"Just how the mean will be struck between what a fast steamer thinks its escorting destroyers _ought_ to stand, and what the destroyers really _can_ stand, depends upon several things. Perhaps the principal factor is the state of mind of the skipper of the steamer, and that, in turn, is influenced by the value of his ship--both actual and potential--and the danger of submarine attack at that particular time in the waters under traverse. When the destroyers set out to escort a very fast and valuable ship, steering into heavy head seas in waters where there are known to be a number of U-boats operating, they've got the whole combination working against them, and the result is--just what you're slated to see this trip. Best take a good look at the _Zip_ while you've got a chance; she may be quite a bit altered by the time we get back to port again. And you might take a squint at the _Flossie_ over there, too. She's our latest and swiftest, the Fotilla's pride. But this is her first experience of taking out an ex-ocean greyhound, and if, in a burst of fresh enthusiasm, she chances to tap any of these several extra knots of speed she is supposed to have--well, the _Flossie's_ sky-line in that case will be modified more than those of all the rest of her older and wiser sisters put together." Those were prophetic words. "The one thing that makes it certain that we'll be put to the limit to-night," resumed the captain, after he had rung up more speed on our coming out into opener water, "is the news in this morning's official announcement of the sinking of the _Justicia_. We seem just to have struck the peak of the midsummer U-boat campaign. It was scarcely a week ago that they got the _Carpathian_. Then, a few days later, came the _Marmora_ (you won't forget for a while the strafe we had at the U-boat which put her down), and now it's the _Justicia_, the biggest ship they've sunk in a year or so. That's the thing that must be worrying the skipper of the _Lymptania_, for it shows they're after the great troop-carriers. The way they stuck to the _Justicia_ proves they're not yet beyond taking some risk if the stake is high enough. Now and then some Fritz is found desperate enough to commit hari-kari by coming up close (if the chance offers) and making sure of getting his torpedo home. He gets what's coming to him, of course, but there is also a fair chance of his getting the ship he is after; and a fast liner for a U-boat is a poor exchange--from our standpoint. Naturally, these things all make the skipper of the _Lymptania_ anxious to minimise his risks by hitting up just as hot a pace as he can, and that, with her size and her power, will be just about full speed. I can't tell you to a knot how fast that is, but I can tell you this: if you were on the bridge of a destroyer going at that speed when it hit a good heavy head-sea, the only thing that would tell you it wasn't a brick wall she had collided