left them unmoved. Those criticisms were far more stinging than I have ventured to write; any reader with a knowledge of naval vernacular can supply the rest out of his own experience.

Brown next secured a broom -the orderly instinot of the Navy coming uppermost even in this moment of stress-and commenced to sweep up the mess on deck, which, he admitted afterwards, revolted his tidy soul!

Meantime, the U-boat was shelling us intermittently, still maintaining her range. I have no doubt her commander was somewhat astonished at the course of events. He naturally did not know that we had lost our boat, and it is quite possible that his suspieions were growing stronger than ever. Ordinary Italian coasting brigs' crews usually panicked whole-heartedly when attacked, and promptly abandoned their floating homes.

Fortunately for us the shooting was indifferent. This was not to be wondered at, considering the state of the sea. Steadied as we were by the wind, we were still throwing ourselves about in a decidedly unpleasant fashion; the U-boat, with nothing to hold her against the run of the waves, must have been dancing wildly. Although shells were dropping here and there, over us and short, ahead and astern, there were no more direct hits.

But-mark how Fate was working against us this particular day. The C.O., with an idea, apparently, of draw ing Fritz to closer quarters,

was

decided to get away before the wind. His intention, he told us afterwards, was to get speed on the ship, and steady her a bit. He therefore shouted to the helmsman

"Up, up!" He wanted him to grind the wheel hard up and permit the ship to pay off. Let it be remembered that the nerves of all aboard were on strain,—that brains were somewhat stunned by the quick movement of events. The helmsman obeyed the order, but the captain of the after-gun also obeyed what he thought was an order to him. The signal to engage was a shouted "Up guns!" Once that was heard it was up to the gun-eaptains to get their guns up in the quickest possible time, and to open fire as soon as their sights covered the target. Hearing the "Up, up!" the gun-captain naturally thought it was to his address, and gave the word to slip the bottlescrews and throw clear the coverings of the after 12pounder. The submarine was still something like three thousand five hundred yards away. Up came the after-gun, with the usual orash and thud of locking bolts; but before the gun-layer could bring the piece to bear, the C.O. was up and raving like a madman at all hands. We had disclosed our real identity without even a dog's chance of scuppering the enemy!

Here is an example of psychology. Allan, our C.O., had about thirty seconds-certainly not more-in which to make up his mind. There was just a fighting chance that the com

mander of the U-boat had not seen the gun come up. Explaining it afterwards, the C.O. said

"I don't think I ever thought quicker in my life, but I wasn't aware of thinking at all. All I knew was that I was blind mad against that fool of a gun-captain. But there was a sort of feeling that as there was a bit of spray knocking about, and as we were making heavy weather of it, Fritz mightn't have noticed what we were up to, so I thought it best to gamble on the off-chance, and ordered the gun to be housed again."

There was reason on the C.O.'s side. Look at a vessel of Brig X's tonnage from a distanee of some three thousand yards through spray-dimmed binoculars, and say how many individual details you can pick out, remembering at the same time that your own ship is rolling savagely.

Whatever the German officer saw through his binoculars, it is evident that he did not see our camouflaged gun go up. Otherwise he would-following the usual practice-have approached us submerged until within torpedoing distance, and then have settled the matter out of hand by a welldirected "mouldy.' As it was, he contented himself with a desultory gun-fire that must have cost his Government quite a lot of money, and injured us not at all.

speed and agility of manœuvre that he did, he could sail in rings round us and choose precisely his position and moment of definite attack. We could do nothing beyond slug along like a crippled dereliot. We could not even use our wireless to call for assistance, as, owing to Fritz's proximity, our signals would have reached his apparatus with a strength that must inevitably have disclosed the fact that we were equipped with wireless-and the average sailing coaster in the Mediterranean does not indulge in such expensive luxuries. It was an excellent opportunity to realise the limitations of a "Q" boat.

And there was, perhaps, some reason for the C.O.'s growl as I orawled aft to find company and to exchange opinions.

"I'd like to have one or two of those blasted longshore R.N. jokers here just now," he remarked bitterly. "The fellows that ask us if we're troubled with cold feet when we ask for a bigger gun to carry on with!" He spoke out of the deeps of rankling experience. He had protested not once but many times against the oalibre of the guns with which we were equipped, asking for 4 inchers to to replace replace the 12-pounders, because it was believed that no enemy submarine afloat was armed with anything less than 8 22. pounder, whereas the majority of them carried 4.1 inch ordnance. But his requests had fallen on deaf ears systematically, and quite a number

of us serving in "Q" boats were strongly under the impression that the Navy proper had forgotten to declare war against Germany on August 4, 1914.

Because of the bedraggled state of our yards and sails, we were moving slowly and uncomfortably before the wind: a biggish target, and not in a position to retaliate, unless we forgot the obligation we owed to other craft of our type.

It was apparent, too, that the men were getting restless. Ordinary "Q" boating they understood to the last word, but this indeterminate existence was rattling them a bit. Already stories had filtered through the various action positions as to what had happened, and these stories had not lost anything in transmission.

It was decided to make a visit to the stations and explain what had happened and what we hoped would happen; accordingly we left the deck, crawling oiroumspectly, and interviewed the men at close quarters. It was, perhaps, somewhat reprehensible to leave the deck under the circumstances, but I think our action was justified. At the forward 12-pounder the men had heard that a shell had pitched aboard, dismounted the after gun, killed Captain and Navigator, and seriously wounded the First Lieutenant! Afterwards we wondered what sort of a story would have been told had Brig X been twice as long as she was.

Yes, our uncomfortable visit had a good effect: the gun

crews resigned themselves stoically to await events. Returning to the after upperdeck, we resolved to carry on as though the brig had actually been abandoned. So far as we could judge, the contretemps of the after 12-pounder had not been observed by the enemy.

Accordingly the brig was permitted to slog along halfaimlessly, as though orippled and generally affected in her personnel; and when another shell screamed near at hand, the C.O. gave the order

"Hit amidships!" Brown, who was holding a sort of watching - brief between the wounded and his smoke-boxes, promptly ignited a smoke-box, and a splendid column of smoke ascended from our hull.

"That ought to fetch him," the C.O. said. But it failed to lure Fritz to the doom that was prepared for him. He refused to close to a nearer distance than two thousand yards, and even at that range persisted in moving swiftly and in circling about us,

So that, after enduring this sort of thing for two solid hours, our patience wore thin, and we decided that the other brigs of our type might be able to look after themselves: that was their affair. Our immediate preoccupation was to put the wind up Fritz; and accordingly, Allan gave orders to get the guns up and open fire.

This was done; and although the erratic movements of the brig rendered precise shooting problematical, several rounds were fired at the submarine. My position, on opening fire, was aloft; and thither, in the

merged.

We got off seven rounds very quickly. Spotting for the fall of shot was anything but an easy matter, because the surface of the sea was badly ruffled by the breeze, and whiteoaps were very plentiful; but such observations as were made were passed down to the gun-crews, and sighting corrections made accordingly.

To this day we are none of us certain that we actually hit Fritz. The gun-layers swore that they had done so; and I observed one splash that seemed to indicate that a shell had pitched about twenty-five yards short of the enemy's hull-and that, allowing for the rise in the ricochet, would certainly have got him; but the action was indeterminate. Fritz answered our fire it was curious to notice the thin spit of his gun's discharge amongst the thrown-up spray-but after

8

We

while he quite obviously deemed discretion the better part of valour, and turned tail and went away on the surface at the top of his speed. waited, but he vanished utterly in the direction of the land; and we decided unanimously that we had hit him so badly that he was unable to submerge; and we further prayed that he might arouse the interest of some of our steam patrols, which would know how to deal with him. A submarine on the surface is not nearly so

As soon as we were assured that Fritz had definitely broken off the engagement, the C.O. ordered a ration of rum to be served out to all hands. This was done, and the action was keenly appreciated, although the coxswain said that the accounting for the extra issue would be a difficult matter. The paymasters ashore would not be able to understand such a departure from precedent, he informed us; but we of the after-guard decided that, in the event of trouble arising, we would foot the bill ourselves. Considering the suspense the crew had been compelled to endure, they richly deserved a little refreshment of this nature. And what actually happened when the accounting took place was this: the stone jar from which the grog had been served was hit violently against a stanchion, and the broken pieces were presented as evidence of an accident. The official record, I believe, said that one jar of rum had been broken by the splinters of an enemy shell! Anyhow, the men got the drink, and it steadied their jangled nerves, and enabled them to endure the unpleasantness of seeing our wounded.

The dead petty officer was collected and sewn up in his hammock-here again Brown officiated stolidly-and after sunset we committed the man's remains to the deep.

A burial service at sea is always an impressive matter; it brings a scalding sensation to the eyes and a lumpiness to