. Tributes to their patient courage, which came from the heart, were heard on board the battleships. “It is when we think of them,” said an officer, “that we are most eager to have the German fleet come out, so that we can do our part.” XXXIII THE FLEET PUTS TO SEA The test of perfect motion--Is the fleet bottled by submarines?-- The message arrives--The sea-march of dull-toned unadorned power--Destroyers in the van--The majestic procession of battleships--The secret in sheer hard work--The sea-lion on the hunt--The “old” Dreadnought--The exotic Turk--An hour and still passing--Irresistible power--Visualizing the whole globe, safe behind that fleet--Back in London--The Zeppelin’s pitiable target--Meaning of British dominion--A German comparison. There is another test besides that of gun drills and target practice which reflects the efficiency of individual ships, and the larger the number of ships the more important it is. For the business of a fleet is to go to sea. At anchor it is in garrison rather than on campaign, an assembly of floating forts. Navies one has seen which seemed excellent when in harbour, but when they started to get under way the result was hardly reassuring. Some erring sister fouled her anchor chain; another had engine room trouble; another lagged for some other reason; there was fidgeting on the bridges. Then one asked, What if a summons to battle had come?