If you will examine the photos of Commander Douglas’s Q-ship _Barranca_, you will see how cleverly, by means of a little faking, even a much bigger ship could be disguised. In one picture you see her alley-ways covered up by a screen, funnel markings altered, and so on; whilst in another the conspicuous white upper-works, the white band on the funnel, and the dark hull make her a different ship, so that, he tells me, on one occasion after passing a suspicious neutral steamer and not being quite satisfied, he was able to steam out of sight, change his ship’s appearance, and then overtake her, get quite close and make a careful examination without revealing his identity. To the landsman all this may seem impossible, but inasmuch as the sea is traversed nowadays by steamers differing merely in minute details, distinguished only to the practised eye of the sailor, such deception is possible. I remember on one occasion during the war a surprising instance of this. Being in command of a steam drifter off the south-west Irish coast, I obtained Admiral Bayly’s permission at my next refit to have the ship painted green, the foremast stepped, the funnel and markings painted differently, and a Dublin fishing letter and number painted on the bows, a suitable name being found in the Fisherman’s Almanack. The 6-pounder gun forward was covered with fishing gear, which could be thrown overboard as soon as the ship came into action. Discarding naval uniform and wearing old cloth caps and clothes, we left Queenstown, steamed into Berehaven, and tied up alongside a patrol trawler with whom we had been working in company for nearly a year. The latter’s crew never recognized us until they saw our faces, and even then insisted that we had got a new ship! In fact, one of them asserted that he knew this Dublin drifter very well, at which my Scotch crew from the Moray Firth were vastly amused. [Illustration: Q-SHIP “BARRANCA” Disguised as a different ship with yellow funnel and black boot-top.] [Illustration: Q SHIP “BARRANCA” Appearance changed by closing up alley-ways, painting hull, ship’s boats, and funnel so as to resemble a freighter of the P. & O. Line. To face p. 222] Routine at sea of course differed in various Q-ships, but it may be interesting to set down the following, which prevailed in that well-organized ship _Penshurst_: SEA ROUTINE. Time as { Call guns’ crew of morning watch; 3-pounder crew per Night { lash up and stow. Guns’ crew close up, uncover Order { guns, unship 6-pounder night-sights. Gunlayers Book. { report their crews closed up to officers of the { watch. 5.30 a.m. Call cooks and stewards. 6.0 a.m. 12-pounder crew and one of 3-pounder crew to wash down bridges and saloon-decks. 7.0 a.m. Call guns’ crews of forenoon watch, lash up and stow hammocks. Hands to wash. 7.30 a.m. Forenoon watch to breakfast.