Part 14 (2/2)

'We must keep well inside the banks and be precious careful wherever there's a swell It's rampant in here, you see, in spite of the barrier of sand But there's plenty we can do farther back'

We breakfasted in horrible discomfort; then smoked and talked till the roar of the breakers dwindled At the first sign of bare sand we got under way, under mizzen and head-sails only, and I learned how to sail a reluctant anchor out of the ground Pivoting round, we scudded east before the wind, over the ground we had traversed the evening before, while an archipelago of new banks slowly shouldered up above the fast weakening waves We trod delicately a to where space peran to see where the risks lay in this sort of navigation Wherever the ocean swell penetrated, or the wind blew straight down a long deep channel, we had to be very cautious and leave good round on,' Davies used to say

In the end we traversed the Steil Sand again, but by a different say, and anchored, after an arduous day, in a notch on its eastern limit, just clear of the swell that rolled in froht was fair, and when the tide receded we lay perfectly still, the fresh wind only sending a lip-lip of ripples against our sides

XIII The Meaning of our Work

NOTHING happened during the next ten days to disturb us at our work

During every hour of daylight and round or afloat, in rain and shi+ne, wind and calm, we studied the bed of the estuaries, and practised ourselves in threading the network of channels; holding no co it It was a life of toil, exposure, and peril; a struggle against odds, too; for wild autu between the south-west and north-west, and only for two placid days blowing gently froion Its force and direction deterh and northerly we explored the inner fastnesses; inwhen surprised into whatever lair wasvast solitudes of sand, soain, ere creeping gingerly round the deeper arteries that surround the Great Knecht, exa tissue, and the circulation of the tide throbbing through theh the tide-rips and overfalls that infest the open fairway of the Weser on our passage between the Fork and the Pike On one of our fine days I saw the scene of Davies's original adventure by daylight with the banks dry and the channels manifest The reader has seen it on the chart, and can, up to a point, form his opinion; I can only add that I realized by ocular proof that no er; for approaching it from the north-west under the easiest conditions it was hard enough to verify our true course In a period so full of new excitements it is not easy for me to say ere hardest put to it, especially as it was a rule with Davies never to adliest experience was on the 10th, when, owing to soerous spot Mere stranding, of course, was all in the day's work; the constantly recurring question being when and where to court or risk it This tiain ere on a lee shore, broadside on to a gale of hich was sending a nasty sea--with a three-ive it force--down Robin's Balje, which is one of the deeper arteries I spoke of above, and now lay dead to ard of us The cli till she floats,' said Davies; and I can see hi a chafed hile he explained that her double skin of teak fitted her to stand anything in reason She certainly had a terrific test that night, for the botto sand, on which she rose and fell with convulsive vehemence The last half-hour was for me one of almost intolerable tension I spent it on deck unable to bear the suspense below Sheets of driven sea flew bodily over the hull, and a score of tiht she must succumb as she shi+vered to the blows of her keel on the sand But those stout skins knit by honest labour stood the trial One final thud and she wrenched herself bodily free, found her anchor, and rode clear

On the whole I think we made few mistakes Davies had a supreme aptitude for the work Every hour, soht its problem, and his resource never failed The stiffer it was the cooler he became He had, too, that intuition which is independent of acquired skill, and is at the root of all genius; which, to take cases analogous to his own, is the last quality of the perfect guide or scout I believe he could _smell_ sand where he could not see or touch it

As for me, the sea has never been my element, and never will be; nevertheless, I hardened to the life, grew salt, tough, and tolerably alert As a soldier learns more in a week of war than in years of parades and pipeclay, so, cut off fro fro, to some extent, for ained a certain dexterity I knew my ropes in the dark, could beat econos, and estienerally in solitude, but occasionally we h the sands, and once or te found a fleet of such boats anchored in a gut, waiting for water Their draught, loaded, was from six to seven feet, our own only four, without our centre-plate, but we took their ht as the standard of all our observations That is, we set ourselves to ascertain when and how a vessel drawing six and a half feet could navigate the sands

A word more as to our motive It was Davies's conviction, as I have said, that the whole region would in war be an ideal hunting-ground for sht; for look at the three sea-roads through the sands to Ha, Bremen, Wilhelmshaven, and the heart of co a mountainous district by defiles, where a handful of desperate men can arrest an army

Follow the parallel of a war on land People yourand resourceful race, who possess an intie of every track and bridle-path, who operate in sht, and uerillas possess over an enee bodies, slowly, and does not 'know the country' See how they can not only inflict disasters on a foe who vastly over a se after all decisive battles have been fought See, too, how the strong invader can only conquer his elusive antagonists by learning theirthe The parallel must not be pressed too far; but that this sort of warfare will have its counterpart on the sea is a truth which cannot be questioned

Davies in his enthusiasm set no limits to its ihty _role_ in his vision of a naval war, a part that would grow in iht in the final stages

'The heavy battle fleets are all very well,' he used to say, 'but if the sides are wellleft of theht destroy one anotheras nominal conqueror an admiral with scarcely a battleshi+p to bless hile will set in; and it's then that anything that will float will be pressed into the service, and anybody who can steer a boat, knows his waters, and doesn't care the toss of a coin for his life, will have nificent opportunities

It cuts both ways What sh; but take our own case Say we're beaten on the high seas by a coalition There's then a risk of starvation or invasion It's all rot what they talk about instant surrender We can live on half rations, recuperate, and build; but we er, for the millions we sink in forts and mines won't carry us far They're fixed--pure passive defence What you want is _boats_--s--swarent irregulars manned by local aame to play! There are places very like this over there--nothing half so good, but similar--the Mersey estuary, the Dee, the Severn, the Wash, and, best of all, the Thames, with all the Kent, Essex, and Suffolk banks round it But as for defending our coasts in the way Iwhatsoever! We don't even build or use sood for _this_ work--too long and uneable, andand siht, and with only a spar-torpedo, if it ca would do at a pinch, for success would depend on intelligence, not on brute force or coet wiped out often, but what ht sort of anized_ But where are the h seas, and have to attack or blockade a coast like this, which is sand from end to end

You can't improvise people who are at hoh, by Jove! they're the nificent service in the world--in pluck, and nerve, and everything else

They'll _try_ anything, and often do the iet little practice in this sort of thing'

Davies never pushed houment here; but I know that it was the passionate wish of his heart, soe of this coast to practical account in the war that he felt was bound to coa field for it

I can do nothem as I did, with the very splash of the surf and the bubble of the tides in ave me the very zeal for our work he, by tempera occurred to disturb us, I felt ards our quest, ere on the wrong tack We found nothing suspicious, nothing that suggested a really adequate motive for Doll onto his theory, but the sa to do with these channels in the sand,' he persisted, 'but I'ot at the heart of the mystery nobody seems to care a rap e do We haven't done the estuaries as well as I should like, but we'd better push on to the islands It's exactly the same sort of work, and just as iet a clue soon'

There was also the question of time, for me at least I was due to be back in London, unless I obtained an extension, on the 28th, and our present rate of progress was slow But I cannot conscientiously say that I made a serious point of this If there was any value in our enterprise at all, official duty pales beside it The machinery of State would not suffer from my absence; excuses would have to be made, and the results braved

All the tirew shabbier and reyer, the sails dingier, and the cabin roof more murky where stove-fumes stained it

But the only beauty she ever possessed, that of perfect fitness for her functions, re to compare her to she became a home to me My joints adapted themselves to her crabbed limits, my tastes and habits to her plain do low, and the time had come for us to be forced to land and renew our stock

XIV The First Night in the Islands