them gradually to fill. By 10.15 A.M. the enemy was badly on fire and stopped. A few minutes later, at 10.22 P.M., boats were observed to be leaving her and the _Alcantara_ ceased firing. The latter ship was by this time listing heavily and was abandoned shortly afterwards, sinking at 11.2 A.M. The _Andes_, which had been engaging the enemy at a longer range than the _Alcantara_, rendered assistance to the boats of the two ships. On receipt of the first signal from the _Andes_, the _Calliope_, _Comus_ and _Blanche_ had been ordered to the scene at full speed. The _Comus_, Captain Alan G. Hotham, R.N., the nearest vessel, with the destroyer _Munster_, arrived on the spot Lat. 61.48 N., Long. 1.40 E., as the _Alcantara_ was sinking. The _Munster_ picked up the crew of the _Alcantara_, and as the enemy raider still had colours flying the _Comus_ proceeded to sink her by gunfire and to pick up the survivors in her boats. The _Calliope_ and _Magic_ arrived at 1 P.M., but, not being required, returned to their patrol line. The enemy vessel turned out to be the disguised raider _Grief_, armed with four 5.9-inch guns and two torpedo tubes; she had a complement of 306, of whom 209, including many wounded, were rescued by the _Comus_ and _Andes_. The incident showed the great difficulty of carrying out blockade work under modern conditions when dealing with an unscrupulous enemy. A raider disguised as a neutral, and armed with torpedo tubes, is a most difficult customer to deal with, and every neutral vessel had perforce to be treated as “suspect” after an incident of this nature. It is not possible to examine a vessel without boarding her, and, except in very fine weather, it is necessary for the boarding ship to be close to the suspected ship before lowering her boat, as the latter obviously cannot pull long distances. The experience of the _Alcantara_ showed the danger of closing the ship to be boarded. An attempt to solve the problem was made by informing all neutrals that, when any of our vessels displayed a certain signal, the ship to be boarded should steam towards the boarding boat, this boat being lowered some distance away. But, in order to carry this into effect, we were obviously dependent to a large extent on the co-operation of neutrals, which was not always in evidence. Modern blockade work undoubtedly bristles with difficulties which did not exist in the days of our forefathers, not the least being the advent of the torpedo and the submarine. The German method of solving such difficulties was to sink vessels at sight, but such methods did not, and never will, appeal to the British mind, or to the mind of any seaman belonging to the Allied nations.