Part 3 (1/2)

”Ah, well!” said he very quietly, ”they know better now, don't you think?”

”Yes,” said I, and again, ”Yes.”

”Slow starters always,” continued he musingly; ”but the nation that can match us in staying power has yet to be born!”

So walking between these two I listened and looked and asked questions, and of what I heard, and of what I saw I could write much; but for the censor I might tell of armour-belts of enormous thickness, of guns of stupendous calibre, of new methods of defence against sneaking submarine and torpedo attack, and of devices new and strange; but of these I may neither write nor speak, because of the aforesaid censor. Suffice it that as the sun sank, we came, all three, to a jetty whereto a steamboat lay moored, on whose limited deck were numerous figures, divers of whom beckoned me on.

So with hearty farewells, I stepped aboard the steamboat, whereupon she snorted and fell suddenly a-quiver as she nosed out into the broad stream while I stood to wave my hat in farewell.

Side by side they stood, the Captain tall and broad and sailor-like in his blue and gold--a man of action, bold of eye, hearty of voice, free of gesture; the other, his silver hair agleam in the setting sun, a man wise with years, gentle and calm-eyed, my Master Builder.

Thus, as the distance lengthened, I stood watching until presently they turned, side by side, and so were gone.

Slowly we steamed down the river, a drab, unlovely waterway, but a wonderful river none the less, whose banks teem with workers where s.h.i.+ps are building--s.h.i.+ps by the mile, by the league; s.h.i.+ps of all shapes and of all sizes, s.h.i.+ps of all sorts and for many different purposes. Here are great cargo boats growing hour by hour with liners great and small; here I saw mile on mile of battles.h.i.+ps, cruisers, destroyers and submarines of strange design with torpedo boats of uncanny shape; tramp steamers, windjammers, squat colliers and squatter tugs, these last surely the ugliest craft that ever wallowed in water. Mine layers were here with mine sweepers and hospital s.h.i.+ps--a heterogeneous collection of well-nigh every kind of s.h.i.+p that floats.

Some lay finished and ready for launching, others, just begun, were only a sketch--a hint of what soon would be a s.h.i.+p.

On our right were s.h.i.+ps, on our left were s.h.i.+ps and more s.h.i.+ps, a long perspective; s.h.i.+ps by the million tons--until my eyes grew a-weary of s.h.i.+ps and I went below.

Truly a wonderful river, this, surely in its way the most wonderful river eyes may see, a sight I shall never forget, a sight I shall always a.s.sociate with the stalwart figure of the Captain and the white hair and venerable form of the Master Builder as they stood side by side to wave adieu.

VI

THE BATTLE CRUISERS

Beneath the shadow of a mighty bridge I stepped into a very smart launch manned by sailors in overalls somewhat grimy, and, rising and falling to the surge of the broad river, we held away for a destroyer that lay grey and phantom-like, low, rakish, and with speed in every line of her. As we drew near, her narrow deck looked to my untutored eye a confused litter of guns, torpedo tubes, guy ropes, cables and windla.s.ses. Howbeit, I clambered aboard, and ducking under a guy rope and avoiding sundry other obstructions, shook hands with her commander, young, clear-eyed and cheery of mien, who presently led me past a stumpy smokestack and up a perpendicular ladder to the bridge where, beneath a somewhat flimsy-looking structure, was the wheel, bra.s.s-bound and highly be-polished like all else about this crowded craft as, notably, the binnacle and certain bra.s.s-bound dials, on the faces whereof one might read such words as: Ahead, Astern, Fast, Slow, etc. Forward of this was a platform, none too roomy, where was a gun most carefully wrapped and swaddled in divers cloths, tarpaulins, etc.--wrapped up with as much tender care as if it had been a baby, and delicate at that. But, as the commander casually informed me, they had been out patrolling all night and ”it had blown a little”--wherefore I surmised the cloths and tarpaulins aforesaid.

”I should think,” I ventured, observing her sharp lines and slender build, ”I should think she would roll rather frightfully when it does blow a little?”

”Well, she does a bit,” he admitted, ”but not so much--Starboard!”

said he, over his shoulder, to the bearded mariner at the wheel.

”Take us round by the _Tiger_.”

”Aye, aye, sir!” retorted the bearded one as we began to slide through the water.

”Yes, she's apt to roll a bit, perhaps, but she's not so bad,” he continued; ”besides, you get used to it.”

Here he fell to scanning the haze ahead through a pair of binoculars, a haze through which, as we gathered speed, ghostly shapes began to loom, portentous shapes that grew and grew upon the sight, turret, superstructure and embattled mast; here a mighty battle cruiser, yonder a super-destroyer, one after another, quiet-seeming on this autumn morning, and yet whose grim hulks held latent potentialities of destruction and death, as many of them have proved but lately.

As we pa.s.sed those silent, monstrous shapes, the Commander named them in turn, names which had been flashed round the earth not so long ago, names which shall yet figure in the histories to come with Grenville's _Revenge_, Drake's _Golden Hind_, Blake's _Triumph_, Anson's _Centurion_, Nelson's _Victory_ and a score of other deathless names--glorious names that make one proud to be of the race that manned and fought them.

Peacefully they rode at their moorings, the water lapping gently at their steel sides, but, as we steamed past, on more than one of them, and especially the grim _Tiger_, I saw the marks of the Jutland battle in dinted plate, scarred funnel and superstructure, taken when for hours on end the dauntless six withstood the might of the German fleet.

So, as we advanced past these battle-scarred s.h.i.+ps, I felt a sense of awe, that indefinable uplift of soul one is conscious of when treading with soft and reverent foot the dim aisles of some cathedral hallowed by time and the dust of our n.o.ble dead.

”This afternoon,” said the Commander, offering me his cigarette case, ”they're going to show you over the _Warspite_--the German Navy have sunk her so repeatedly, you know. There,” he continued, nodding towards a fleet of squat-looking vessels with stumpy masts, ”those are the auxiliaries--coal and oil and that sort of thing--ugly beggars, but useful. How about a whisky and soda?”

Following him down the perpendicular ladder, he brought me aft to a hole in the deck, a small hole, a round hole into which he proceeded to insert himself, first his long legs, then his broad shoulders, evidently by an artifice learned of much practice. Finally his jauntily be-capped head vanished, and thereafter from the deeps below his cheery voice reached me.