At Dover we had to pass through a narrow passage protected by mines on either side; off Margate we brought up for the night guarded by a destroyer, while ships of war were continually dashing past. There were evident signs of anxiety and activity, and we began to realise that we were at war, and to consider what could be done to counter the attack of a U boat. We had guns, but when a U boat showed herself, it would be almost too late to fire with effect. We remembered when on board the "Mauretania" on a voyage to New York, hearing at a distance of fourteen miles a fog bell ringing under water at the Nantucket lightship, and we thought the same principle might be utilized to detect a submarine at some distance by the thud made by the propeller. We also thought of the long distance coming up the Channel which our ship had sailed without any protection, and the idea of reverting to the old system of "convoys" suggested itself, and we ventured, on reaching London, to write a letter to the _Times_, embodying these ideas, but they were censored by the Admiralty, although both were subsequently, after the lapse of three years, introduced, the "convoy" being found the best means of protecting our merchant fleet. When the war broke out suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, we were probably better prepared by sea than by land to meet the onslaught which had been so cunningly devised to take us unawares, for it was undoubtedly the intention of Germany to crush us and bring us under her heel within a few months. The fleet had been summoned for a review by His Majesty the King, it was, therefore, practically mobilized, and ready at once to take up such positions as would paralyze the movements of the German fleet, but much more than this had to be done, our army had to be transported across the Channel, with all its stores and equipment; the forces so nobly supplied by our Dominions beyond the seas had to be brought over, and this had to be done by our merchant ships. The seas had to be policed, our commerce had to be carried on and to be protected, and all this with the knowledge that German fleets still existed in the Pacific and South Atlantic, and also that many armed raiders were about. The rapidity with which all this was organised and carried out reflects the greatest credit upon our Navy and Merchant Service. We managed to land our "contemptible" little army (as the Kaiser was pleased to term it) of 170,000 men, and place it in battle array on the Belgian soil without our enemy knowing when it arrived or where it was placed, and it was this ignorance of the whereabouts of our forces which we are now told enabled us to turn the defeat of the Marne into a victory.