The naval architect, when (in a rash moment) he gave the submarine to the Royal Navy, offered a new and a perilous enterprise to the indomitable spirit of the seaman. How that enterprise is achieved, with what courage, endurance, cheerfulness, enthusiasm, with what extraordinary skill, Mr Bennett tells us with a seamanlike modesty and precision. The task set to the Navy was how to wield a new weapon, an invisible weapon striking with the torpedo. It was not until 1910 that a British submarine went without escort into deep water and proved her capacity to cruise and fight as an independent unit. During the war, we heard a deal of the German submarine, and very little of our own Submarine Service. Mr Bennett narrates the story of one submarine, and in so doing, informs us more vividly and truly than all the official reports can ever inform us. With the submarine, Germany very nearly defeated the entire British Navy, but not quite. The difference between victory and failure resided not in the submarine, which is machinery, but in the officers and men. Had the positions been reversed: had the British held the German strategical position, had the Germans owned the British Grand Fleet; there would have been very little left of that tremendous armada ere six months were over. The submarine, handled as Mr Bennett describes, has in fact made an end of the old Navy. There is now the Navy that swims, the Navy that flies, and the Navy that dives. These three are one: and into what this triple machine will evolve, none knows. But it is enough to know something of the quality of the officers and men, for these are the masters of the machine. L. COPE CORNFORD. LONDON, _April, 1919_. [_Printed after books were bound._] CONTENTS PAGE UNDER THE PERISCOPE 1 PATROL 3 THE MOTHERS 45 EMPTY SADDLES 47 THE BOGIE MAN 67 ‘EXERCISE ATTACKS’ 69 NEPTUNE AND BRITANNIA 103 PERSONNEL 105 THE DOCKYARD 145 ‘SURVEY AND DEMAND’ 147 ACTION 191 THE REAL THING 193 THE SEAGULLS 231 ‘FOR THOSE IN PERIL ON THE SEA’ 233 UNDER THE PERISCOPE I