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diff --git a/42374-8.txt b/42374-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 63099f7..0000000 --- a/42374-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6803 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of To Kiel in the 'Hercules', by Lewis R. Freeman - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: To Kiel in the 'Hercules' - -Author: Lewis R. Freeman - -Release Date: March 19, 2013 [EBook #42374] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TO KIEL IN THE 'HERCULES' *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Bergquist, Charlie Howard, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - -TO KIEL IN THE "HERCULES" - -[Illustration: "THE THREE ADMIRALS:" REAR ADMIRAL ROBINSON, U. S. N. -(LEFT), VICE ADMIRAL BROWNING, R. N. (CENTER), REAR ADMIRAL GROSSET -(FRENCH) (RIGHT)] - - - - - TO KIEL IN THE - "HERCULES" - - BY - LIEUT. LEWIS R. FREEMAN, R. N. V. R. - - Official Correspondent with the Grand Fleet, and Member - of Staff of Allied Naval Armistice Commission - - _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM - PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR_ - - [Illustration] - - NEW YORK - DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY - 1919 - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1919 - BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. - - - VAIL-BALLOU COMPANY - - BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I INTO GERMAN WATERS 1 - - II GETTING DOWN TO WORK 31 - - III FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF "STARVING GERMANY" 61 - - IV ACROSS THE SANDS TO NORDERNEY 92 - - V NORDHOLZ, THE DEN OF THE ZEPPELINS 122 - - VI MERCHANT SHIPPING 154 - - VII THE BOMBING OF TONDERN 179 - - VIII THROUGH THE CANAL TO THE BALTIC 198 - - IX TO WARNEMÜNDE AND RÜGEN 224 - - X JUTLAND AS A GERMAN SAW IT 255 - - XI BACK TO BASE 283 - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - - PAGE - - "The Three Admirals." Rear Admiral Robinson, U. S. N. - (left), Vice Admiral Browning, R. N. (center), Rear - Admiral Grosset, (French) (right) _Frontispiece_ - - Heligoland in sight! 18 - - Members of the Allied Naval Commission, Admiral Browning - in center 34 - - The Allied Naval Commission and Staff, taken on board - _Hercules_ 34 - - The Padre of the _Hercules_ talking with newly arrived - British prisoners 40 - - In the Elbe, Hamburg 166 - - Railroad station at Hamburg 166 - - Floating dock for lifting submarines in Kiel Harbour 182 - - Birdseye view of Kiel 192 - - In Kiel dockyard 192 - - H. M. S. _Viceroy_ entering Kiel Canal lock at Brunsbüttel 200 - - Semaphore station on Kiel Canal, from _Hercules_ 206 - - Kiel dockyard from the Harbour 214 - - Foreshore of Kiel Harbour with the Kaiserlich Yacht - Club at left of grove of trees 220 - - _Hindy_ (left) and German pilot who claimed to have - launched the torpedo which damaged the _Sussex_ 228 - - British prisoners and German sailors at Warnemünde 240 - - View of Kiel Canal from nearmost turret of the _Hercules_ 258 - - _Hercules_, with three V class destroyers in Kiel Harbour 266 - - H. M. S. _Hercules_ and H. M. S. _Constance_ in Kiel locks 286 - - - - -TO KIEL IN THE "HERCULES" - - - - -TO KIEL IN THE "HERCULES" - - - - -I - -INTO GERMAN WATERS - - -"The _Regensburg_ has been calling us for some time," said the chief -signal officer as he came down for his belated "watch" luncheon in the -ward-room, "and it looks as though we might expect to see her come -nosing up out of the mist any time after two o'clock. She excuses -herself for being late at the rendezvous by saying that the fog has been -so thick in the Bight that she had to anchor during the night. It's not -any too good a prospect for a look-see at Heligoland, for our course -hardly takes us within three miles of it at the nearest." - -It was in a fog that the _Hercules_ had dropped down through the moored -lines of the Grand Fleet the previous morning, it was in a fog that she -had felt her way out of the Firth of Forth and by devious mine-swept -channels to the North Sea, and it was still in a fog that she--the -first surface warship of the Allies to penetrate deeply into them since -the Battle of the Bight, not long after the outbreak of the war--was -approaching German waters. Indeed, the whole last act of the great -naval drama--from the coming of the _Königsberg_ to the Forth, with -a delegation to receive the terms of surrender, to the incomparable -pageant of the surrender itself--had been played out behind the fitful -and uncertain raisings and lowerings of a fog-curtain; and now the -epilogue--wherein there was promise that much, if not all, that had -remained a mystery throughout the unfolding of the war drama itself -should be finally revealed--was being held up through the wilfulness -of this same perverse scene-shifter. The light cruiser, _Regensburg_, -which, "according to plan," was to have met us at nine that morning at a -rendezvous suggested by the German Naval Staff, and pilot the _Hercules_ -through the mine-fields, had not been sighted by early afternoon. -Numerous floating mines, rolling lazily in the bow-wave spreading to -port and starboard and ogling us with leering, moon-faced impudence -in the fog, had been sighted since daybreak, auguring darkly of the -explosive barrier through which we were passing by the "safe course" the -Germans (in lieu of the promised charts which had failed to arrive) had -advised us by wireless to follow. - -Now mines, floating or submerged, are not pleasant things to navigate -among. Although, theoretically, it is impossible for any ship to run -into a floating mine even if she tries (the bow-wave tending to throw -it off, as many experiments have proved); and although, theoretically, -a ship fitted with paravanes cannot bring her hull into contact with -a moored mine; yet the fact remained that ships were being lost right -along from both kinds. It seemed high time, then, in the case of the -_Hercules_ and her escorting destroyers, that the German Navy, which -had undertaken to see them safely through the mine barrier, and which -knew more about the pattern of its death-traps than any one else, should -begin to shoulder some of its responsibilities. It was good news that -the _Regensburg_ was about to make a tardy appearance and hand over a -hostage in the form of a German pilot. - - * * * * * - -The blank grey fog-curtain which trailed its misty folds across the -ward-room scuttles discouraged all of the grate-side loungers whom I -tried to bestir to go up at two o'clock to watch for the appearance of -the _Regensburg_, and, meeting, with no better success in the snugly -comfortable "commission-room" into which the former gun-room had been -converted for the voyage, I mounted alone the iron ladders which led to -the lofty vantage of the signal bridge. There was only a few hundred -yards of visibility, but the even throb of the engines, the swift run -of the foam along the sides, and the sharp sting of the air on my cheek -told that there had been little if any abatement of the steady speed of -seventeen knots at which _Hercules_ had been steaming since she passed -May Island the previous day at noon. The _Regensburg_, the chief yeoman -of signals told me, had made a W.T. to say that she had been compelled -by the fog to slow down again, and this, he figured, might make it -between three and four o'clock before we picked her up. "There's no use -waiting for the Huns, sir," he said, with a tired smile. "The hanging -back habit, which they were four years in cultivating, seems to have -grown on them so that they're hanging back even yet. Best go down and -wait where it's warm, and I'll send a boy to call you when we know for -certain when she'll turn up." - -My foot was on the ladder, when the sight of a seagull dancing a giddy -_pas seul_ on the titillating horn of a mine bobbing off astern recalled -a story an Italian destroyer skipper had once told me, of how he had -seen an Albanian sea eagle blow itself up as a consequence of executing -a precisely similar manoeuvre. I lingered to get the chief yeoman's -opinion of what I had hitherto considered a highly apocryphal yarn, -and when he was called away to take down a signal to pass back to the -destroyers, the loom of what looked to me like a ship taking shape in -the fog drew me over to the starboard rail. It dissolved and disappeared -as my glass focussed on it, only to raise its amorphous blur again a -point or so further abeam. Then I recognized it, and smiled indulgent -welcome to an old friend of many watches--the first cousin to the -mirage, the looming shape which a man peering hard into thick fog keeps -_thinking_ he sees at one end or the other of the arc of his angle of -vision. - -Any man actually on watch knows better than to let his mind take -liberties with "fog pictures," and not a few of those who have done so -have had the last picture of the series merge into a reality of wind and -water and a good ship banging itself to pieces on a line of submerged -rocks. But I--as so often in voyages of late--was on the bridge without -duties or responsibilities. I was free to let the pictures take what -form they would; and it must have been what the chief yeoman had just -said about the weariness of waiting for the Huns that turned my mind to -what I had heard and seen of the four-year vigil of the Grand Fleet. - -There was a picture of Scapa as I had seen it on my earliest visit from -the basket of a kite balloon towed from the old _Campania_, the same -_Campania_ which now rested on the bottom of the Firth of Forth, and -the top-masts of which we had passed a half cable's length to port as -the _Hercules_ steamed out the day before. There were golden sun-notes -weaving in a Maypole dance with rollicking slate-black cloud shadows in -that picture; but in the next--where the surface of the Flow was beaten -to the whiteness of the snow-clad hills hemming it in--the brooding -light was darkly sinister and ominous of import, for that was the winter -day when we had word that two destroyers, which the might of the Grand -Fleet was powerless to save, were being banged to bits against a cliff -a few miles outside the gates. Then there was a picture of an Orkney -midsummer midnight--just such a night, the officer of the watch told me, -as the one on which he had seen the _Hampshire_, with Kitchener pacing -the quarter-deck alone, pass out to her doom two years previously--with -a fitful green light flooding the Flow, reflected from the sun circling -just below the northern horizon, and every kite balloon in the air at -the time being torn from its cable and sent flying towards Scandinavia -before the ninety-mile gale which had sprung up from nowhere without -warning. - -Visions of golf on Flotta, picnics under the cliffs of Hoy, and climbs -up the peat-boggy sides of the Ward Hill of the "Mainland," gave place -to those of squadron boxing competitions--savage but cleanly fought -bouts in a squared circle under the elevated guns of "Q" turret, with -the funnels, superstructures, and improvised grandstands alive with -bluejackets--and regattas, pulled off in various and sundry craft -between the long lines of anchored battleships. A long series (these -more like panoramas) of hurried unmoorings and departures--by division, -by squadron, and with all the Grand Fleet, through every square mile of -the North Sea from the Bight to far up the coast of Norway--finished up -at Rosyth, in that strange fortnight just before the end, when all but -those on the "inside" thought the persistent "short notice" was due to -a desire to keep the men aboard on account of the 'flu, and not to the -fact of which the Admiralty appear to have been so well advised, that -the German naval authorities--for the first and last time--were making -desperate efforts to get their ships out for the long-deferred _Tag_. - -Then the fog-bank ahead--or so it seemed--was splashed with the gay -colour of "Armistice Night," when all the spare signal lights (to say -nothing of a lot that couldn't be spared) of the Grand Fleet streaked -the sky with joyous spurts and fountains of fire, when stealthy pirate -bands from the K-boats dropped through the ward-room skylights of the -light cruisers and carried off prisoners who had to be ransomed with -champagne, when Admirals danced with matelots on the forecastles of the -battle-cruisers, and all the pent-up feelings of four years ascended -in one great expansive "whouf" of gladness. I recalled with a chuckle -how the "General" signal which the Commander-in-Chief had made ordering -the historic occasion to be celebrated by "splicing the main brace" -according to immemorial custom in the Navy, was preceded by "Negative -6th B.S.," in consideration of the sad fact that the Yankee ships had -nothing aboard to "splice" with. That didn't prevent them, though, from -bending a white ensign on their flag halliards, hoisting it to the main -topmast of the _New York_, and illuminating it with all the searchlights -of the squadron. That happy tribute, I recalled, to the flag of the Navy -with which the Americans had served with such distinction for a year, -had started the sacking of the signal light lockers, and that picture -ended as it began, with the dour Scotch heavens lanced with coloured -flame spurts which the dark tide of the Firth gave back in crinkly -reflections. - -The next picture to sharpen into focus on the fog-curtain was that of a -long, trim three-funnelled cruiser, with a white flag at her fore and -the German naval ensign at her main, heading in toward the mouth of the -Firth of Forth under the escort of a squadron of British light cruisers -and destroyers. I had witnessed the meeting of the _Königsberg_, which -was bringing over Admiral Meurer and other German naval officers to -arrange the details of the surrender of the High Sea Fleet, from the -foretop of the _Cassandra_. The rendezvous, at which the _Königsberg_ -had been directed by wireless to meet the Sixth Light Cruiser Squadron -ordered to escort her in, chanced to fall in an area under which a -German submarine, a fortnight previously, had planted its full load -of mines. These, in the regular course of patrol, had been discovered -and swept up within a day or two, but since that fact had not been -communicated to the Germans, the _Königsberg_, doubtless thinking the -English sense of humour had prompted them to prepare for her a bit of -a surprise in the way of a lift by a German petard, skulked off to the -southward, where she was only rounded up after two hours of rending the -ether with wireless calls. There were two things I remembered especially -in connection with that historic meeting--one was the mob of civilians -(probably would-be delegates from the Workmen's and Soldiers' Council) -jostling the officers on the roomy bridge of the _Königsberg_, and -the other was the fluent cursing of the gunnery lieutenant of the -_Cassandra_, who was with me in the foretop, over the unkind fate which -had robbed him of the chance of opening up with his six-inch guns on the -first Hun warship he had set eyes on since the war began. I thought I -had heard in the course of the past year all that the British sailor had -to say of the German as a naval foe; but L---- said several new things -that afternoon, and said them well. - -Poor old _Cassandra_! Although we did not get word of it until a day -or two after our arrival in Wilhelmshaven, within a very few hours of -the time I was thinking of her there in the fog of the Bight, she had -collided with a mine in the Baltic and gone to the bottom. - -There was another picture of the _Königsberg_ ready to follow on as the -first dissolved. This was the brilliantly lighted hull of her--the only -undarkened ship of the hundreds in the Firth of Forth that night--as I -saw it an hour before daybreak the following morning, when I set off -from the _Cassandra_ in a motor launch to be present in the _Queen -Elizabeth_ during the historic conference which was to take place there -that day. Admiral Beatty had refused to receive the revolutionary -delegates at the preliminary conference which had been held in the -British flagship the previous night, and as a consequence it appears -that Admiral Meurer and his staff were summoned to make a report -to their "superiors" on their return. This strange meeting had been -convened shortly after midnight (so the captain of the M.L., which had -been patrolling round the _Königsberg_ all night, told me), but still, -five hours later, as "M.L. 262" slid quietly by at quarter speed, the -rumble of guttural Teutonic voices raised in heated argument welled -out of the open scuttles of what had probably been the ward-room. It -occurred to me even then that this rumble of angry dispute was prophetic -of what Germany had ahead in the long night that was closing upon her. - -Although "M.L. 262" ended up an hour later with her propellers tangled -in the cable of Ox-Guard boom, I managed to get on the flagship in time -to see Admiral Meurer and his party come climbing up out of the fog to -her quarter-deck. The conference lasted, with short intervals, until -long after dark, and the next picture I saw was that of five German -naval officers, chagrined and crestfallen, being piped over the side to -the barge which was to take them to the destroyer standing by in the fog -to return with them to the _Königsberg_ at her anchorage, Inchkeith. -It was "Officers' Night" for the kinema in the "Q.E.," and they were -showing a "made-in-California" film called the "Rise and Fall of Julius -Cæsar." I remember distinctly that Casca had just driven the first -thrust, and the mob of conspirators were thronging upon Cæsar round the -"base of Pompey's statue," when the commander sent me word that the -guests were about to depart. - -The captain of the fleet, the captain, the commander, the officer of -the watch and the boatswain were waiting at the head of the starboard -gangway as I stepped on deck, and out of the fog, which had thickened -till I could not see the muzzles of the guns of "Y" turret, the Germans -were advancing from aft. The frown on Admiral Meurer's heavy brows was -magnified by the cross light of the "yard-arm group" at the gangway, and -his mouth, with its thin hard lips, showed as a straight black line. -With a click of the heels and the characteristic automaton bow of the -German, he saluted the British officers in turn, beginning with the -captain of the fleet, stepped down the short gangway and disappeared -into the waiting barge to the shrilling of the pipes. Bowing and -clicking, the others followed suit, a weedy "sub," with an enormous roll -of papers under his arm, going over last. - -The _Oak_, herself invisible in the fog, groped blindly with her -searchlight to pick up the barge. "We must hold the light steady," -facetiously quoted the Press correspondent at my elbow from a speech of -President Wilson's which had appeared in the morning papers, and then -added thoughtfully, "It may be a _light_ that kind need for guidance, -but if I had the leading of them for the next generation it would be by -a ring in the nose." - -Now, panorama resumed. It was the day of the surrender, and the -_Cardiff_, with her high-flown kite balloon in tow, was leading the -line of German battle-cruisers out of the eastern mist. I was watching -from the bridge of the _Erin_, and an officer beside me, recognizing -the _Seydlitz_, flying the rear-admiral's flag, in the lead, with the -_Moltke_ and _Derfflinger_ next in line, told how, from the light -cruiser in which he had chased them at Dogger Bank, he had seen at -least two of the three, leaving the _Blücher_ to her fate, dashing -for the shelter of their minefields with flames swirling about their -mastheads. Another spoke casually of how, in the _Tiger_ at Jutland, he -had been for a wild minute or two, while his ship was rounding a "windy -corner" as Beatty turned north to meet the British Battle Fleet, under -the concentrated fire of all the battle-cruisers--with the exception -of the _Hindenburg_, but with the _Lützow_ added--now steaming past -us. We remarked the "flattery of imitation" in the resemblance of the -_Hindenburg_ with her long run of forecastle and "flare" bows, to the -_Repulse_ and _Renown_, and of the symmetrical, two-funnelled _Bayern_ -as she appeared between the _Kaisers_ and the _Königs_ in the German -battleship line to the British _Queen Elizabeth_ class laid down before -the war. The _Queen Elizabeth_ herself, falling out of line to take the -salute of the ships of the fleet she had led to victory as they passed, -brought that reel of panorama to an end. - -The next was of five ships of the _Kaiser_ class, as they had appeared -from the _Emperor of India_, which, with the rest of the Second -Division, was escorting a squadron of the enemy to Scapa for internment. -We saw the German ships at closer range now, and the better we saw them -the worse they looked. Their fine solidity was less impressive than from -a distance, for now our glasses revealed the filth of the decks, the -lack of paint, and the slovenly, sullen attitude of the motley garbed -figures lounging along the rails. We passed within a biscuit toss of -the _Kaiserin_ when their leading ship, the _Friedrich der Grosse_, -lost her bearings in some way and failed to follow the _Canada_ through -the anti-submarine boom off the end of Flotta, an action which only the -smartest kind of seamanship on the part of the division of _Iron Dukes_ -prevented from developing into a serious disaster. Most of the Huns--to -judge by the expression on the faces leering across at us--would have -welcomed a smash; but it was avoided by a hair, and they ultimately -straightened themselves out, straggled through into the Flow, and on to -their more or less final resting-place, off the inner entrance to Gutter -Sound. - -The final picture, as it chanced, which my fancy projected on the -curtain of the fog was one that embraced what I saw from the steam -pinnace which was taking me to the _Impérieuse_, on my way back to -Rosyth. An angry Orkney sunset was flaring over the hills of Hoy--a -sullenly red glow, gridironed by thin strata of black cloud like -the bars of a grate--and a sinister squall was advancing from the -direction of Stromness to the northward. For a few moments the hot -light of the sunset had silhouetted the confused hulls of battleships -and battle-cruisers against the silvered seas beyond, and revealed the -disordered phalanx of the moored destroyers blocking the mouth of Gutter -Sound; then it was quenched by the onrush of the storm clouds, and all -that was left of the High Seas Fleet disappeared into shadow and driving -rain. - -It was a far cry, I reflected, from the Kaiser's "Our future lies upon -the seas!" and Admiral Rodman's "The German ships are of no use to -anybody; the simplest solution of the problem of their disposition is -to take the whole lot to sea and sink them." And yet-- - -Suddenly, stereoscopically clear, on the blank sheet of the fog left -as the High Sea Fleet faded from sight, the head-on silhouette of an -unmistakably German light cruiser appeared. For an instant the soaring -mast and the broad bridge suggested that my fancy had materialized the -_Königsberg_ again. Then the rat-a-tat of a signal searchlight recalled -me to my senses, and it did not need the chief yeoman of signals' "There -she is, sir; sending away a boat to bring us a pilot," to tell me we -had finally rendezvoused with the _Regensburg_. I descended to the -quarter-deck to see the pilot come over the side. - -Very smartly handled was that cutter from the _Regensburg_. I remember -that especially because it was almost the only German boat that came -alongside during all the visit which did not either ram the gangway, or -else miss it more than the length of a boat-hook. They explained this by -saying that most of the skilled men had left the navy, and that their -boats, as a consequence, were in the hands of comparative novices. At -any rate, at least one first-class crew of boat-pullers had remained in -the _Regensburg_, and they brought their cutter alongside the gangway as -neatly as though the _Hercules_ were lying in harbour. - -Three men, each carrying a small suit-case, came over the side and -saluted the officer of the day and the intelligence officer of -the admiral's staff, who awaited them at the head of the gangway. -The first was a three-stripe officer of the rank the Germans call -Korvettenkapitän, the second a warrant officer, and the third -(as we presently were informed) a qualified merchant pilot. The -Korvettenkapitän was slender of figure, and had a well-bred, gentlemanly -appearance not in the least suggestive of the "Hunnishness" one -associated--and with good reason, too, as subsequent experience -proved--with the German naval officer. His flushed expression showed -plainly that he felt deeply the humiliation of the task assigned him of -taking the first enemy warships into a German harbour. His head remained -bowed a moment after his final salute; then he took a deep breath, -squared his shoulders, and asked to be conducted to the bridge at once -in order to take advantage of the improved visibility in pushing on in -through the minefields. - -If one felt a touch of involuntary sympathy for the senior naval -officer, a glance at the sinister figure of the merchant pilot was -an efficacious antidote. Thick-set and muscular of build, with -slack-hanging ape-like arms and bandy legs, his corded bull neck -was crowned with the prognathous-jawed head of a gorilla, and a -countenance that might well have been a composite of the saturnine -phizzes of Trotsky and Liebknecht. One knew in an instant that here was -the super-Bolshevik, and looked for the red band on his sleeve, which -could only have been temporarily removed while he appeared among the -Engländers to spy upon the naval officer whom the revolutionists would -not permit to act alone. The way things stood between the two became -evident almost at once, for the officer informed the British interpreter -at the first opportunity that he could not be responsible for the pilot, -while the latter, when some query from the Korvettenkapitän respecting -the position of a certain buoy was repeated to him, contented himself -with drawing his fingers significantly across his throat, clucking in -apparent imitation of a severed wind-pipe, and continuing the guzzling -of the plate of "kedgeree" which had been engaging his undivided -attention at the moment of interruption. - -[Illustration: HELIGOLAND IN SIGHT!] - -After putting a German pilot aboard each of the four destroyers, the -_Regensburg's_ cutter was hoisted in, and we got under weigh again. The -visibility had improved considerably, and presently a darker blur on the -misty skyline resolved itself into the familiar profile of Heligoland. -At first only the loom of the great cliff was discernible, but by the -time this had been brought abeam a slender strip of low-lying ground -with warehouses, cranes, and the masts of ships, was distinctly visible. -All hands crowded to the starboard side to have a glimpse of Germany's -famous island outpost, but the nearest thing to a demonstration I saw -was by two marines, who were doing a bit of a shuffle on the precarious -footing of a turret top and singing lustily: - - "Oh, won't it be grand out in Hel-i-go-land, - When we've wound up the Watch on the Rhine!" - -Whatever illusions they had formed of the "grandness" of Heligoland they -were allowed to keep, for the only ones who were given to see at close -range the dismal greyness of the island fortress were the members of -one of the "air" parties, who made a hurried visit in a destroyer to -see that the provisions of the Armistice had been carried out at the -seaplane station. - -The thickening fog-banks which shut off our view of Heligoland were not -long in thinning the guiding _Regensburg_ to a dusky phantom nosing -uncertainly into the misty smother in the direction of where our charts -indicated the Bight should be narrowing to the shallow waters of Jade -Bay, in an inner corner of which lay Wilhelmshaven. We had counted on -getting there that evening, and a wireless had already been received -saying that a German Naval Commission was standing by to come off for a -preliminary conference. After heading in for a couple of hours through -seas which I heard an officer coming off watch describe as "composed -of about equal parts of water, misplaced buoys and floating mines," -all hopes of arriving that night were dashed by a signal from the -_Regensburg_, saying that she had been compelled to anchor on account -of the fog. Calling her destroyer "chicks" about her to mother them for -the night, the _Hercules_ let go what was probably the first anchor a -British surface ship had dropped into German mud since the outbreak of -the war. - -The unexpected delay made it necessary for both the _Hercules_ and the -destroyer to put up their pilots for the night. This was managed in the -former by giving the officer the flag captain's sea-cabin, and slinging -hammocks for his two assistants outside. Doubtless the opportunity to -enjoy a change of food was not unwelcome to any of them. They were -served with the regular ward-room dinner. The officer declined the -offer of drinks, and said he had his own cigarettes. The other two made -a clean sweep of anything that they could get hold of. Even these had -cigarettes, but the young signalman who had the temerity to smoke one -which was proffered him in exchange for one of his own, advanced that as -an excuse for a mess he made of taking down a searchlight signal from a -destroyer two hours later. - -"That ---- Bolshevik," said the lad the next day, in telling me about -the tragedy, "declared the fag he giv' me was made of baccy smuggled -into Germany by a friend of his. I tells him that was no kind of reason -for him using me to smuggle the smoke out of Germany. And I tells him it -tastes to me like rope end, that baccy, and, what's more, that I'd be -very happy to return it to him with a rope end. I can't say for certain -whether he twigged that little joke or not." - -From one of the destroyers, too, there came the next day a story of -similar friction in the matter of dispensing hospitality to the guest of -the night. The latter, unlike the one who was sent to the _Hercules_, -appears to have been a typical Hun. Beginning by introducing himself -as a relative of the ex-Kaiser, he ended up by all but going on -strike because no sheets could be provided for the bunk in the cabin -which--through turning out its owner to "sling" in the ward-room--had -been given him for the night. That alone had been a considerable -concession under the circumstances, for, through the presence of two -extra flying officers, two "subs" had given up their cabins, and were -sleeping in the ward-room already. It must have been a really amusing -show that young sprig of Junkerism put up. He mentioned the matter of -linen several times, finally rising to the crescendo of "I must have the -sheets by nine o'clock, and it now lacks but five minutes of that time." -I was never able to verify the story that the steward really gave him -the sheets of notepaper that one of the Yankee officers volunteered to -contribute. How mad the young exquisite was about the whole affair may -be judged from the fact that he left behind him in the morning his own -personal and private cake--only slightly used--of toilet soap. Whether -this was pure swank--high princely disdain of an object of value--or -whether he was blind with passion and overlooked it, they could never -quite make up their minds in the _V----_. - -The fog lapped and curled dankly round the _Hercules_ that night, -wrapping the ship in a clammy shroud of cold moisture that dripped -eerily from the rigging and sent a chill to the marrow of the bones of -the men and officers on watch. But below there was warmth and comfort. -The ward-room celebrated the occasion with a "rag" to the music of its -own Jazz band, while in the admiral's cabin the kinema man, who had been -brought along to film the historic features of the voyage, entertained -with a movie of a South American revolution, a picture full of the play -of hot passion and fierce jealousy, enacted in and around an ancient -castle which none but a Californian could have recognized as a building -of the recent San Diego Exposition. "The Admiral's Movies," "With a -Complete Change of Program Nightly," became one of the star turns of the -voyage from that time on. - -Cut off though we were by the fog from sighting anything farther away -than the riding lights of the nearest destroyer, strange voices of the -new world we had moved into since morning kept reaching the _Hercules_ -on the wings of the wireless. Now it was the _Regensburg_ calling to -say, "I am lying off Outer Jade Lightship and illuminating it with my -searchlight." Not much help, that, on a night when a searchlight itself -was quenched to a will-o'-the-wisp at a cable's length. Then there was -a message from the main fount of some "Workmen's and Soldiers' Council" -requesting that the Allied Naval Commission should receive a delegation -of its members at Wilhelmshaven. It was not a long message, but the -reply flashed back to it was, I understand, a good deal shorter. There -was chatter between ship and ship, and even the call--from somewhere -in the Baltic, I believe--of a steamer in distress. The name of the -_Moewe_, in an otherwise unintelligible message, caused hardly the -flutter it would have had we picked it up in the same waters a month -earlier. - -There was little news to us in a message from some land station telling -all and sundry that the "high-sea-ship" _Regensburg_ was "_zu Anker bei -aussen Jade Feuerschiff_," that the _Hercules_ and destroyers were "_zu -Anker bei Weser Feuerschiff_," and that there was "_noch Nebel_." The -_Regensburg_ had already told us where she was and our own position we -knew: also the fact that "fog continues." - -A groan from Germany in travail reached us in a message from the -"Soldatenrat" of the "Fortress of Borkum" to the Council in Berlin. -They disapproved most heartily of the attitude of the meeting of the -"_Gross Berliner_" councils for Greater Germany. They greatly regretted -the attempt of one part of the people to establish a dictatorship over -another, and considered that this showed a lamentable lack of confidence -in "_unserem Volke_"--"our people." "_Wir wollen Demokratie und keine -Diktatur_," they concluded; "we want a democracy and no dictator." - -Then we heard the German battleship _König_ (which, in company with the -_Dresden_, a destroyer and two transports, we had sighted that morning -tardily _en voyage_ to make up the promised quota at Scapa) calling to -the _Revenge_--at that time the flagship of the squadron watching the -interned ships--for guidance. "Am near to the point of assembly with -the other ships," she said in German, "and bad weather is coming on. -Cannot stop with _Dresden_ in tow. What course can I take from point of -assembly?" - -Deep called to deep when the C.-in-C. of the Grand Fleet at Rosyth told -the C.-in-C. of the High Sea Fleet what arrangements were being made -to send back the surplus crews of the interned ships, and for a while -the vibrant ether let fall such familiar names as _Karlsruhe_, _Emden_, -_Nürnberg_, _Hindenburg_, _Kaiser_, _Von der Tann_ and _Friedrich der -Grosse_, men from all of which, we learned, were to be started homeward -in a transport called the _Pretoria_. - -There was hint of "family trouble" in the German Navy in a signal from -Admiral Von Reuter at Scapa to the Commander-in-Chief of the High Sea -Fleet at Wilhelmshaven. "Request that third group (of transports) may -include a flag officer to relieve me," it ran in translation, "as I am -returning home with it on account of sickness." - -That signal, I think, gave the ward-room more quiet enjoyment than any -of the others, for it was the first forerunning flutter of the German -wings beginning to beat against the bars of Scapa. "I've often been a -prey to that same complaint during our four years at Scapa," said the -commander musingly, in the interval following the passing round of the -wireless wail. "Of course Admiral Von Reuter is sick--homesick. Who -wasn't? _Who isn't?_ But there was no use in sending a signal to any one -complaining about it. But isn't it worth just about all we went through -in sticking it there for four years to be able to think of the Huns -being interned there, and in their own ships? They're not quite so comfy -as ours to live in, you know. I wonder what Herr C.-in-C.'s answer will -be." - -That answer was picked up in good time. "First group of transports have -arrived back safely," the Commander-in-Chief of the High Sea Fleet began -inconsequentially, adding abruptly, "Admiral Von Beuter is advised to -stay where he is, if at all possible." That pleased the ward-room so -much that the Junior Officers' Glee Club was sent to the piano to create -a "Scapa atmosphere" by singing songs of the strenuous early months of -the war. "Coaling, coaling, coaling, always jolly well coaling," to the -air of "Holy, Holy, Holy!" reached my ears even in the secluded retreat -of the "commission-room," to which I had retired to write up my diary. - -But the most amusing message of all was one which the senior -interpreter--one time a distinguished Cambridge professor of modern -languages--was dragged out of his bunk at something like three o'clock -in the morning to translate. Everything sent out in German was being -meshed in our wireless net on the off-chance that information of -importance might be picked up, and, for some reason, the message in -question impressed the night operator--as it lay before him, fresh -caught, upon his pad, as being of especial significance. This was -what I deciphered on the sheet of naval signal paper which the senior -interpreter, returning all a-shiver to his bunk after making the desired -translation in the coding room, threw at my head when I awoke in the -next bunk and asked sleepily for the news. - - (?) to (?). - - "Good morning. Request the time according to you. My watch - is fast, I think." - -It was probably from the skipper of one trawler to his "opposite number" -in another. It was on my lips to ask Lieut. B---- if he expected to -be called when the reply was picked up, but the ominous glare in the -unpillowed eye he turned in my direction as I started to speak made me -change my mind. - -The fog was still thick at daybreak of the following morning, but by -ten o'clock the visibility had improved sufficiently to appear to make -it worth while to get under weigh. Heading easterly at twelve knots, -we shortly came to a buoy-marked channel which, according to our -directions, promised to lead in to the anchorage off Wilhelmshaven we -desired to reach. The _Regensburg_, which had evidently gone in ahead, -was not sighted again, but two powerful armed patrol boats came out to -keep us company. It was soon possible to see for several miles, the low -line of the Frisian coast coming into sight to port and starboard. - -Presently we passed, on opposite courses, a German merchant steamer. -Luckily, some one on the bridge observed in time that she had a man -standing by the flag halyards at her stern, and so we were prepared to -return with the white ensign what must have been the first dip a British -ship had had from a German since August, 1914. When the second and third -steamers encountered also dipped their red, white, and black bunting, -followed by similar action on the part of two tugs and a lighthouse -tender, it became evident that general orders in that connection had -been issued. That was our first hint of the "conciliatory" tactics which -it soon became apparent all of that part of Northern Germany with which -there was a chance of any of the Allied Naval Armistice Commission -coming in contact had been instructed to follow. - -The steeples and factory chimneys of Wilhelmshaven began appearing over -the port bow at noon, and a half-hour later _Hercules_ had dropped -anchor about a mile off a long stone mole which curved out from the -dockyard. Almost immediately a launch was seen putting out of the -entrance, and presently it came bumping alongside the starboard gangway. -Rear-Admiral Goette, a smooth-shaven, heavy set man of about fifty, was -the first up to the quarter-deck, where his salute was returned by the -captain, commander, the officer of the day, and several officers of -Admiral Browning's staff. His puckered brow indicated something of the -mental strain he was under, a strain the effects of which became more -and more evident every time he came off for a conference. - -The thirteen other members of the Commission under Admiral Goette's -presidency followed him up the gangway. The first of these, a tall blond -officer of fine bearing, was on the list as Kapitan z. S. von Müller, -but it was not until after the final conference, over a fortnight later, -that we learned for certain that he was the able and resolute commander -of the _Emden_, famous in the first year of the war for her destruction -of Allied commerce and the fine fight he had put up before being forced -to the beach of North Cocos Island by the faster and heavier armed -_Sydney_. If it was a fact, as has been suggested, that the Germans put -Von Müller on their Naval Armistice Commission because of the admiration -that had been expressed in the British papers of his brave and sporting -conduct on the latter occasion, the effect of this fine piece of -Teutonic subtlety was completely lost. As I have said, his real identity -was not discovered until the last of the conferences was over. - -As soon as the last of the German officers had reached the quarter-deck -and completed his round of heel-clicking salutes, the party was -conducted directly to Admiral Browning's cabin, where the first of a -series of conferences calculated deeply to influence Germany's naval -future for many years to come was entered into without delay. - - - - -II - -GETTING DOWN TO WORK - - -An unfailing test of the treatment the Germans would have meted out -to the Allies had their respective positions been reversed during the -armistice interval, was furnished by the attitude of all the enemy -people--from the highest official representatives to the crowds on the -streets--with whom Admiral Browning's Naval Commission was thrown in -contact. This was especially noticeable in the case of naval officers, -and with none of these more so than with the greater part of those -constituting the commission, presided over by Rear-Admiral Goette, -which met the Allied Commission to arrange the details of carrying out -the provisions of the armistice relating to maritime affairs. Fully -expecting from the representatives of the victorious Allies the same -treatment they had extended to the beaten Russians at Brest-Litovsk, -and the beaten Rumanians at Bucharest, they adopted from the outset an -attitude of sullen distrust, evidently with the idea that it was the one -best calculated to minimize the concessions they would be called upon to -make. When it transpired that the Allied commissioners appeared to have -no intention of exercising their victor's prerogative of humiliating the -emissaries of a beaten enemy--as no Prussian could ever have refrained -from doing in similar circumstances--but that, on the other hand, the -former were neither disposed to bargain, "negotiate," nor in any way -to abate one whit from their just demands, the attitude of the Germans -changed somewhat. They were more reasonable and easy to deal with; yet -to the last there was always discernible that feeling of thinly veiled -contempt which the beaten bully cannot conceal for a victor who fails to -treat him as he himself would have treated any adversary he had downed. - -The opening conference between the Allied and German commissions was -held in Admiral Browning's dining cabin in the _Hercules_, as were all -of those which followed. The German officers, leaving their overcoats -and caps in a cabin set aside for them as an ante-room, were conducted -to the conference room, where the heads of the Allied Commission were -already assembled and in their places. Most of the Germans were in frock -coats (of fine material and extremely well cut), with small dirk-like -swords at hip, and much-bemedalled. There was none of them, so far as -one could see, without one grade or another of the Iron Cross, worn -low on the left breast (or just about over the liver, to locate it more -exactly), with its black-and-white ribbon rove through a lapel. Only -Captain Von Müller wore the coveted "Pour le Mérite," doubtless for his -commerce destruction with the _Emden_. Admiral Goette wore two rows of -ribbons, but none of the decorations themselves. - -The Allied delegates rose as the Germans entered, remaining standing -until the latter had been shown to the places assigned them. At the -right of the main table, as seen from the door, was seated Admiral -Browning, with Rear-Admiral Grasset, of the French Navy, on his right, -and Rear-Admiral Robinson, of the American Navy, on his left. Captain -Lowndes, Admiral Browning's Chief of Staff, sat next to Admiral -Robinson, in the fourth chair on the Allied side of the table. The Flag -Lieutenants of the French and American Admirals, and the two officers -representing respectively Japan and Italy, occupied chairs immediately -beyond the senior officers of the Commission. At two smaller tables -in the rear were several British Flag officers, with secretaries and -stenographers. The official British interpreter, Lieut. Bullough, -R.N.V.R., sat at the head of the table. The heads of the Allied -sub-commissions representing the flying services and shipping did not -occupy seats during all of the conference, but were called in during the -discussion of matters in which they were interested. - -Admiral Goette was seated directly opposite Admiral Browning at the -main table, with Commander (or Korvettenkapitän) Hinzman on his right, -and Commander Lohman on his left. The former--a shifty-eyed individual, -with a pasty complexion and a "mobile" mouth which, in its peculiar -expansions and contractions, furnished an accurate index of the state -of its owner's mind--was from the General Naval Staff in Berlin, which -accounted, doubtless, for the fact that Admiral Goette turned to him -for advice in connection with practically every question discussed. -Commander Lohman had charge of merchant shipping interests, which were -principally in connection with the return of British tonnage interned in -German harbours at the outbreak of the war. Captain Von Müller sat at -the left-hand corner of the table, and Captain Bauer, Chief of Staff, in -the corresponding place on the right. At a smaller table opposite the -door the eight remaining German officers were seated. These were mostly -engineers, or from the flying or submarine services, and were consulted -as questions in their respective lines arose from time to time. - -[Illustration: MEMBERS OF THE ALLIED NAVAL COMMISSION, ADMIRAL BROWNING -IN CENTER] - -[Illustration: THE ALLIED NAVAL COMMISSION AND STAFF, TAKEN ON BOARD -"HERCULES"] - -Without wasting time in preliminaries, Admiral Browning got down -to business at once by intimating that, since the time which he could -remain in German waters was limited, it would be desirable that the -very considerable number of visits of inspection necessary to satisfy -the Commission that the terms of the armistice had been complied with -should begin without delay. The Germans had a formidable array of -reasons ready to show why all, or nearly all, of these visits would be -practically out of the question. The disturbed state of the country, -the uncertain situation in Berlin, the lack of discipline among the men -remaining in the ships and at the air stations, the shortage of petrol, -the possibility of the hostility of the people in some sections--such as -Hamburg and Bremen--to Allied visitors--these were a few of the reasons -advanced why it would be difficult or dangerous to go to this place or -that, and why the best and simplest way would be to be content with the -assurance of the German Commission that everything, everywhere, was just -as the armistice terms had stipulated. Of course, at Wilhelmshaven, -where things were quiet at the moment, and where they still had a -certain amount of authority, there should be no great difficulty in -going over the remaining warships and visiting the air-station; but as -for going to Hamburg, or Bremen, or visiting any of the more distant -naval air stations--that was impossible at the present. - -Asked bluntly, if the search of the warships could begin that afternoon, -Admiral Goette replied that it was impossible, for the reason he was -not yet in a position to guarantee the personal safety of any parties -landing even at the dockyard. Moreover, he would not be in position -to give such a guarantee until the matter had been discussed with the -Workmen's and Soldiers' Council. Of course, if the party cared to take -the chance of landing without a guarantee of safety-- - -That was really just about as far as that first conference got in the -way of definite arrangements, or even assurances. Admiral Goette was -given very plainly to understand, however, that it was the intention -of the Allied Commission to visit and inspect, in accordance with the -terms laid down in the armistice, not only all of the remaining German -warships, but also all interned British merchantmen, irrespective of -where they were, and all naval airship and seaplane stations, on the -Baltic as well as the North Sea side. Also, that full and complete -guarantee of the safety of every party landed must be given before -the first visit was made. Failing this, it would be necessary for the -Commission to return to England and report that the assistance promised -by Germany in carrying out the armistice terms had not been given. - -The deep corrugation in Admiral Goette's brow grew deeper still when he -heard this plain warning, and the corners of his hard cynical mouth drew -down at the corners as the thin lips were compressed in his effort at -self-control. Shuffling uneasily in his chair, he leaned over as though -to speak to the sardonic Hinzman on his right, but thought better of -it, and straightened up again. Then his deep-set eyes wandered to the -large-scale map of the Western Front which occupied most of the wall -of the cabin toward which he faced. The row of pins, which had marked -the line of the Front at the moment of the armistice, but had now been -moved up and over the Rhine in three protuberant bridgeheads, evidently -brought home to him the futility of any further circumlocutions for the -present. The muscles of the aggressively squared shoulders relaxed, the -combative lines of the face melted into furrows of deepest depression, -and the pugnacious jaw was drawn in as the iron-grey head was bowed in -submission. His throaty "It shall be done as you say, sir," told that -the first lesson had sunk home. - -An undertaking on the part of the German Commission to secure, and to -send off at an as early hour as practicable the following morning, the -required "safe conduct," brought the first conference to a close. The -kinema man, who endeavoured to take a picture of the departure from -cover, in order not to offend the sensibilities of his distinguished -subjects, spoiled a film as a consequence of his consideration. -Observing that the galley scuttle opened out upon the quarter-deck, but -not (in his haste) that the pots of beans simmering on the range were -filling the air with clouds of steam as thick as fragrant, set up his -machine just inside. Engrossed in turning the crank as one Hun after -another went through his heel-clicking round of salutes, he failed to -notice the translucent mask of moisture condensing on his lens. The -natural result was that this particular reel of film, when it came to -be developed, had very little to differentiate it from another reel he -exposed the following morning on the men "doubling round," the latter -having been taken with the cap over the lens. - -The situation as it presented itself that evening was far from -encouraging. Having no information whatever of our own as to conditions -ashore, we had, perforce, to take the word of the Germans that many of -the projected visits of inspection could only be undertaken subject -to much difficulty and delay, if at all. There was not even positive -assurance that a safe conduct would be forthcoming for the landing in -Wilhelmshaven, where the headquarters of the German Naval Command were -located at the moment, and where there had been a minimum of disorder. -The wireless caught ominous fragments pointing to an imminent _coup -d'état_ in Berlin, while rioting was already taking place in Hamburg -and Bremen, and Kiel was completely under the control of the workmen -and soldiers. It certainly looked as though, the armistice agreement -notwithstanding, we had struck Northern Germany in the closed season for -touring. - -A ray of light in the gloom which hung over the ship that night came in -the form of two British prisoners of war who managed to induce a German -launch they had found at the quay to bring them off to the _Hercules_. -Cheery souls they were, after all their two years of starvation and -rough treatment in one of the worst prison camps in Germany. When the -armistice was signed, they said, they had been released, given a ticket -which was made out to carry them in the Fourth or "Military" class on -any German railway, and told they were free to go home. This appears to -have been done at a good many prison camps, and where these were within -a few days' march of the Western Front, or of Holland, it probably -saved a good deal of time over waiting for regular transport by the -demoralized and congested railway systems. The cruelty of this criminal -evasion of responsibility was most felt in the parts of the country -more remote from the Western Front, where many hundreds of miles had to -be covered before the prisoners had any chance of getting in touch with -friends. In the cases of most of these unfortunate derelicts long delays -were inevitable, and, not infrequently, much hardship. There was little -interference, apparently, with the exercise of the travel privilege, but -the almost total absence of authoritative information concerning the -departure of ships from Baltic ports, by which considerable numbers of -British were repatriated _viâ_ Denmark and Sweden, resulted in an almost -interminable series of wanderings. - -[Illustration: THE PADRE OF THE "HERCULES" TALKING WITH NEWLY ARRIVED -BRITISH PRISONERS] - -The case of the two men I have mentioned was typical of the experiences -undergone by prisoners from camps in northern or central Germany. -Released, as I have described, when the armistice was signed, they had -broken away from their fellows, the bulk of whom were starting to drift -toward the Western Front, and struck out for the North Sea coast, acting -on the theory that navigation would be opened up at once, and that this -route, therefore, would offer the easiest and quickest way of getting -home. Well off for money and fairly considerately treated on the food -score, they found travelling simple enough, but extremely tedious and -full of delays. Arriving at Emden, they learned that there had been -no provision whatever made for dispatching ships with prisoners from -there, and that--both on account of the lack of shipping and the danger -of navigating the still unswept minefields--there was no prospect of -anything of the kind in the near future. Instead of crossing over the -neighbouring frontier of Holland, as they might easily have done, they -pushed north to Bremen and Hamburg on the chance that there might be -ships from one of these formerly busy ports by which they could find -their way back to England. Disappointed again, they were about to go -on to Kiel, when they read in a newspaper of the arrival of a British -battleship at Wilhelmshaven. Rightly conjecturing that they were at -last on the "home trail," they effected the best series of connections -possible to the once great naval base, where no obstacles were placed in -the way of their getting put off to the _Hercules_ without delay. - -As the Workmen's and Soldiers' Council had been endeavouring to -establish touch with the Commission ever since the arrival of the -_Hercules_ in German waters, and as the way the "authorities" had -co-operated in getting these men put off to the ship looked just a -bit suspicious, it was only natural that the latter should be put -through a very thorough examination calculated to establish their -identity as British prisoners beyond a doubt. This was being proceeded -with by the Commander and the Major of Marines in a room of the after -superstructure, when a steward came up from the galley to ask what the -new arrivals would like to have for supper. There was quite a list to -choose from, it appears. They could have roast beef, said the steward, -or sausage and "mashed," or steak and kidney pie, or--"Stop right there, -mytey," cut in one of the men, raising his hand with the gesture of a -crossings policeman halting the flow of the traffic. "No use goin' any -further. 'Styke an' kidney' fer mine." Then, turning to the Commander -apologetically, "Begging your pardon, sir, but wot was it you was askin' -'bout wot engagement we wus captured in?" "I don't think we need trouble -any further about that, my man," replied the Commander with a grin. -"That 'styke an' kidney' marks you for British all right, and if you'll -vouch for your mate here, we'll take your word that he's on the level -too. We'll send you home by the first mail destroyer, and be glad of the -chance to do it. That won't be for a couple of days yet, but I dare say -you'll be able to make yourself at home in the _Hercules_ until then." - -As the first of the hundred or more prisoners for whom the _Hercules_ -ultimately acted as a "clearing house" in passing home to England, -these two men were very welcome on their own account, but especially so -for the news they brought of conditions ashore. It was quiet everywhere -they had been in Northern Germany, they said. Nobody was starving, and -where the people took any notice of them at all, it was--since the -armistice--invariably of a friendly character. "W'y, 'pon my word, sir," -said one of them, where I found him that night in a warm corner of one -of the mess decks, the centre of an admiring circle of matelots, who -were crowding in with offerings of everything from mugs of bitter beer -to cakes of chocolate; "'pon my word, all you 'ave to do is to tyke a -kyke o' perfumed soap to the beach when you land, an' they'll all come -an' eat right out o' yer 'and. W'y, the gurls--" - -Although the Allied Naval Armistice Commission could hardly be expected -to smooth its way with "kykes o' perfumed soap," yet all these men had -to tell, in that it went to prove how greatly the officers of the German -Commission had (to use a charitable term) exaggerated the difficulties -to be encountered in getting about ashore, was distinctly encouraging. -Indeed, it left those of us who talked with them quite prepared to -expect the "guarantee of safety," which came off in the morning, with -word that arrangements had been made for parties to land at once for -the inspection of warships and the seaplane station. It even forecasted -the message received in the course of the afternoon, to the effect that -conditions now appeared to be favourable to the arranging of visits -to Norderney, Borkhum, Nordholz, and the other seaplane and Zeppelin -stations which the Allied Commission had expressed a desire to see. The -Hamburg visit was still in the air, pending the receipt of guarantees -of safety, but there was no longer any doubt that it would be arranged, -and, moreover, as promptly as the Commission saw fit to insist upon. - -For the purpose of the search of warships, and the inspection of -merchant ships and air stations, the staff of the Allied Commission -had been divided into several parties. The senior party, which was to -confine its work entirely to warships and land fortifications, had at -least one member of each of the Allied nationalities represented in the -Commission. The head of it was the Flag Commander of the _Hercules_, and -the technical duties in connection with its work devolved principally -upon the British and American naval gunnery experts which it always -included, and at least one engineer officer. - -There were two "air" parties, one for the inspection of seaplane -stations, and the other for that of airship stations. The senior -flying officer was Brigadier-General Masterman, R.A.F., who was one of -England's pioneers in the development of lighter-than-air machines, his -experience dating back to the experiments with the ill-fated _Mayfly_. -His interest was in Zeppelins, and he had the leadership of the party -formed for the inspection of airship stations. This party included one -other British officer and two Americans. - -Colonel Clark-Hall was the head of the second "air" party, which had -charge of the inspection of seaplane stations. He had flown in a -seaplane in the first year of the war at Gallipoli, and more recently -had directed flying operations from the _Furious_, with the Grand Fleet. -Having sent off the aeroplanes whose bombs had practically wiped out -the Zeppelin station at Tondern, near the Danish border, the previous -summer, he had an especial interest in seeing at first hand the effects -of that raid, though otherwise his interest was centred in seaplane -stations. Two American flying officers, and one British, completed the -"seaplane station" party. - -The Shipping Board, which had in hand the matter of the return to -England of the two score and more of British ships in German harbours, -was headed by Commodore George P. Bevan, R.N., the Naval Adviser of the -Minister of Shipping, who had distinguished himself earlier in the war -as commander of the British trawler patrol in the Mediterranean. With -him were associated Commander John Leighton, R.N.R., who had achieved -notable success in effecting the return to England of the numerous -British merchant ships in Baltic ports at the outbreak of the war, and -Mr. Percy Turner, a prominent shipbuilder and Secretary to the Minister -of Shipping. The actual inspection of the ships in German harbours was -to be done by Commander Leighton, with such assistance as was needed -from officers of the _Hercules_. - -It fell to the lot of the senior of the warship-searching party to make -the first landing. As this party, with at least one member from each -nationality, was more or less a "microcosm" of the Commission itself, it -was decreed that it should make its visits in state, in the full pomp -and panoply of--peace. This meant, one supposed, frock coats, cocked -hats, and swords, but as all the former had been sent ashore, by order, -early in the war, and as none of the Americans had even the latter, it -was evident at once that there was no use competing in a dress parade -with the Germans, who were operating at their own base, so to speak. The -best that could be done was to borrow swords--from any of the ward-room -officers chancing to have theirs along--for the Americans, and let -it go at that. The "International" members, whose principal duty, in -connection with the searches, was to walk about the upper decks and -look dignified, managed to wear their swords from the time they left -the _Hercules_ to their return; the others, who had really to look for -things, and, therefore, to clamber up and down steel ladders of boiler -rooms and the "trunks" of turrets, after numerous annoying trippings up, -had finally to "stack arms" in order to get on with their search. - -Although none of the officers of the Commission had taken part in the -search of the German ships interned at Scapa, they had heard enough of -their filthiness and lack of discipline to be prepared to encounter the -same things when the inspection of the ships still remaining in home -waters was undertaken. In spite of this, the conditions--the dirtiness, -the slothfulness, the apparent utter disregard of the men for such few -of their officers as still remained--were everywhere much worse than -had been anticipated. This may well be accounted for by the fact that -the surrendered ships were manned entirely by volunteers, and these, -naturally, being the men less revolutionary in spirit and more amenable -to discipline, had taken better care of themselves and their quarters -than those who remained behind. At any rate, every one of the ships -remaining to the German Navy was an offence to the eye, and most of them -to the nose as well. If it was true, as had been said, that sloth and -filth are the high hand-maidens of Bolshevism, there is little doubt -that these twin trollops were in a position to hand the dregs of the -ex-Kaiser's fleet over to their mistress any day she wanted it. - -We had, as yet, no definite hint of what attitude the men of the -Workmen's and Soldiers' Council were going to take toward parties landed -to carry out the work of the Allied Commission, and that was one of the -things which it was expected this first search of the warships in the -Wilhelmshaven dockyard would reveal. The beginning was not auspicious, -for in the very first ship visited the whole of the remaining crew were -found loitering indolently about the decks, in direct contravention of -the clause in the armistice which provided that all men should be sent -ashore during the visits of Allied searching parties. The captain, on -being appealed to, shrugged his shoulders and said that he was quite -helpless. "I ordered them to leave half an hour ago," he explained to -the interpreter, "and here they are still. I have no authority over -them, as you see; so what is there to do? I am sorry, but you see the -position I am in. I trust you will understand how humiliating a one -it is for an officer of the Imperial"--he checked himself at the word -_Kaiserliche_, and added merely, "German Navy." - -"And, believe me, it _was_ humiliating," said one of the American -officers in telling of the incident later. "I had to keep reminding -myself that the man was a brother officer of the swine that sank the -_Lusitania_, and so many hospital ships, to stop myself from telling him -how gol darned sorry I was for any one that had got let in for a mess -like that." - -The situation was scarcely less embarrassing for the officer at the head -of the Allied party than for the Germans. Fortunately the Flag Commander -was fully equal to the emergency. "If these men are not out on the dock -in ten minutes," he said to the captain, "I shall have no alternative -but to return at once to the _Hercules_ and report that the facilities -for search stipulated in the armistice have not been granted me." -Glancing at his wrist-watch, he sauntered over to the other side of the -deck. - -The effect of the words (which appeared to have been understood by some -of the men standing near even in English) was galvanic. Blue-jackets -were streaming down the gangways before the orders had been passed -on to them by their officers, and the ship, save for a few cooks in -the galley, was emptied well within the time-limit assigned. It had -evidently been an attempt upon the part of the men to show contempt -for their officers, and was not intended to interfere with the work -of the searching party. Although we observed countless instances of -indiscipline in one form or another, on no subsequent occasion did it -appear in a way calculated to annoy or delay one of the Allied parties. -On the contrary, indeed, the men--and especially the representatives of -the Workmen's and Soldiers' Council--were almost invariably more than -willing to do anything to help. This spirit, it is needless to say, made -progress much faster and easier, and a continuance of it boded hopefully -for the completion of the Commission's program within the limit of the -original period of armistice. - -It seems to have been the strong--and, I have no doubt, entirely -sincere--desire of both the German naval officers and the members of -the Workmen's and Soldiers' Council to get the inspection over and the -Allied Commission out of the way that led to a co-operation between -the two which I can hardly conceive as existing in connection with -their other relations. The representatives of the Workmen and Soldiers -appeared quite reconciled to the ruling of the Commission that the -latter was to have no direct dealings with them, and they exhibited no -evidences of ill-feeling over the failure of their attempts to establish -such relations. The Naval authorities and the Council had evidently -come to an agreement by which the latter were to be allowed to have -a representative--"watching" but not "talking"--with every Allied -party landing, in return for which privilege the Council undertook -to prevent any interference from the men remaining in ships or air -stations visited. Later, when journeys by railway were undertaken, and -a guarantee of freedom from molestation by the civilian population was -required, a second Workmen's and Soldiers' representative--a sort of a -"plain clothes" detective--was added. Both white-banded men were there -to help, not to interfere. Indeed, the men seemed fully to realize the -need of a higher mentality than their own in the conduct of the more or -less complicated negotiations with the Allied representatives, and were -therefore content to support their officers in an attempt to make the -best of what was a sorry situation for both. - -A slight hitch which occurred in the arrangements of the "seaplane -station" party one morning, when the officer who was to have accompanied -it failed to turn up on the landing at the appointed hour, showed -how slender was the thread by which the authority of the once proud -and domineering German naval officer hung. After cooling their heels -in the slush of the dockyard for half an hour, the party returned -to the _Hercules_ to await an explanation. This came an hour later, -when the officer in question, very red in the face, came bumping up -to the gangway in a madly driven motor-boat, and clambered up to the -quarter-deck to make his apologies. - -"I am very sorry," he ejaculated volubly, "but it was not understood -by the _Arbeiter und Soldatenrat_ that it was I who was to go with you -today. In consequence, the permit to wear my sword and epaulettes and -other markings of an officer was not sent to me, and so I could not be -allowed to travel by the tramway until I had made known the trouble by -telephone and had the permit sent. It was even very difficult for me to -be allowed to speak over the telephone. You must see how very hard life -is for us officers as things are now." - -It appears that even the officers going about with the Allied naval -sub-commissions were only allowed to wear their designating marks for -the occasion, and that, unless a special permit from the Workmen's and -Soldiers' Council was shown, these had to be removed as soon as they -went ashore. The constant "self-pity" which the officers kept showing -in the matter of their humiliating predicament was the one thing needed -to extinguish the sparks of sympathy which would keep flaring up in -one's breast unless one stopped to think how thoroughly deserved--how -poetically just--it all was. - -With one or two exceptions, all the best of Germany's capital ships -were known to have been surrendered, and this applied to light cruisers -and destroyers as well. The U-boat situation was somewhat obscure, but -it was supposed--incorrectly, as transpired later--that a fairly clean -sweep of the best of the under-water craft had also been made. The -most interesting ships which the Allied Commission expected to see in -German waters were the battleship _Baden_, sister of the surrendered -_Bayern_, and the battle-cruiser _Mackensen_, sister of the surrendered -_Hindenburg_. The _Regensburg_ and _Königsberg_, which had been left -to the Germans to "get about in," were also considered worthy of study -at close range as examples of the latest type of German light cruiser. -The _Mackensen_, still far from completed, was in a yard on the Elbe at -Hamburg. The others were inspected at Wilhelmshaven. - -I think I am speaking conservatively when I say that all of the Allied -officers who saw them from the inside were distinctly disappointed in -even these most modern examples of German naval construction. After -the extremely good fight that practically every one of them--from the -_Emden_ and _Königsberg_ and the ships of Von Spee's squadron at the -Falklands to the battle-cruisers of Von Hipper at Jutland--had put up -when it was once drawn into action, it was only natural to expect that -some radical departures in construction, armament, and gunnery control -would be revealed on closer acquaintance. This did not prove to be the -case, though it is only fair to say that, in the matter of gunnery -control, there was little opportunity to pass judgment, owing to the -fact that, in every instance, the Germans--as they had a perfect right -to do--had removed all the instruments and gear calculated to give any -indication of the character of the installation. - -The German ships were found to be extremely well built, especially in -the solidity of construction of their hulls, the fact that they were not -intended to be lived in by a full ship's company all of the time making -it easy to multiply bulkheads and dispense with doors. But there was -nothing new in this fact to those who knew the amount of hammering the -_Seydlitz_ and _Derfflinger_ had survived at Dogger Bank and Jutland. -Even so, however, there was nothing to indicate that these latest of -German ships would stand more punishment than any unit of the Grand -Fleet after the stiffening all British capital ships received as a -consequence of what was learned at Jutland. - -In several respects it was evident that the Germans had merely become -tardy converts to British practice. The tripod mast, which dates back -something like a decade in British capital ships, and which has, since -the war, been built in light cruisers and even destroyer leaders, was -only adopted by the Germans with the laying down of the _Bayern_ and -_Hindenburg_. Similarly, the armament--both main and secondary--of the -respective classes of battleship and battle-cruiser to which these two -ships give the name, is a frank admission on the part of the Germans -that the British were five years ahead of them in the matter of guns. - -Gunnery control, the one thing above all others which the British Navy -was interested in when it came to an intimate study of the German -ships, is, unfortunately, one of the things upon which the least light -has been shed. The German, since he had to disarm, did the job with -characteristic Teutonic thoroughness. The transmitting stations in all -of the modern ships--the one point where there would have been a great -concentration of special instruments of control--looked like unfurnished -rooms in their emptiness. So, too, the foretops and what must have -been the director towers. One moot point may, however, be regarded as -settled. There have been many who maintained that, since the German fire -was almost invariably extremely accurate in the opening stages of an -action, and tended to fall off rapidly after the ship came under fire -herself, the enemy gunnery control involved the use of a very elaborate -and highly complicated installation of special instruments, many of -which were too delicate to stand the stress of continued action. The -British and American officers who went over the latest of the enemy's -ships, however, are agreed that all the evidence available points -to this not being the case--that the German gunnery control, on the -contrary, was undoubtedly as simple as it was efficient, and that the -fact that it had not stood up well in action was probably more due to -human than mechanical failure. - -It is considered as by no means improbable that the good shooting of -the German ships was largely traceable to the excellence of their -range-finders and the special training of those who used them. Whether -it is true or not that France and England have succeeded since the war -in making optical glass equal to that of Jena, there is no doubt that -the latter was superior in the first years of the war. The German ships -unquestionably had more accurate range-finders than did the British, -and it is also known now that the Germans took great care in testing the -eyesight of the men employed to handle these instruments, and that much -attention was given to their training. It is believed that upon these -simple points alone, rather than upon the use of a highly complicated -system of control, the admitted excellence of German gunnery was based. -There is no reason to believe that they had anything better than the -British for laying down the "rate of change," and keeping the enemy -under fire once he had been straddled. - -Although it was known to the British sailor in a general sort of way -that the Germans only spent a comparatively small part of their time -aboard their ships, the tangible evidence of this remarkable state of -affairs--in the vast blocks of barracks at Wilhelmshaven and the very -crude, inadequate living quarters in even the most modern of the ships -searched--gave him only less of a shock, and aroused in him only less -contempt, than did the filth and indiscipline of the German sailors. The -German officer who assured one of the searching parties that their ships -were made "to fight in, not to live in," told the literal truth, and it -only accentuates the bitter irony of the fact that, when finally they -refused to fight, they had to begin to be lived in willy-nilly. - -"You can't tell me there isn't a God in Israel, now that we've got the -Huns at Scapa living in their own ships," said an officer on coming off -to the _Hercules_ one night after his first day spent in going over -some of the remnants of the German Navy at Wilhelmshaven. That same -thought is awakening no end of comfort in the breast of many a British -naval officer this winter, who would otherwise have been down on his -luck for having still to stand to his guns after the war was over. In a -previous chapter I have told how we intercepted a wireless from Admiral -Von Reuter, saying that he had "gone sick" at Scapa and asking to be -relieved. That was not the last by any means that we were to hear of -the "hardships" of life in those German "fighting ships" at good old -Scapa. The veritable howls of protest rising from the Orkneys were -echoing in Wilhelmshaven and Kiel during all the time the Commission -spent in German waters. Some mention of the "sad plight" of the German -sailors there was made at every conference, and it was at the final -one, I believe, that Admiral Goette said that the "cruel conditions" -under which the men in the interned ships were being compelled to live -at Scapa Flow was alone responsible for the fact that it had been so -far impossible to find a crew to man the _Baden_, which he had agreed -some days previously should be delivered in place of the uncompleted -_Mackensen_. - -Except for the several modern ships I have mentioned, the search of the -naval units remaining in German ports resolved itself into a more or -less monotonous clambering over a lot of obsolete hulks--from many of -which even the guns had been removed--to see that no munitions remained -in their magazines. There was always the same inevitable filth to be -waded through, always the same gloweringly sullen--or, worse still by -way of variation, cringingly obsequious--officers to be endured. The -sullen ones usually improved when they found that no "indignities" were -to be heaped upon them, and that they had only to answer a few questions -and show the way round; but you had to keep a weather eye lifting for -the obsequious ones to prevent their helping you up ladders by steadying -your elbow, rubbing imaginary spots of grease off your monkey jacket, -and--the invariable finale--offering you a limp, moist hand to shake at -parting. The latter, like the ruthless U-boat warfare, was dangerous -principally on account of its unexpectedness. When adequate "counter -measures" were devised against it, it became less threatening, but had -always to be looked out for. I don't recall, though, hearing any one -confess to having been "surprised" into shaking hands after the first -day or two. - -The search of the warships at Wilhelmshaven was finished in a couple of -days, while the few old cruisers and destroyers at Emden were inspected -in the three hours between going and returning railway journeys, -taking about the same length of time. At Hamburg and Bremen there -were principally merchant ships and U-boats, and the search of--and -for--both of these is a story of its own. The remainder of the work on -the North Sea side consisted in journeys--by train, motor, destroyer, -or launch--to, and the inspection of, Germany's principal seaplane and -airship stations, and of these highly interesting visits I shall write -in later chapters. - - - - -III - -FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF "STARVING GERMANY" - - -Our visit to the island of Norderney was a memorable one for two -reasons--first, because we inspected there what is not only the largest -of Germany's seaplane stations, but also probably the largest and best -equipped in all Europe; and second, because the journey there gave -us, all in the course of a few hours, our first after-the-war glimpse -of a German city, German countryside, a German railway, and what had -once been a German summer resort. The couple of days spent in the -search of the German warships had given no opportunity whatever to see -anything more than an interminable succession of dirty mess decks, empty -magazines, disgruntled officers, slovenly sailors, and cluttered docks. -Steeples and factory chimneys and the loom of lofty barracks located -Wilhelmshaven without revealing it. The steady dribble of pedestrians -along the waterfront road might have been made up of Esquimaux or -Kanakas, for all that we could see. One wondered if their emaciated -frames were dressed in paper suits, and if their tottering feet clumped -along in wooden clogs. The excellence of the material of the untidy -garb of the sailors, and the well-fed appearance of the latter, seemed -to point to the contrary. But still one couldn't be sure. We knew that -Germany had never made the mistake of under-feeding or under-clothing -her soldiers and sailors, and that where any one had to go without -it was always the civilians who suffered. We wanted to see how those -civilians had stood the "starvation blockade" against which they had -protested so loudly, and now--through our visits to the various naval -air stations--the veil was about to be lifted. - -The fog--the interminable fog which never lifted for more than a -few hours at a time during the whole of our three weeks in German -waters--banked thick above the green stream of the swift-running tide -as our picket boat shoved off from the _Hercules_ at eight o'clock -that morning, and there was just sufficient visibility to pick up the -successive buoys marking the course to the entrance to the basin. -Running in just ahead of an antique torpedo-boat with the usual indolent -sailors slouching along its narrow decks, we stepped out upon the -longest pontoon landing I have ever seen. Twenty yards wide, and over a -hundred in length, it was constructed so as to rise and fall with flow -and ebb of what must have been a very considerable tide. - -No one being on the landing to receive the party, we started walking -in toward its shoreward end. The men on the torpedo-boats stared at -us with insolent curiosity, without the suggestion of the shuffle of -a foot toward standing at attention as even the "brassiest" of our -several "brass-hats" passed by; but from the galley of a tug moored -on the opposite side the cook grinned wide-mouthed welcome. She was a -fine, upstanding, double-braided blonde of generous proportions, and the -bulging bulk of her overflowed the narrow companion-way into which she -was wedged as the raw red flesh of her arm swelled over the line of its -rolled-up sleeve. - -"No traces of under-feeding in that figure," said a British flying -officer, with the critically impersonal glance he would have given to -the wings of a machine he was about to take the air in. "No," acquiesced -one of the Americans; "and there's no fear of _schrecklichkeit_ in that -face, either. Pipe that 'welcome-to-our-fair-city' grin, won't you. -Could you beat it for a display of ivories?" - -And so we came to "starving Germany." - -A bustling young flying lieutenant came hurrying to meet us at the shore -end of the landing, apologizing for his tardiness by saying that it was -due to "trouble about the cars." After seeing the motley collection -of motors which awaited us outside the gate, one had no difficulty in -believing him; indeed, it was hard to see how there could be anything -but "trouble about the cars." The best of them was an ancient Mercedes, -the pneumatic tyres of which, worn down to the treads, looked as -though they would puncture on the smooth face of a paving stone. Two -others--one of them looked like a sort of "perpetuation" of a collision -between a Daimler lorry and a Benz runabout, and the other was an -out-and-out mongrel with no visible marks of ancestry--had the remains -of what had once been solid tyres of _ersatz_ rubber bound to the rims -with bits of tarred rope. The fourth and last was _ersatz_ throughout. -That is to say, it seemed to be made--from its paper upholstery to its -steel-spring tyres--of "other things" than those from which the normal -cars one has always known are made of. - -I had heard much of those spring tyres, so, taking advantage of -the general rush for the pneumatically tyred Mercedes and the -"rheumatically" tyred nondescripts, I lifted an oiled-paper curtain and -plumped down on the woven paper cushion of old "_Ersatz_." As the other -cars were quite filled up with the remainder of our party, the escorting -German officer came in with me. - -"The imitation rubber," he began slowly and precisely, "makes many good -things, but not the good motor tyres. It is resilient, but not elastic. -It will stand the pushing but not the pulling. It is not strong, not -tough, like the rubber from the tree. Ah, the English were very lucky -always to have the real rubber. If that had been so with Germany--" - -Just to what extent a continuous supply of real rubber would have -modified the situation for Germany I did not learn, for we started up -just then, and the rest of the sentence was lost in the mighty whirl of -sound in which we were engulfed. The best comparison I can make of the -noise that car made--as heard from within--is to a sustained crescendo -of a super-Jazz band, the cymbals of which were represented by the -clankity-clank of the component parts of the steel tyres banging against -each other and the pavement, and the drums of which were the rhythmic -thud-thud of the _ersatz_ body on the lifeless springs. Although the -other cars were rattling heavily on their own account, the ear-rending -racket of the steel-tyres dominated the situation completely, and at the -first turn I caught an impressionistic blend of blue and khaki uniforms -as their occupants leaned out to see what was in pursuit of them. - -"It was unlike any sound I ever heard before," said one of them in -describing it later. "It was positively Bolshevik!" All in all, I -think "Bolshevik" is more fittingly descriptive than "Jazz-band-ic." It -carries a suggestion of "savageness" quite lacking in the latter, and -"savage" that raucous tornado of sound surely was. I could never allow -myself to contemplate the primal chaos one of the American officers -tried to conjure up by asking what it would be like to hear two motor -convoys of steel-tyred trucks passing each other during a bombardment. -The only sensible comment I heard on that question was from the -officer who cut in with, "Please tell me how you'd know there _was_ a -bombardment?" - -There was one thing that steel-tyred car did well, though, and that -was to respond to its emergency brake. The occasion for the use of -the latter arose when a turning bridge was suddenly opened fifteen or -twenty yards ahead of the leading car, imposing upon the latter the -necessity of stopping dead inside that distance or taking a header into -a canal. The Mercedes, skating airily along on its wobbly tyres, managed -it by inches after streaking the pavement with two broad belts of the -last "real tree rubber" left in Germany. The leading nondescript--the -Benz-Daimler blend--gave the Mercedes a sharp bump before losing -the last of its momentum, and all but the last of its fluttering -"rope-_ersatz_-rubber" tyres, while its mate only came to a standstill -after skidding sideways on its rims. But my steel-tyred chariot, the -instant its emergency brake was thrown on, simply set its teeth into the -red brick pavement, and, spitting sparks like a dragon, stopped as dead -as though it had run against a stone wall. My companion and I, having -nothing to set _our_ teeth into, simply kept going right on. I, luckily, -only butted the chauffeur, who--evidently because the same thing had -happened to him before--took it all in good part; but the dapper young -officer, who planted the back of his head squarely between the shoulder -blades of the august Workmen's and Soldiers' representative riding -beside the driver, got a good swearing at for not aiming lower and -allowing the back of the seat to absorb his inertia. Quite apart from -the sparks kicked up by the tyres, and the stars shaken down by my jolt, -it was a highly illuminating little incident. - -We ran more slowly after we crossed the bridge--which also meant more -quietly, or rather, less noisily--and for the first time I noticed what -a new world we seemed to have come into since we left the immediate -vicinity of the docks. It was not so much that we were now passing down -a street of small shops, where before we had been among warehouses and -factories, as the difference in appearance and spirit of the people. No -one--not even the labourer going to his morning work--had anything of -the slovenly hang-dog air of the sailors we had seen in the ships and -about the dockyard. The streets and the shops were clean, and even the -meanest of the people neatly and comfortably dressed. We had come out of -the atmosphere of revolution into that of ordinary work-a-day Germany. - -As we rounded a corner and came clattering into the main street of the -city, the change was even more marked. At first blush there was hardly a -suggestion of war, or of war's aftermath. The big shop-windows were full -of goods, with here and there the forerunning red-and-green decorations -of the coming holidays. Here was an art shop's display of etchings and -coloured prints, there a haberdasher's stock of scarves and shirts -and gloves. Even a passing glance, it is true, revealed a prominently -displayed line of false shirt fronts; but, then, your German always was -partial to "dickeys." A florist's window, in which a fountain plashed -above a basin of water-lilies, was golden with splendid chrysanthemums, -and in the milliner's window hard by a saffron-plumed confection of -ultra-marine held high revel with a riotous thing of royal purple plush. - -Noting my eager interest in the gay window panorama, my companion, -leaning close to my ear to make himself heard above the clatter of the -tyres, shouted jerkily with the jolt of the car, "We are fond of the -bright colours, we Germans, and we make the very good dyes. I think you -have missed very much the German dyes since the war, and will now be -very glad of the chance to have them again. We have learned much during -the war, and they are now better than ever before. We laugh very much -when we capture the French soldier with the faded blue uniform, for then -we know that the French cannot make the dye that will hold its colour. -But the German--" - -"Waiting with the goods," I said to myself as I drew away from the -dissertation to watch a tramcar disgorging its load at a crossing. - -We were now running through the heart of Wilhelmshaven, and it was the -early office crowd that was thronging the streets. How well they were -dressed, and how well fed they looked! There were no hollow eyes or -emaciated forms in that crowd. One who has seen famines in China and -India knows the hunger look, the hunger pallor, the hunger apathy. There -is no mistaking them. But we had not seen any of them in the German -ships or dockyards, we did not see them that day in Wilhelmshaven, -and we were not destined to see them in Bremen, Hamburg, Kiel, or -anywhere else we went in the course of our many hundreds of miles -of travel in Northern Germany. So far as Mecklenburg, Oldenburg, and -Schleswig-Holstein were concerned, I have no hesitation in saying that -the starvation whine, which arose from the moment the ink was dry upon -the armistice agreement and which still persists, was sheer--to be -charitable, let us say--panic. - -Presently, as we began to pass some huge masses of buildings which, -four or five stories in height, appeared to run on through two or three -blocks of the not unattractive park-like grounds with which they were -surrounded, my companion, indicating them with a proud wave of his -hand, started speaking again. I could not hear him distinctly--for we -were speeding up faster now, and consequently making more noise--but I -thought I caught the drift of what he was trying to say. - -"Ja, ja," I roared back. "Ich verstehe sehr gut. Der naval barracks. -Der German High Sea Fleet Base." I think that was hardly the way he -was trying to put it, but his vigorous nod of assent showed that I had -at least gathered the sense of his observations. As we slowed down at -the next corner he put me completely right by saying, "Not for the -ships themselves, the big barracks, but for the men when the ships were -here. I think you make a joke." I admitted the shrewd impeachment -with a grin, but hardly thought it necessary to add that I was afraid -he had still missed the best part of the joke. He was a diverting lad, -that young flying officer, and he told me many interesting things in -the course of the day. Some of them were true, as subsequent events -or observations proved; but one of them at least was a calculated and -deliberate lie, told with the purpose of inducing one of the "air" -parties to give up the plan it had formed of visiting a certain station. -I will set down that significant little incident in its proper place. - -Although, as we learned later, the fact that a party from the Allied -Commission was to land and pass through the city that day had been -carefully withheld from the people, the latter exhibited very little -surprise at the appearance of officers in uniforms which they seemed to -recognize at once as foreign. They had been instructed that they were to -make no demonstration of any kind when Allied officers were encountered -in the streets, and, docile as ever, they carried out the order to the -letter. A mild, unresentful curiosity would perhaps best describe the -attitude of all the people who saw us that day, both in Wilhelmshaven -and at the country stations. - -The fact that many of the streets were dressed with flags and greenery, -and that all of the children, both boys and girls, trudging along -to school carried the red, white, and black emblem in their hands, -suggested to me at first that it was part of a patriotic display, a sort -of flaunting the new-found freedom in the face of the "invader." But my -companion assured me that the decorations were in honour of the expected -arrival home of two regiments of Wilhelmshaven Marines from the Front. -"We have been _en fête_ for a week now in hourly expectation of their -coming, and every day the children have put on their best clothes and -carried flags in their hands. But the railway service is very bad, and -always are they disappointed. You will see the arch of welcome at the -railway station. Wilhelmshaven is very proud of its Marine soldiers." - -The "arch" at the station turned out to be the evergreen and -bunting-decorated entrance to a long shed set with tables, at which -refreshments were to be served to the returning warriors. It was -surmounted with a shield bearing the words "Willkommen Soldaten," and an -eight-line stanza of verse which I did not have time to copy. The gist -of it was that the soldiers were welcomed home to "Work and Liberty." -It was thoroughly bad verse, said one of our interpreters, but the -sentiments were--for Germany--"restrained and dignified." There was -nothing about the "unbeaten soldiers," of whom we had been reading as -welcomed home in Berlin and other parts of Germany. - -There was a small crowd at the station entrance as our cars drove -up, but it parted quietly and made way for us to pass inside. One or -two sailors stood at attention and saluted--though whether German or -Allied officers it was impossible to tell--and several civilians bowed -solemnly and took off their hats. One of these reached out and made -temporary captive an irreverent street gamin who--purely in a spirit -of fun, apparently--started "goose-stepping" along in our wake. A bevy -of minxes of the shop-girl type giggled sputteringly, getting much -apparent amusement the while out of pretending to keep each other -quiet. One gaudily garbed pair, standing easily at gaze in the middle -of the waiting-room, stared brazenly and ogled frank invitation. An -austere dame--she might have been an opulent naval captain's frau--drew -a languid hand from what looked like a real ermine muff to lift a -tortoise-shell lorgnette and pass us one by one in critical review. Then -the old ticket-puncher, touching his cap as though he had recognized the -party as the Board of Directors on a surreptitious tour of inspection, -passed us through the gate and on the platform and our waiting train. - -Our special consisted of a luggage van and a passenger coach, drawn -by an engine in a very advanced state of what appeared to be neglect. -Though all its parts were there, these, except where rubbed clean by -friction, were thick with rust and scaled with flaking paint. The worst -trouble, however, seemed to come from lack of lubrication, for in the -places where every other locomotive I had seen before was dripping with -oil, this one showed only caked graphite and hard, dry steel. While -there is little doubt that the Germans made a point of turning out their -worst engines and motor cars for the use of the Allied sub-commissions -in order to give an impression that things were really in a desperate -way with them, it is still beyond question that their railway stock -deteriorated greatly during the war, and that a shortage of lubricating -oils was one of their very worst difficulties. - -The passenger coach was equally divided between first- and second-class -compartments. Entering at the second-class end, our party distributed -itself between the first two compartments reached. By the time one of -the several German officers who had now joined us pointed out the big -figure "2" on the windows, we were so comfortably settled that no one -deemed it worth while to move. As a matter of fact, on the German -railways, with their four or five classes, there is gentler gradation -between class and class than in France or England; and between first and -second--save that the former is upholstered in dark-red plush and the -latter in light-green--the difference is hardly noticeable. The main -difference is, I believe, in the price, and the fact that only six are -allowed in the first-class against eight in the second. We extracted a -good deal of amusement out of the fact that the several Workmen's and -Soldiers' representatives made no mistake, and lost no time, in marking -a first-class compartment for their own. - -We had been somewhat perplexed on our arrival at the station to note -that the two uniformed Workmen's and Soldiers' representatives had -been joined by two civilians, each wearing the white arm-band of the -revolutionary council. But presently one of the latter, hat in hand, -came to the door of our compartment to explain. The naval authorities, -he said, had requested that the Workmen and Soldiers should guarantee -the safety of all Allied parties landing from civilian attack, and in -consequence he had been sent along as a "hostage." At least the German -term he used was one which could be translated as hostage, but after -talking it over we came to the conclusion that the man's _rôle_ was -more analogous to that of a "plain clothes" special policeman. There -was one of these men attached to every party that made a train journey -on the North Sea side (all stations in the Baltic littoral were reached -by destroyer, so that no "protection" from the civilian population was -necessary), and they were neither of any trouble nor--so far as I was -ever able to discern--any use. - -Leaving a handful of morning papers behind him as a propitiatory -offering, our "hostage" bowed himself out of the door and backed off -down the corridor--still bowing--to rejoin his colleagues in the -first-class section of the car. In the quarter of an hour there was -still to wait before the line was clear for the departure of our train, -we had our first chance for a peep into Germany through the window of -the Press. - -The four-page sheets turned out to be copies of _Vorwärts_, the -_Kölnische Volkszeitung und Handels-Blatt_, the _Weser Zeitung_, of -Bremen, the _Wilhelmshavener Tageblatt_, and the _Republik_. The -latter styled itself the _Sozialdemokratisches Organ für Oldenburg und -Ostfriesland_, and the _Mitteilungsblatt der Arbeiter und Soldatenräte_. -It claimed to be in its thirty-second year, but admitted that all this -time, except the fortnight since the revolution, it had borne the name -of _Oldenburger Volksblatt_. It had little in the way of news from -either the outside world or the interior, the few columns which it -gave up to this purpose being filled with accounts of the formation -of republics in various other provinces, and attacks upon members of -the acting Government in Berlin. Evidently under some sort of orders, -it mentioned the arrival of the _Hercules_ at Wilhelmshaven without -comment. A socialistic sheet of Hamburg, which turned up the next -day, showed less restraint in this connection, for it stated that the -Allied Commission had altered its decision not to meet the Workmen's -and Soldiers' representatives, and that negotiations were now in -progress in which the latter were taking a prominent part. Tangible -evidence of the truth of this statement, it added, might be found in the -fact that delegates from the Workmen and Soldiers accompanied Allied -parties whenever they landed. _Vorwärts_ tried to convey the same false -impression to its readers, but rather less brazenly. The _Kölnische -Volkszeitung_ printed a dispatch from London, in which the _Daily Mail_ -was quoted as supporting the "_australischen Premierministers Hughes'_" -demand of an indemnity of "_acht milliarden Pfund Sterling_" from -Germany, and proceeded to prove in the course of an impassioned leader -of two columns why the demanding of any indemnity at all was in direct -violation of the pledged word of the Allies, to say nothing of Wilson's -Fourteen Points. A significant circumstance was the inclusion in each -paper of a part of a column of comment on the movement of prices of -"_Landesprodukte_" on the American markets. - -The advertisements, which took up rather more than half of each sheet, -proved by long odds more interesting than the news. These were quite -in best "peace time" style. The _Metropol-Variete_ (_Neu renoviert!_) -informed all and sundry that "_Vier elegante junge Damen!_" disported -themselves in its "_Kabarett_" every evening. The head-line of the great -"_Spezialitäten Programm_" in the theatre was "_Die Grosse Sensation: -Martini Szeny, genannt der 'Ausbrecher-König'!_" A number in the -_Metropol's_ program which appealed to us more than all the others, -however, was one which was featured further down the list, for there, -sandwiched between "KITTY DEANOS UND PARTNER, _Kunstschutzen_," and -"HANS ROMANS, _Liedersanger_," appeared "LITTLE WILLY, _Trapez-Volant_." - -"And all the time we thought he was in Holland," dryly commented the -American officer who made the discovery. - -One could not help wondering respecting the "etymology" of "Little -Willy," and whether that "Flying Trapezist" knew that he bore the -favourite Allied nickname for His ex-Royal and Imperial Highness, -Frederick Wilhelm Hohenzollern, Crown Prince of Germany, etc., etc. - -Evidence that Hun "piracy" had not been confined to their U-boats was -unearthed in the discovery that the Adler-Theatre of Bremen advertised -two performances of "DIE MODERNE EVA" for that very day--_Heute -Sonntag_! "I ran across the chap who wrote 'The Modern Eve' somewhere -out California way," said the same American who had spoken before. "He -was some bore, too, take it from me; but he never deserved anything -as bad as this, for the show itself was pretty nifty," and he began -humming, in extemporaneously translated German the words of "Good-bye -Everybody," the popular "song hit" from "The Modern Eve." - -It was a Berlin theatre which advertised "2 _Vorstellungen_ 2" of -"Hamlet," which ended up the notice with "RAUCHEN STRENG VERBOTEN!" in -large type. "If they burn the same stuff in Berlin that our Workmen and -Soldier friends in the first-class are putting up that smoke barrage in -the corridor with," said an airship officer, "it would have to be a case -of '_Rauchen Streng Verboten_' or gas masks." - -A number of booksellers advertised long lists of "_Neue Werke_," -but one searched these in vain for any of the notorious polemics -directed against the Allies, or yet for the writings of any of the -great protagonists of the "Deutschland Ueber Alles" movement. Most of -them appeared to be "Romances" or out-and-out "Thrillers." Bachem, of -Köln, described "_Der Meister_" as "_Der Roman eines Spiritisten_"; -"_Wettertannen_" as a "_Tiroler Roman aus der Gegenwart von Hans -Schrott_"; "_Wenn Irland dich ruft_" as "_Der Roman eines Fliegers_"; -and "_Der blutige Behrpfennig_" as "_Erzählung aus dem Leben eines -Priesters_." Although one would have thought that the German people had -had quite enough of that kind of thing from their late Government, every -book I saw advertised in any of these papers was fiction. - -Perhaps the most optimistic of all these advertisements was that of the -"Kismet Laboratorium," of Berlin, in the _Republik_, which claimed to -make a preparation for the improvement of the female form divine. Now -that the war was over, it read, they no longer felt any hesitation in -announcing that their great discovery was based on a certain product -which could only be obtained from British India. As their pre-war stock -had only been eked out by dilution with an not entirely satisfactory -substitute, it was with great pleasure that they informed their many -customers that they hoped shortly to conclude arrangements by which -the famous "Bakatal-Busenwasser" could again be furnished in all its -pristine purity and strength. - -So here, it appears, was an indirect admission to prove wrong the -individual who averred that the German chemists could make out of coal -tar anything in the world except a gentleman. It seems that all the time -they had been dependent upon British India for even the "makings" of a -lady. It would have been interesting to know what the "arrangements" -were by which the supply was to be renewed. We were discussing that -question when the train started, and a "flat" wheel on the "bogey" -immediately under our compartment put an end to casual conversation. - -On the outskirts of the town we passed by a great series of sidings -closely packed with oil-tank-cars from all parts of the Central Empires. -The most of them were marked in German, but with names which indicated -beyond a doubt that they had been employed in serving the Galician -fields of Austria. On many more the name of Rumania appeared in one -form or another, and several bore the names of the British concerns -from which they had been seized when the rich oilfields of that unlucky -country fell to Mackensen's armies. A considerable number of cars -were marked with Russian characters, which led to the assumption that -they had been seized in Courland or the Ukraine, and that they had -originally run to and from the greatest of the world's oilfields at -Baku, on the Caspian. There was a persistent report at one time that -Germany was constructing an oil-pipe-line from the Galician fields to -Kiel and Wilhelmshaven. Although quite practicable from an engineering -standpoint, this appears never to have been seriously considered, -probably on account of the great demand for labour and material it would -have made at a time when both could be used to better advantage in other -ways. - -Seeing me standing at the window in the corridor looking at the -oil-cars, my young companion of the steel-tyred auto came out of his -compartment and moved up beside me. "As you will see," he said with his -slow precision, "we never lacked badly for the oil for our U-boats. -The one time that we had the great worry was when the Russians had the -fields of Galicia. That cut off our only large supply. But luckily we -had great stocks in hand when the war started, and these were quite -sufficient for our needs until the Russians had been driven out of -Austria. If they had remained there, it is hard to see how we could have -kept going after our reserve was finished. But they did not stay, the -poor Russians, and they did not even have the wits to destroy the wells -properly. We had them producing again at full capacity in a few months. -Now, if they had been destroyed like the English destroyed the wells in -Rumania it would have been different. _There_, in many places, we found -it the cheaper to drill the new wells. Ah, the English are very thorough -when they have the time, both in making and un-making." - -As we passed through the suburbs of Wilhelmshaven we began to get some -inkling of where the food came from. All back yards and every spare -patch of ground were in vegetables. Nowhere in England or France have I -seen the surface of the earth so fully occupied, so thoroughly turned -to account. Some thrifty cultivators, after filling up their available -ground with rows of cabbages and Brussels sprouts, appeared to have been -growing beans and peas in hanging baskets and boxes of earth set up on -frames. One genius had erected a forcing bed for what (to judge from -the dead stalks) looked like cucumbers or squashes on the thatched roof -of his cowshed. The only thing needed to cap the climax of agricultural -industry would have been a "hanging garden" suspended from captive -balloons. - -As we ran out of the suburban area and into the open country the -allotments gave place to large and well-tilled farms, or rather to farms -which had been well tilled in the season favourable to cultivation. -At the moment work was practically at a standstill on account of the -incessant rains which had inundated considerable areas and left the -ground heavy, water-logged, and temporarily unfit for the plough. -The results of a really bountiful harvest, however, were to be seen -in bulging barns and sheds and plethoric haystacks and fodder piles. -The surest evidence that there had actually been an over-supply of -vegetables was the careless way in which such things as cabbages, -swedes, and beets were being handled in transport. A starving people -does not leave food of this kind to rot along the road nor in the -station yards, evidences of which we saw every now and then for the next -forty miles. - -Practically the whole of the North Sea littoral of Germany between the -Kiel Canal and the Dutch border--across the central section of which we -were now passing--is the same sort of a flat, sea-level expanse, and has -the same rich, alluvial soil, as the plains of Flanders. This region, -like Denmark and Holland, had been largely given over to dairying -before the war. The conversion of it from a pastoral to an agricultural -country, by ploughing up the endless miles of meadows, has resulted -in a huge output of foodstuffs, and has put the people inhabiting it -well beyond the risk of anything approaching starvation, no matter how -long the blockade might be kept up. The officers accompanying us were -quite frank in stating that the farmers had prospered and waxed wealthy -by selling their surplus in the nearest industrial centres, such as -Bremen and Hamburg. The pinch, they said, would come when the people -began trying to restock their dairy farms again, for at least a half -of the cattle had been killed off as their pastures had been put under -cultivation. - -Judging by the very few cattle in sight--in comparison with the number -one has always seen in the fields in dairying regions--one would be -inclined to estimate the reduction of stock at a good deal more than -half. The fact that it is the local custom to keep the best of their -stock stabled during the most inclement months of the winter doubtless -had a good deal to do with the few animals in sight. As a matter of -fact, there was really very little grazing left for those that might -have been turned out. Sheep were also extremely scarce, but as this was -not a region where they were ever found in great numbers one remarked -their absence less than that of cattle. - -But the most astonishing thing of all was that not a single pig was -sighted on either the going or returning journey. The sight of what -appeared to be a long-empty sty started a comparison of observations -from which it transpired that no one watching from either of our two -compartments had so much as clapped an eye on what the world has long -regarded as Germany's favourite species of live stock. After that we all -began standing "pig lookout," but the only "View Halloo" raised was a -false one, the "_schwein_" turning out to be a _dachshund_, and a very -scrawny one at that. Piqued by this astonishing porcine elusiveness, -the "air" parties (upon which most of the land travel devolved) met -in the ward-room of the _Hercules_ that evening and contributed to -form a "Pig Pool," the whole of which was to go to the first member -who could produce incontestable evidence that he had seen a pig upon -German soil. Astounding as it may seem, this prize was never awarded. -The claim of one aspirant was ruled out because, on cross-questioning, -he had to admit that his "pig" wore a German naval uniform and had -tried, by vigorous lying, to head him off from a hangar containing a -very interesting type of a new seaplane. Another claimant proved that -he had actually seen a pig, but only to have the prize withheld when it -transpired that he had flushed nothing more lifelike than the plaster -image of a pig which, cleaver in hand, stood as a butcher's sign in a -village on the island of Rügen. A third claimant _would_ have won the -award had he chanced along five minutes sooner when the villagers were -butchering a pig on the occasion when his party visited the Great Belt -Islands to inspect the forts. Even in this case, though, we should have -had to weigh carefully the evidence of an Irish-American officer of the -same party, who said that it was "a dead cert that pig had died from hog -cholera a good hour before it was killed!" - -Although the fact that none of the members of the various Allied -sub-commissions saw so much as a single live hog during the course of -the many hundred miles travelled by train, motor, carriage, or foot -in North-Western Germany, does not mean that the species has become -extinct there by any means, there is still no doubt that the numbers of -this popular and appropriate symbol of the Hun's _grossness_ have been -greatly reduced, and that _schweine_ will be among the top items on -their list of "immediate requirements" forwarded to the Allied Relief -Committee. - -Hurried as was this first of our journeys across Oldenburg, I was still -able to see endless evidence not only of the intensive cultivation, -but also the careful and scientific fertilization, which I had good -opportunity to study later at closer range in Mecklenburg and -Schleswig. Stable manure and mulches of sedulously conserved decaying -vegetable matter were being everywhere applied to the land according to -the most approved modern practice. This I had expected to see, for I -already knew the German as an intelligent and well-instructed farmer, -but what did surprise me was clear proof that the supply of artificial -fertilizers--phosphates, nitrates, and lime--was being fairly well -maintained. Truck loads of these indispensable adjuncts to sustained -production standing in station sidings showed that, and so did the state -of the fields themselves; for the fresh young shoots of winter wheat, -which I saw everywhere pushing up and taking full advantage of the -almost unprecedentedly mild December weather, showed no traces of the -"hungriness" I have so often noted during the last year or two in some -of the over-cropped and under-fertilized fields of England. - -What with prisoners and the unremitting labour of women and children, -Germany accomplished remarkable things in the way of production. The -area of cultivation was not only largely increased, but the production -of the old fields was also kept at a high level. In no part of the world -have I ever seen fairer farmsteads than those through which the party -inspecting the Great Belt forts north of Kiel drove for many miles one -day. They struck me as combining something of the picturesqueness of a -Somerset farm with the prosperous efficiency of a California ranch. And -it is as a California rancher myself that I say that I only wish I had -soil and outbuildings that would come anywhere nearly up to the average -of those throughout this favoured region of Schleswig. It is true that -many of the people thereabouts are Danish, and I even saw a Danish flag -discreetly displayed behind the neat lace curtains of one farmhouse. -But, Danish or German, they are producing huge quantities of good -food, enough to keep the people of less fertile regions of "starving -Deutschland" far from want. - -It was just before our arrival at Norddeich at the end of this first -day's railway journey that I spoke to the German officer who had joined -me at the window of the corridor about the very well-fed look of the -people we had seen on the streets of Wilhelmshaven and at the stations -of the towns and villages through which we had been passing. "It is -true," he replied, "that we have never suffered for food in this part -of the country, and that is because it is so largely agricultural. But -wait until you go to the industrial centres. In Hamburg and Bremen, it -is there that you will see the want and hunger. It is for those poor -people that the Allies must provide much food without delay." - -Personally, I did not go either to Hamburg or Bremen, being absent with -parties visiting the Zeppelin stations at Nordholz and Tondern at the -time the Shipping Board of the Naval Commission was inspecting British -merchantmen interned in these once great ports. A member of that board, -however, assured me that he had observed no material difference in the -appearance of the people in the streets of Bremen and Hamburg and those -of Wilhelmshaven. His party had taken "potluck" at the Hotel Atlantic -in Hamburg, where the food had been found ample in quantity and not -unappetizing, even on a meatless day. - -"But what of the poor?" I asked. "Did you see anything of the quarters -that would correspond to the slums of London or Liverpool?" - -"Germany," he replied, "to her credit, has very few places where the -housing is outwardly so bad as in many British industrial cities I could -name. We did not see much of the parts of Bremen and Hamburg where -the working-classes live; but we did see a good deal of the workers -themselves. I know under-feeding when I see it, for I was in Russia -but a few months ago. But, so far as I could see, the chief difference -between the men in the dockyards and shipbuilding establishments -of Hamburg and those of the Tyne and Clyde was that the former were -working harder. They merely glanced up at us as we passed, with little -curiosity and no resentment, and went right on with the job in hand. -No, everything considered, I should not say that any one is suffering -seriously for lack of food in either Bremen or Hamburg." - -"No one is suffering seriously for lack of food." That was the feeling -of all of us at the end of our first day in "starving Germany," and (if -I may anticipate) it was also our verdict when the _Hercules_ sailed for -England, three weeks later. - - - - -IV - -ACROSS THE SANDS TO NORDERNEY - - -The names of "Norderney" and "Borkum" on the list of seaplane stations -to be inspected seemed to strike a familiar chord of memory, but it -was not until I chanced upon a dog-eared copy of "The Riddle of the -Sands" on a table in the "Commission Room" of the _Hercules_ that it -dawned upon me where I had heard them before. There was no time at -the moment to re-turn the pages of this most consummately told yarn -of its kind ever written, but, prompted by a happy inspiration, I -slipped the grimy little volume into my pocket. And there (as the -clattering special which was to take us to Norddeich, _en route_ to -Norderney, turned off from the Bremen mainline a few miles outside of -Wilhelmshaven) I found it again, just as the green water-logged fields -and bogs of the "land of the seven _siels_" began to unroll in twin -panoramas on either side. Opening the book at random somewhere toward -the middle, my eye was drawn to a paragraph beginning near the top of -the page facing a much-pencilled chart. "... The mainland is that -district of Prussia that is known as East Friesland." (I remember now -that it was "Carruthers," writing in the _Dulcibella_, off Wangerogg, -who was describing the "lay of the land.") "It is a short, flat-topped -peninsula, bounded on the west by the Ems estuary and beyond that by -Holland, and on the east by the Jade estuary; a low-lying country, -containing great tracts of marsh, and few towns of any size; on the -north side none. Seven islands lie off the coast. All, except Borkum, -which is round, are attenuated strips, slightly crescent-shaped, rarely -more than a mile broad, and tapering at the ends; in length averaging -about six miles, from Norderney and Juist, which are seven and nine -respectively, to little Baltrum, which is only two and a half." - -As I turned the book sideways to look at the chart the whole fascinating -story came back with a rush. What man who has ever knocked about in -small boats, tramped roads and poked about generally in places where he -had no business to poke could forget it? The East Friesland peninsula, -with its "seven little rivers" and "seven channels" and "seven islands," -was the "take off" for the German army which was to cross the North -Sea in barges to land on the sands of "The Wash" for the invasion of -England. And this very line over which our rickety two-car special -was clinkety-clanking--I wished that "Carruthers" could have seen what -a pitiful little old single-track it had become--was the "strategic -trunk" over which the invading cohorts were to be shunted in their -thousands to the waiting deep-sea-going barges in the canalized _siels_. -There was Essen, which was to have been the "nodal centre" of the -great embarkation, and scarcely had I located it on the map before its -tall spire was stabbing the north-western skyline as we drew in to the -station. - -A raw-boned, red-faced girl, her astonishingly powerful frame clad in a -man's greasy overall, lowered the barrier at the high-road crossing, the -same barrier, I reflected, which had held up "Carruthers," Von Brunning, -and the two "cloaked gentlemen" on the night of the great adventure. -Four "land girls," in close-fitting brown corduroys, with great baskets -of red cabbages on their shoulders, were just trudging off down the road -to Dornum, the very "cobbled causeway flanked with ditches and willows, -and running cheek by jowl with the railway track" which "Carruthers" had -followed by midnight, with "fleecy clouds and a half moon overhead," -in search of the Benser Tief. There was even a string of mighty barges -towing down the narrow canal of the "Tief" when we crossed its rattling -bridge a few minutes later. And just as "Carruthers" described, the road -and railway clung closely together all the way to Dornum, and about -halfway were joined by a third companion in the shape of a puny stream, -the Neues Tief. "Wriggling and doubling like an eel, choked with sedges -and reeds," it had no more pretensions to being navigable now than then. -It still "looped away into the fens out of sight, to reappear again -close to Dornum in a more dignified guise," and it still skirted the -town to the east, where there was a towpath and a piled wharf. The only -change I was able to note in the momentary halt of the train was that -the "red-brick building with the look of a warehouse, roofless as yet -and with workmen on the scaffolds," had now been covered with red tile -and filled with red cabbages. - -It was at Dornum that "Carruthers" (who was masquerading as a German -sailor on his way to visit a sister living on Baltrum) fell in at a -primitive _Gasthaus_ with an ex-crimp, drunken with much _schnappsen_, -who insisted on accompanying him on a detour to Dornumersiel, where he -had planned to do a hasty bit of spying. From the right-hand window I -caught a brief glimpse of the ribbon of the coastward road, down the -length of which the oddly-assorted pair--the Foreign Office _précis_ -writer and the one-time "shanghai" artist--had stumbled arm-in-arm, -treating each other in every gin-shop on the way. - -"Carruthers'" detour to the coast carried him out of sight of the -railway, so that he missed the little red-brick schoolhouse, close up by -the track, where the buxom mistress had her whole brood of young Fritzes -and Gretchens lined up along the fence of the right-of-way to wave and -cheer our train as it passed. How she received word of the coming of the -"Allied Special" we could only conjecture, but it was probably through -some Workmen's and Soldiers' Council friend in the railway service. But -even so, as the schoolhouse was three miles from the nearest station -and had nothing suggestive of a telephone line running to it, she must -have had her _banzai_ party standing by in readiness a good part of -the forenoon session. Hurriedly dropping a window (they work rather -hard on account of the stiffness of the thick paper strap), I was just -able to gather that the burden of the greeting was "Good morning, good -morning, sir!" repeated many times in guttural chorus. If any of them -were shouting "Welcome!" as one or two of our party thought they heard, -it escaped my ears. They did the thing so well one was sure it had been -rehearsed, and wondered how long it had been since those same throaty -trebles had been raised in the "Hymn of Hate." If "Carruthers" spying -visit to Dornumersiel resulted in anything more "revealing" than the dig -in the ribs one of the youngsters got from the mistress for (apparently) -not cheering lustily enough, he neglected to set it down in his story. -This little incident prepared us for much we were to see later in the -way of German "conciliation" methods. - -"Carruthers," when he returned to the railway again and took train at -Hage, made the journey from the latter station to Norden in ten minutes. -The fact that our special took twenty is sufficient commentary on the -deterioration of German road-beds and rolling stock. Norden, which -is the junction point for Emden, to the south, and Norddeich, to the -north, is a good-sized town, and we noticed here that the streets were -beflagged and arched with evergreen as at Wilhelmshaven, doubtless in -expectation of returning troops. While our engines were being changed, -a couple of workmen, standing back in the depths of a tool-house, kept -waving their hands ingratiatingly every time the armed guard (who always -paced up and down the platform while the train was at a station) turned -his back. What they were driving at--unless co-operating with the -children in the general "conciliation" program--we were not able to make -out. - -From Norden to Norddeich was a run of but three or four miles, but a bad -road-bed and a worse engine made the journey a tedious if fitting finale -to our painful progress across the East Frisian peninsula. Halting but a -few moments at the main station, the train was shunted to a spur which -took it right out to the quay where the great dyke bent inward to form a -narrow artificial harbour. A few steps across the slippery moss-covered -stones, where the falling tide had bared the sloping landing, took us to -where a small but powerfully engined steam launch was waiting to convey -the party to Norderney. Manned by naval ratings, it had the same aspect -of neglect which characterized all of the warships we had visited. The -men saluted smartly, however, and on our expressing a wish to remain in -the open air in preference to the stuffy cabin, they tumbled below and -brought up cushions and ranged them along the deck-house to sit upon. -The Allied officers dangled their legs to port, the German officers to -starboard, while the ex-sailor and the "plain clothes" detective from -the Workmen's and Soldiers' Council disposed themselves authoritatively -in the wheel-house. - -A few minutes' run between heavy stone jetties brought us to the -open sea, where the launch began threading a channel which seemed to -be marked mostly by buoys, but here and there by close-set rows of -saplings, now just beginning to show their scraggly tops above the -falling water. It was the sight of these latter marks--so characteristic -of these waters--that reminded me that we had at last come out into the -real hunting ground of the _Dulcibella_, where "Davies" and "Carruthers" -had puzzled out the solution of "The Riddle of the Sands." Norderney -and Juist and Borkum and the other of the "seven islands" strung their -attenuated lengths in a broken barrier to seaward, and between them -and the mainland we were leaving astern stretched the amazing mazes of -the sands, alternately bared and covered by the ebb and flow of the -tides. Two-thirds of the area, according to "Carruthers," were dry at -low water, when the "remaining third becomes a system of lagoons whose -distribution is controlled by the natural drift of the North Sea as it -forces its way through the intervals between the islands. Each of these -intervals resembles the bar of a river, and is obstructed by dangerous -banks over which the sea pours at every tide, scooping out a deep pool. -This fans out and ramifies to east and west as the pent-up current -frees itself, encircles the islands, and spreads over the intervening -flats. But the further it penetrates the less scouring force it has, -and as a result no island is girt completely by a low-water channel. -About midway at the back of each of them is a 'watershed,' only covered -for five or six hours out of the twelve. A boat, even of the lightest -draught, navigating behind the islands must choose its moment for -passing these." - -"I trust we have 'chosen _our_ moment' carefully," I said to myself -after reading those lines and reflecting what a large part of their time -the _Dulcibella_, _Kormoran_, and all the other craft in the "Riddle" -had spent careened upon sand-spits. To reassure myself, I leaned back -and asked one of the German officers if boats didn't run aground pretty -often on that run. "Oh, yes, most often," was the reply, "but only at -low water or when the fog is very thick. With this much water, and when -we can see as far as we can now"--there was about a quarter of a mile of -visibility--"there is no danger. Our difficulty will come when we try to -return this evening on the low water." - -It may have been my imagination, but I thought he put a shade more -accent on that _try_ than a real optimist would have done under similar -circumstances. But then, I told myself, it was hardly a time when one -could expect a German officer to be optimistic about anything. - -Heading out through the well-marked channel of the _Buse Tief_, between -the sands of the _Itzendorf Plate_ to port and _Hohe Riff_ to starboard, -twenty minutes found the launch in the opener waters off the west end of -Norderney where, with its light draught, it had no longer to thread the -winding of the buoyed fairway. Standing on northward until the red roofs -and white walls of the town sharpened into ghostly relief on the curtain -of the mist, course was altered five or six points to starboard, and we -skirted a broad stretch of sandy beach, from the upper end of which the -even slopes of concreted "runs" were visible, leading back to where, -dimly outlined in their darker opacity, a long row of great hangars -loomed fantastically beyond the dunes. Doubling a sharp spit, the launch -nosed in and brought up alongside the landing of a slip notched out of -the side of the little natural harbour. - -The Commander of the station--a small man, but wiry and exceedingly -well set up--met us as we stepped off the launch. Then, and throughout -the visit, his quiet dignity of manner and ready (but not too ready) -courtesy struck a welcome mean between the incongruous blends of -sullenness and subserviency we had encountered in meeting the officers -in the German warships. He saluted each member of the party as he -landed, but tactfully refrained from offering his hand to any but -the attached German officers. It was this attitude on the part of -the Commander, together with the uniformly courteous but uneffusive -demeanour of the other officers with whom we were thrown in contact, -that made the visit to Norderney perhaps the pleasantest of all the many -inspections carried out in Germany. - -Walking inland along a brick-paved road, we passed a large canteen or -recreation club (with a crowd of curious but quite respectful men lined -up along the verandah railings to watch us go by) before turning in to -a fine new brick-and-tile building which appeared to be the officers' -Casino. Leaving our overcoats in the reception room, we joined the dozen -or more officers awaiting us at the entrance and fared on by what had -once been flower-bordered walks to the hangars. As we came out upon -the "tarmac"--here, as with all German seaplane and airship stations, -the runs for the machines in front of the hangars are paved with -concrete instead of the tarred macadam which is used so extensively in -England and France--the men of the station were seen to be drawn up by -companies, as for a review. Each company stood smartly to attention at -the order of its officers as the party came abreast of it, and we--both -Allied and German officers--saluted in return. As we passed on, each -company in turn broke rank and quietly dispersed to barracks, their -officers following on to join the party in the furtherest hangar, where -the inspection was to begin. The discipline appeared to be faultless, -and it was soon evident that the men and their officers had arrived at -some sort of a "working understanding" to tide them over the period of -inspection, if not longer. - -The two representatives of the Workmen and Soldiers who had accompanied -our party from Wilhelmshaven were allowed to be present during the -inspection, and with them two other "white-banders" who appeared to have -been elected to represent the men of the station. All other men had been -cleared out of the sheds in conformity with the stipulations of the -armistice. Some unauthorized individual--apparently a mechanic--who, -halfway through the inspection, was noticed following the party, was -summarily ordered out by the Commander. He obeyed somewhat sullenly, but -though we subsequently saw him in gesticulative confab with some of his -mates on the outside, he did not venture again into any of the hangars. -That was the nearest approach to insubordination we saw in Norderney. - -The officers of the station--now that we saw them, a score or more in -number, all together--were a fine, business-like looking lot. All of -them wore some kind of a decoration, most of them several, and among -these were two or three of the highly-prized Orders "_Pour le Mérite_." -As Norderney was the "star" seaplane station, that body of keen-eyed, -square-jawed young flying officers undoubtedly included the cleverest -naval pilots at Germany's disposal. What their many decorations had been -given for there was, of course, no way of learning; nor did we find out -whether the presence of so many of them at the inspection was voluntary -or by order. Though, like their Commander, quiet and reserved, they were -invariably courteous and willing in doing anything to facilitate the -tedious progress of inspection. - -There was an amusing little incident which occurred during the course -of inspection in connection with a very smart young German officer, -who, from the moment I first saw him at the door of the Casino, I kept -telling myself I had encountered somewhere before. For half an hour -or more--while checking the names and numbers of the machines in my -notebook as inspection was completed--my mind was running back through -one German colony or foreign settlement after another, trying to find -the scene into which that florid face (with its warm, wide-set eyes and -its full, sensual mouth) fitted. Dar-es-Salaam, Windhoek, Tsingtau, Yap, -Apia, Herbertshöhe--I scurried back through them all without uncovering -a clue. Where else had I met Germans? The southern "panhandle" of -Brazil, the south of Chile, Bagdad-- That was the first name to awaken a -sense of "nearness." "Bagdad, Bagdad Railway, Assur, Mosul," I rambled -on, and just as I began to recall that I had encountered Germans -scattered all along the caravan route from the Tigris to Syria, the -object of my interest turned up those soulful eyes of his to look at -one of the American officers clambering into the "house" of the "Giant" -monoplane seaboat under inspection at the moment--and I had him. - -"Aleppo! 'Du Bist Wie Eine Blume!'" I chortled exultantly, my mind going -back to a night in June, 1912, when, the day after my arrival from the -desert, the American Consul had taken me to a party at the Austrian -Consulate in honour of some one or other who was about to depart for -home--wherever that was. Young Herr X---- (I even recalled the name now) -and his brother, both on the engineering staff of the Bagdad Railway, -were among the guests, the former very smitten with a sloe-eyed sylph -of a Greek Levantine, whose mother (so a friendly gossip told me) -had been a dancer in a café chantant in Beirut before she married the -Smyrna hairdresser who afterwards made a fortune buying licorice root -from the Arabs. The girl (there was no denying the lissome grace of -her serpentine slenderness) was sipping her pink rose-leaf sherbet in -a balcony above the open court when Herr X---- had been asked to sing -along towards midnight, and the fervid passion of his upturned glances -as he sung "Du Bist Wie Eine Blume" as an encore to "Ich Liebe Dich" -had made enough of an impression on my mind to need no more than the -reminder vouchsafed me to recall it. - -Evidently (perhaps because I had not furnished him with a similar -reason) Herr Romeo did not trace any connection between my present -well-rounded, "sea-faring" figure and the sun-dried, fever-wrecked -anatomy I had dragged into Aleppo in 1912, for I noted that his eyes -had passed over me impersonally twice or thrice without a flicker of -recognition. The explosiveness of my exultant chortle, however, must -have assailed the ear of the German officer standing a couple of paces -in front of me, for he turned round quickly and asked if I had spoken to -him. - -"No--er--not exactly," I stammered, adding, at the promptings of a -sudden reckless impulse, "but I would like to ask if you knew when -Lieutenant X---- over there left the Bagdad Railway for the flying -service?" - -"He was at the head office in Frankfurt when the war began, and joined -shortly afterwards," the young officer replied promptly, stepping back -beside me. Then, as the somewhat surprising nature of the query burst -upon him, a look of astonishment flushed his face and a pucker of -suspicion drew his bushy brows together in a perturbed frown. "But may I -ask--" he began. - -"And his brother who was with him in Aleppo--the one with the scar on -his cheek and the top of one ear sliced off," I pressed; "where is he?" - -"Died of fever in Nishbin," again came the prompt answer. "But" -(blurting it out quickly) "how do you know about them?" - -Being human, and therefore weak, it was not in me to enlighten him with -the truth, and to add that I was merely a second-class Yankee hack -writer, temporarily togged out in an R.N.V.R. uniform to regularize -my position of "Keeper of the Records" of the Allied Naval Armistice -Commission. No, I couldn't do that. Indeed, everything considered, I am -inclined to think that I rendered a better service to the Allied cause -when I squared my shoulders importantly and delivered myself oracularly -of, "It is our business to know" (impressive pause) "all." - -My reward was worthy of the effort. "Ach, it is but true," sighed the -young officer resignedly. "The English Intelligence is wonderful, as we -have too often found out." - -"It is not bad," I admitted modestly, as I strolled over to make a note -of the fact that the machine-gun mounting of one of the _Frederichafens_ -had not been removed. - -I could see that my young friend was bursting to impart to Lieutenant -X---- the fact that he was a "marked man," but it was just as well that -no opportunity offered in the course of the inspection. That the ominous -news had been broken at luncheon, however, I felt certain from the fact -that when, missing X---- from the group of officers who saluted us from -the doorway of the Casino on our departure, I cast a furtive glance at -the upper windows, it surprised him in the act of withdrawing behind -one of the lace curtains. I only hope he has nothing on his conscience -in the way of hospital bombings and the like. If he has, it can hardly -have failed to occur to him that his name is inscribed on the Allies' -"black-list," and that he will have to stand trial in due course. - -It's a strange thing, this cropping up of half-remembered faces in new -surroundings. The very next day, in the course of the visit to the -Zeppelin station at Nordholz--but I will not anticipate. - -Under the terms of the armistice the Germans agreed to render all naval -seaplanes unfit for use by removing their propellers, machine-guns, and -bomb-dropping equipment, and dismantling their wireless and ignition -systems. To see that this was carried out on a single machine was not -much of a task, but multiplied by the several scores in such a station -as Norderney, it became a formidable labour. To equalize the physical -work, the sub-commission for seaplane stations arranged that the British -and American officers included in it should take turn-and-turn about in -active inspection and checking the result of the latter with the lists -furnished in advance by the Germans. At Norderney the "active service" -side of the program fell to the lot of the two American officers to -carry out. The swift pace they set at the outset slowed down materially -toward the finish, and it was a pair of very weary officers that dropped -limply from the last two _Albatrosses_ and sat down upon a pontoon to -recover their breath. It was, I believe, Lieut.-Commander L---- who, -ruefully rubbing down a cramp which persisted in knotting his left -calf, declared that he had just computed that his combined clamberings -in the course of the inspection were equal to ascending and descending a -mountain half a mile high. - -Practically all of the machines at Norderney were of the tried and -proven types--_Brandenburgs_, _Albatrosses_, _Frederichafens_, _Gothas_, -etc.--already well-known to the Allies. (It was not until the great -experimental station at Warnemünde, in the Baltic, was visited a -fortnight later that specimens of the latest types were revealed.) The -Allied experts of the party were greatly impressed with the excellence -of construction of all of the machines, none of them appearing to have -suffered in the least as a consequence of a shortage of materials. The -steel pontoons in particular--a branch of construction to which the -Germans had given much attention, and with notable success--came in for -especially favourable comment. (The Commander of the station, by the -way, showed us one of these pontoons which he had had fitted with an -engine and propeller and used in duck-shooting.) The general verdict -seemed to be that the Germans had little to learn from any one in the -building of seaplanes, and that this was principally due to the fact -that they had concentrated upon it for oversea work, where the British -had been going in more and more for swift "carrier" ships launching -aeroplanes. It was by aeroplanes launched from the "carrier" _Furious_ -that the great Zeppelin station at Tondern was practically destroyed -last summer, and there is no doubt that this kind of a combination can -accomplish far more effective work--providing, of course, that the power -using it has command of the sea--than anything that can be done by -seaplanes. It was the fact that Germany did _not_ have control of the -sea, rather than any lack of ingenuity or initiative, that pinned her to -the seaplane, and, under the circumstances, it has to be admitted that -she made very creditable use of the latter. - -The one new type of machine at Norderney (although the existence of it -had been known to the Allies for some time) was the "giant" monoplane -seaboat, quite the most remarkable machine of the kind in the world at -the present time. Though its span of something like 120 feet is less -than that of a number of great aeroplanes already in use, its huge -breadth of wing gave it a plane area of enormous size. The boat itself -was as large--and apparently as seaworthy--as a good-sized steam launch, -and so roomy that one could almost stand erect inside of it. It quite -dwarfed anything of the kind I had ever seen before. Nor was the boat, -spacious as it was, the only closed-in space. Twenty feet or more above -the deck of it, between the wings, was a large "box" containing, among -other things, a very elaborately equipped _sound-proof_ wireless room. -The technical instruments of control and navigation--especially the very -compact "Gyro" compasses--stirred the Allied experts to an admiration -they found difficult to restrain. - -One of the German officers who had accompanied us from Wilhelmshaven -told me something of the history of this greatest of monoplanes. -"This flying boat," he said, while we waited for the somewhat lengthy -inspection to be completed, "was the last great gift that Count -Zeppelin" (he spoke the name with an awe that was almost adoration) -"gave to his country before he died. He was terribly disappointed by -the failure of the Zeppelin airship as an instrument for bombing, -and the last months of his life were spent in designing something to -take its place. He realized that the size of the mark the airship -offered to the constantly improving anti-aircraft artillery, together -with the invention of the explosive bullet and the increasing speed -and climbing power of aeroplanes, put an end for ever to the use of -Zeppelins where they would be exposed to attack. He set about to design -a heavier-than-air machine that would be powerful enough to carry a -really great weight of bombs, and the 'Giant' you see here is the result. - -"As Count Zeppelin did not believe that it would ever be possible to -land a machine of this weight and size on the earth, he made it a flying -boat. But it was not intended for flights over water at all in the -first place--that was to be simply for rising from and landing in. It -was to be kept at one of our seaplane stations on the Belgian coast, as -near as possible to the Front, and from here it was to go for bombing -flights behind the enemy lines. But before it was completed experience -had proved that it was quite practicable to land big machines on the -earth, and so the 'Giant' found itself superseded as a bomber. It was -then that it was brought to the attention of the Naval Flying Service, -and we, recognizing in it the possibilities of an ideal machine for -long-distance reconnaissance, took it over and completed it. Now, -although a few changes have been made in the direction of making it more -of a 'sea' machine, it does not differ greatly from the original designs -of Count Zeppelin." - -As to how the machine had turned out in practice he was, naturally, -rather non-committal. The monoplane, he thought, had the advantage over -a biplane for sea use that its wings were much higher above the water, -and therefore much less likely to get smashed up by heavy waves. He -admitted that this machine had proved extremely difficult to fly--or -rather to land--and that it had been employed exclusively for "school" -purposes, for the training of pilots to fly the others of the same type -that had been building. Now that the war was over, he had some doubts as -to whether these would ever be completed. "We are having to modify so -many of our plans, you see," he remarked naïvely. - -On the fuselage of several of the machines there were evidences that -signs or marks had been scratched out and painted over, and I took it -that the words or pictures so recently obliterated had probably been of -a character calculated to be offensive to the visiting Allied officers. -One little thing had been overlooked, however, or else left because it -was in a corner somewhat removed from the ebb and flow of the tide of -inspection. I discovered it while passing along to the machine shops in -the rear of one of the hangars, and later contrived to manoeuvre myself -back to it for a confirmatory survey. It was nothing more or less than a -map of the United States which some angry pilot had thoroughly _strafed_ -by stabbing with a penknife blade. I was not able to study it long -enough to be sure just what the method of the madness was, but--from the -fact that the environs of New York, Pittsburg, Philadelphia and Detroit -had been literally pecked to pieces--it seemed possible that it might -have been an attack on the industrial centres--perhaps because they were -turning out so much munitions for the Allies. - -There were two other maps tacked up on the same wall. One was of Africa, -with the ex-German colonies coloured red, with lighter shaded areas -overflowing from them on to British, Belgian, French, and Portuguese -possessions. This may have been (I have since thought) a copy of the -famous map of "Africa in 1920," issued in Germany early in the war, -but I had no time to puzzle out the considerable amount of explanatory -lettering on it. So far as I could see, this map was unmarked, not even -a black mourning border having been added. - -The third map was of Asia, and a long, winding and apparently rather -carefully made cut running from the north-west corner toward the centre -completely defeated me to account for. The fact that it ran through Asia -Minor, Northern Syria, and down into Mesopotamia seemed to point to some -connection with the Bagdad Railway--perhaps a _strafe_ at an enterprise -which, first and last, had deflected uselessly so huge an amount of -German money and material. - -The inspection over and the terms of the armistice having been found -most explicitly carried out, we returned to the reception room of the -Casino for lunch. Although the Commander protested that all arrangements -had been made for serving us with _mittagessen_, our senior officer, -acting under orders, replied that we had brought our own food and that -this, with a pitcher of water, would be quite sufficient. The water -was sent, and with it two beautiful long, slender bottles of _Hock_ -which--as they were never opened--only served to accentuate the flatness -of the former. - -We heard the officers of the station trooping up the stairs as we -unrolled our sandwiches, and just as we were pulling up around the table -some one threw open a piano in the room above our heads and struck -three ringing chords. "Bang!"--interval--"Bang!"--interval--"Bang!" -they crashed one after the other, and the throb of them set the windows -rattling and the pictures (paintings of the station's fallen pilots) -swaying on the wall. - -"Prelude in G flat," breathed Major N---- tensely, as he waited with eye -alight and ear acock for the next notes. "My word, the chap's a master!" - -But the next chord was never struck. Instead, there was a gruff order, -the scrape of feet on the floor, and the slam of a closed piano, -followed by the confused rumble of several angry voices speaking at the -same time. Then silence. - -"Looks like the majority of our hosts don't think 'Inspection Day's' -quite the proper occasion for tinkling Rachmaninoff on the ivories," -observed Lieutenant-Commander L----, U.S.N., after which he and Major -N---- began discussing plans for educating the popular taste for "good -music" and the rest of us fell to on our sandwiches. - -The fog--that all-pervading East Frisian fog--which had been thickening -steadily during the inspection, settled down in a solid bank while we -sat at lunch. With a scant dozen yards of visibility, the Commander -rated the prospects of crossing to the mainland so unfavourable that he -suggested our remaining for the night at one of the Norderney hotels -still open, and going over to Borkum (which we were planning to reach by -destroyer) the next morning by launch. It was the difficulty in securing -a prompt confirmation of what would have been a time-saving change of -schedule which led Captain H---- to reject the plan and decide in favour -of making an attempt to reach Norddeich in, and in spite of, the fog. -The Commander shook his head dubiously. "My men who know the passage -best have left the station," he said; "but I will do the best I can for -you, and perhaps you will have luck." He saw us off at the landing with -the same quiet courtesy with which he had received us. He was a very -likable chap, that Commander; perhaps the one individual with whom we -were thrown into intimate contact in the course of the whole visit to -whom one would have thought of applying that term. - -Noticing that the launch in which we were backing away from the landing -was at least double the size of the one in which we had crossed, I asked -one of the German officers if the greater draught of it was not likely -to increase our chances of running aground. - -"Of course," he replied; "but the larger cabin will also be much more -comfortable if we have to wait for the next tide to get off." - -As the launch swung slowly round in the mud-and-sand stained welter of -reversed screws, I bethought me of the "Riddle" again, and fished it -forth from my pocket. It was disappointing to leave without having had -a glimpse of the town where "Dollmann" and his "rose-brown-cheeked" -daughter Clara had lived, but the fog closed us round in a grey-walled -cylinder scarcely more in diameter than the launch was long. But we were -right on the course, I reflected, of the dinghy which "Davies" piloted -with such consummate skill through just such a fog ("five yards or -so was the radius of our vision," wrote "Carruthers") to Memmert to -spy on the conference at the salvage plant on that desolate sand-spit. -I turned up the chapter headed "Blindfold to Memmert," and read how, -sounding with a notched boathook in the shallows that masterly young -sailor had felt his way across the _Buse Tief_ to the eastern outlet of -the _Memmert Balje_, the only channel deep enough to carry the dinghy -through the half-bared sandbanks between Juist and the mainland. Our -own problem, it seemed to me, was a very similar one to that which -confronted "Davies," only, in our case, it was the entrance of the -channel where the _Buse Tief_ narrowed between the _Hohes Riff_ and the -_Itzendorf Plate_ that had to be located. Failing that, we were destined -to roost till the next tide on a sandbank, and that meant we were out -for all night, as there would be no chance of keeping to a channel, -however well marked, in both fog and darkness. - -Ten minutes went by--fifteen--twenty--with no sign of the buoy which -marked the opening we were trying to strike. Now the engines were eased -down to quarter-speed, and she lost way just in time to back off from -a shining _glacis_ of steel-grey sand that came creeping out of the -fog. For the next ten minutes, with bare steerage way on, she nosed -cautiously this way and that, like a man groping for a doorway in the -dark. Then a hail from the lookout on the bow was echoed by exclamations -of relief from the German officers. "Here is the outer buoy," one of -them called across to us reassuringly; "the rest of the way is well -marked and easy to follow. We will soon be at Norddeich." - -Presently a fresh buoy appeared as we nosed on shoreward, then a -second, and then a third, continuing the line of the first two. Speed -was increased to "half," and the intervals of picking up the marks -correspondingly cut down. Confident that there was nothing more to worry -about, I pulled out "The Riddle" again, for I had just recalled that it -was about halfway to Norddeich, in the _Buse Tief_, that "Carruthers" -had brought off his crowning exploit, the running aground of the tug -and "invasion" lighter--with Von Brunning, Boehme, and the mysterious -"cloaked passenger"--as they neared the end of the successful night -trial trip in the North Sea. Substituting himself for the man at the -wheel by a ruse, he had edged the tug over to starboard and was just -thinking "What the Dickens'll happen to her?" when the end came; "a -_euthanasia_ so mild and gradual (for the sands are fringed with mud) -that the disaster was on us before I was aware of it. There was just -the tiniest premonitory shuddering as our keel clove the buttery medium, -a cascade of ripples from either beam, and the wheel jammed to rigidity -in my hands as the tug nestled up to her final resting-place." - -And very like that it was with us. It was a guttural oath from somewhere -forward rather than any perceptible jar that told me the launch had -struck, and it was not till after the screw had been churning sand -for half a minute that there was any perceptible heel. It had come -about through one of the buoys being missing and the next in line out -of place, one of the Germans reckoned; but whatever the cause, there -we were--stuck fast. Or, at least, we would have been with any less -resourceful and energetic a crew. If their very lives had depended on -it, those four or five German seamen could not have worked harder, nor -to better purpose, to get that launch free. At the end of a quarter of -an hour their indefatigable efforts were rewarded, and a half hour later -we were settling ourselves in the warm compartment of our waiting train. -The Hun has no proper sense of humour. Reverse the _rôles_, and any -British bluejackets I have ever known would have run a German Armistice -Commission on to the first sandbank that hove in sight, and damned the -consequences. - - - - -V - -NORDHOLZ, THE DEN OF THE ZEPPELINS - - -I have written in a previous chapter of the great contrast observed -between the _morale_ of the men at Norderney, and the other seaplane -stations visited by parties from the Allied Naval Commission, and that -of those in the remaining German warships, accounting for the difference -by the fact that the former had been kept busier than the latter, and -that they had not suffered the shame of the "Great Surrender" which has -cast a black, unlifting shadow upon the dregs of the High Sea Fleet. -Whether the airships were kept as busy as the seaplanes right up to the -end it would be difficult to say, but, whatever may be the reason for -it, we found the _morale_ of the great Zeppelin stations suffered very -little if at all in comparison with that of the working bases of the -naval heavier-than-air machines. - -For all the barbarity of many of their raids, there was splendid stuff -in the officers and crews of the Zeppelins which engaged in the campaign -of "frightfulness" against England, and it is idle to deny it. In a -better cause, or even in worthier work for an indifferent cause, the -skill and courage repeatedly displayed would have been epic. Considering -what these airships faced on every one of their later raids--what their -commanders and crews must have known were the odds against them after -the night when the destruction of the first Zeppelin over Cuffley, in -September, 1916, proved that the British had effectually solved the -problem of igniting the hydrogen of the inner ballonettes--one cannot -but conclude that the _morale_ of the whole personnel must have been -very high during even this trying period. If it had not been high, there -would undoubtedly have been mutinies at the airship stations, such as -are known to have occurred on so many occasions among the submarine -crews. Even in the light of present knowledge, there is nothing to -indicate that there had ever been serious trouble in getting Zeppelin -crews for the most hazardous of raids. So far as could be gathered from -our visits to the great airship stations of the North Sea littoral, -this very excellent _morale_ prevailed to the last; indeed, practically -everything seen indicated that it still prevails. - -Of the several German naval airship stations visited by parties from -the Allied Commission, the most important were Althorn, Nordholz, and -Tondern. The interest in the latter was largely sentimental, due to -the fact that it was practically wiped out last summer as the result of -a bombing raid by aeroplanes launched from the _Furious_. It was known -that little had been done to rehabilitate it as a service station since -that time, and the Commission's airship experts' desire to visit what -was left of the sheds was actuated by a wish to see what damage had been -done rather than by any feeling that the station really counted any -longer as a base of Germany's naval air service. Our visit to the ruins -of Tondern, and what we learned there of the way it was destroyed, is a -story by itself, and I will tell it in a separate chapter. - -Germany had very ambitious plans for the development of the Althorn -station, and it is probable at one time that it was intended that it -should supersede even the mighty Nordholz as the premier home of naval -Zeppelins. If such were really the intention, however, there is no doubt -that it was effectually put an end to by a great fire and explosion -which occurred there about the middle of last year, the material -destruction from which--in sheds and Zeppelins--was vastly greater even -than that from the British raid on Tondern. The Germans speak of this -disaster with a good deal of bitterness, usually alluding to the cause -as "mysterious," but rather giving the impression that they believe it -to have been the work of "Allied agents." If this is true, the job will -stand as a fair offset against any single piece of work of the same -character that German agents perpetrated in France, Britain, or America. -Only the blowing up of the great Russian national arsenal in the second -year of the war is comparable to it for the amount of material damage -wrought. Althorn remained a station of some importance down to the end -of the war, however, and that the Germans still expected to do important -work from there was indicated by the fact that one of its new sheds -housed the great "L-71," the largest airship in the world at the present -time. - -But it was in the great Nordholz station that the airship sub-commission -was principally interested, not only for what it was at the -moment--incomparably the greatest and most modern of German Zeppelin -aerodromes--but also for what had been accomplished from there in the -past, and even for what might conceivably be done from there in the -future. Nordholz is a name that would have been burned deep into the -memories of South and East Coast Britons had it been known three years -ago, as it is now, that practically all of the Zeppelin raids over -England were launched from there. The popular idea at the time--which -even appears to have persisted with most Londoners down to the -present--was that airship stations had been constructed in Belgium, -and that these alternated with those of Germany in dispatching raiders -across the North Sea to England. A single glimpse of such a station as -Nordholz is enough to show that the huge amount of labour and expense -involved in building even a comparatively temporary aerodrome fit for -regular Zeppelin work would have been fatal to the idea of establishing -such installations in Belgium, or anywhere else where Germany did not -feel certain of remaining in fairly permanent control. The station at -Jamboli, in Bulgaria, for instance, is known to have been able only to -dispose of one or two Zeppelins, and considerable intervals between -flights were imperative for keeping them in trim. It would never have -been equal to the strain of steady raiding. - -There were other German airship stations within cruising distance of -England, but Nordholz was so much the best equipped, especially in -the first years of the war when Zeppelin raiding was the most active, -that the most of the work, and by long odds the most effective of it, -was done from there. There were grim tales to be told by that band of -hard-eyed, straight-mouthed, bull-necked pilots--all that survived -some scores of raids over England and some hundreds of reconnaissance -flights over the North Sea--who received and conducted round the -Naval Commission party, though, unfortunately, we did not meet upon a -footing that made it possible more than to listen to the account of an -occasional incident suggested by something we were seeing at the moment. - -The route which our party traversed from Wilhelmshaven to the Nordholz -airship station--the latter lies six or eight miles south of the Elbe -estuary in the vicinity of Cuxhaven--was a different one from any -followed on our previous visits, all of which had taken us more to the -south or east. It was through the same low-lying, dyked-in country, -however, where the water difficulty, unlike most other parts of the -world, was one of drainage rather than of irrigation. Great Dutch -windmills turned ponderously under the impulse of the light sea-breeze, -as they pumped the water off the flooded land. Cultivation, as in the -region traversed to the south, was at a standstill, but overflowing -barns--great capacious structures they were, with brick walls and lofty -thatched roofs--proved that the harvest had been a generous one. - -Instead of routing our two-car special over the all-rail route _viâ_ -Bremen, distance and time were saved by leaving it at a small terminus -opposite Bremerhaven, crossing to the latter by tug, and proceeding -north in more or less direct line to our destination. Little time was -lost in getting from one train to the other. The tug, which had been -held in readiness for our arrival, cast off as soon as the last of -the party had clambered over its side, and the short run across the -grey-green tide of the estuary was made in less than a quarter of an -hour. Four powerful army cars--far better machines, these, than the -dirigible junk heaps we had been compelled to use at Wilhelmshaven--were -waiting beside the slip, and another ten minutes of what struck me as -very fast and reckless driving, considering it was through the main -streets of a good-sized city, brought us to the station and another -two-car special. Both going and returning, it was the best "clicking" -lot of connections any of the parties made in the course of the whole -visit, showing illuminatingly what our "hosts" could do in that line -when they were minded to. - -Swift as was our passage through the streets of Bremerhaven, there was -still opportunity to observe many evidences of the vigorous growth it -had made the decade preceding the outbreak of the war, and of the plans -that had been made in expectation of a continuation of that growth. -Blocks and blocks of imposing new buildings--now but half-tenanted--and -the nuclei of what had been budding suburbs were more suggestive of -the appearance of a Western American mushroom metropolis after the -collapse of a boom than a town of Europe. The railway station--a fine -example of Germany's so-called "New Art" architecture--in its spacious -waiting-rooms, broad subways, and commodious train sheds looked capable -of serving the city of half a million or so which it had confidently -been expected the empire's second port would become at the end of -another few years. As things have turned out, Bremerhaven will at least -have the consolation of knowing that it is not likely to be troubled -with "station crushes" for some decades to come. - -The astonishingly well-dressed and orderly crowd of a thousand or more -waiting outside the portal of the station in expectation of the arrival -of a train-load of returning soldiers made no unfriendly demonstration -of any character. On the contrary, indeed, as at Wilhelmshaven, a number -of children waved their hands as our cars drove up, and a goodly number -of men solemnly bared their heads as we filed past. The special which -awaited us at a platform reached after walking through a long vaulted -subway running beneath the tracks consisted, like the one we had left -on the other side of the river, of an engine and two cars. The rolling -stock of this one was in better shape than that of the other, however, -and with a better maintained road-bed to run over, the last leg of our -journey was covered at an average speed of over thirty miles an hour, -quite the fastest we travelled by train anywhere in Germany. - -For the most of the way the line continued running through mile after -mile of water-logged, sea-level areas crossed by innumerable drainage -canals and bricked roadways gridironing possible inundation areas with -their raised embankments. At the end of an hour, however, the patches -of standing water disappeared, and presently the bulk of the great -sheds of Nordholz began to notch the northern skyline, where they stood -crowning the crest of the first rising ground in the littoral between -the Dutch frontier and the Elbe. With only a minute or two of delay in -the Nordholz yards, the train was switched to the airship station's own -spur, and at the end of another mile had pulled up on a siding directly -opposite the main entrance. - -The commander of the station, with two or three other officers, was -waiting to receive us as we stepped out on the ground. Ranged up -alongside this row of heel-clicking, frock-coated, be-medalled and -be-sworded Zeppelin officers was an ancient individual of a type -which seemed to recall the fatherly old Jehus of the piping days -of Oberammergau. Every time the officers saluted, he raised his -hat, bowed low from the waist, and exclaimed, "Good morning to you, -gentlemen." When the last of us had been thus greeted, he called out a -comprehensive, "This way to the carriages, gentlemen," and trotted off -ahead, bell-wether fashion, through the gate. - -Here we found waiting four small brakes and a diminutive automobile, the -sum total of the station's resources in rapid transit, according to the -commander. Getting into the motor to precede us as pilot, he asked the -party to dispose itself as best it could in the horse-drawn vehicles. -Then, with old "Jehu" holding the reins of the first vehicle and men in -air-service uniform--utter strangers to horses they were, too--tooling -the other three, we started off along a well-paved road. - -A long row of very attractive red brick-and-tile houses of agreeably -varied design were apparently the homes of married officers. Our way led -past only the first five or six of them, but a stirring of lace curtains -in every one of these told that we were running the gauntlet of hostile -glances all the way. One glowering Frau--though in the semi-negligée -of a "Made-in-Germany" _kimono_ of pale mauve, her Brunhildian brow -was crowned with a "permanently Marcelled" _coiffure_ of the kind one -sees in hairdressers' windows--disdained all cover, and so stepped out -upon her veranda just in time to see the elder of her blonde-braided -offspring in the act of waving a Teddy Bear--or it may have been a -woolly lamb or a dachshund--at the tail of the procession of invading -_Engländers_. She was swooping--a mauve-tailed comet with a Gorgon -head--on the luckless "fraternisatress" as my brake turned a corner and -the loom of a block of barracks shut "The Row" from sight, but a series -of shrill squeals, piercing through the raucous grind of steel tyres -on asphalt pavement, told that punishment swift and terrible was being -meted out. - -"More activity there than I saw in all of Bremerhaven," laconically -observed the Yankee Ensign sitting next me. "Who said the German woman -was lacking in temperament?" - -Driving through the barracks area--where all the men in sight invariably -saluted or stood at attention as we passed--and down an avenue between -small but thickly set pines, the road debouched into the open, and -for the first time we saw all the sheds of the great station at -comparatively close range. Then we were in a position to understand with -what care the site had been chosen and laid out. Occupying the only -rising ground near the coast south of the Kiel Canal, it is quite free -from the constant inundations which threaten the alluvial plain along -the sea. The sheds are visible from a great distance, but it is only -when one draws near them that their truly gigantic size becomes evident. -Of modern buildings of utility, such as factories and exhibition -structures, I do not recall one that is so impressive as these in sheer -immensity. Yet the proportions of the sheds are so good that constant -comparison with some familiar object of known size, such as a man, alone -puts them in their proper perspective. - -The sheds are built in pairs, standing side by side, and on a plan which -has brought each pair on the circumference of a circle two kilometres -in diameter. The chord of the arc drawn from one pair of sheds to the -next in sequence is a kilometre in length, while the same distance -separates each pair on the circumference from the huge revolving shed -in the centre of the circle. The whole plan has something of the mystic -symmetry of an ancient temple of the sun. Of the half-dozen pairs of -sheds necessary to complete the circle, four had been constructed and -were in use. Each shed was built to house two airships, or four for the -pair. This gave a capacity of sixteen Zeppelins for the four pairs of -sheds, while the two housed in the revolving shed in the centre brought -the total capacity of the station up to eighteen--a larger number, I -believe, than were ever over England at one time. - -Scarcely less impressive than the immensity of the sheds and the broad -conception of the general plan of the station was the solidity of -construction. Everything, from the quarters of the men and the officers -to the hangars themselves, seemed built for all time, and to play its -part in the fulfilment of some far-reaching plan. Costly and scarce as -asphalt must have been in Germany, the many miles of roads connecting -the various sheds were laid deep with it, and, as I had a chance to see -where repairs were going on, on a heavy base of concrete. The sheds -were steel-framed, concrete-floored, and with pressed asbestos sheet -figuring extensively in their sides. All the daylight admitted (as we -saw presently) filtered through great panes of yellow glass in the roof, -shutting out the ultra-violet rays of the sun, which had been found to -cause airship fabric to deteriorate rapidly. - -The barracks of the men were of brick and concrete, and were built with -no less regard for appearance than utility. So, too, the officers' -quarters and the Casino, and the large and comfortable-looking houses -for married officers I have already mentioned. All had been built very -recently, many in the by no means uneffective "New Art" style, to the -simple solidity of which the Germans seemed to have turned in reaction -from the Gothic. Beyond all doubt Germany was planning years ahead with -Nordholz, both as to war and peace service. They were quite frank in -speaking of the ambitions they still have in respect of the latter, and -(from casual remarks dropped once or twice by officers) I should be very -much surprised if their plans for developing the Zeppelin as a super-war -machine have been entirely shelved. - -The road along which we drove to reach the first pair of sheds to be -visited ran through extensive plantations of scraggly screw-pine, -which appear to have been set--before the site was chosen for an -air station--for the purpose of binding together the loose soil and -preventing its shifting in the heavy winds. Wherever the trees had -encroached too closely upon the hangars, the plantations had been -burned off. Over one considerable area the accumulations of ash in the -depressions showed the destruction to have been comparatively recent, -and this I learned had been burned over, in the panic which followed the -blowing up of the Tondern sheds by British bombing machines last summer, -in order to minimize the risk from the raid which Nordholz itself never -ceased to expect right down to the day of the armistice. - -The staggering size of the great sheds became more and more impressive -as we drew nearer, and when the procession finally turned and went -clattering down the roadway between one of the pairs, the towering walls -to left and right blotted out the sky like the cliffs of a rocky cañon. -Halfway through this great defile the officers of the station were -waiting to receive and conduct us round. A hard, fit, capable-looking -lot of chaps they were. Every one of them had at least one decoration, -most of them many, and among these were two or three Orders _Pour de -Mérite_, the German V.C. One at least of them--the great long-distance -pilot, Von Butlar--was famous internationally, and few among the senior -of them (as I was assured shortly) but had been over England more than -once. They were the best of Germany's surviving Zeppelin pilots, and -one was interested to compare the type with that of the pick of her -sea-pilots as we had seen them at Norderney. - -Running my eye round their faces as the mingled parties began moving -slowly toward the side door of the first shed to be inspected, I -recognized at once in these Zeppelin officers the same hard, cold, -steady eyes, the same aggressive jaw, and the same wide, thin-lipped -mouth that had predominated right through the officers we had met at -Norderney. These, I should say, are characteristic of the great majority -of the outstanding men of both of Germany's air services. The steady -eye and the firm jaw are, indeed, characteristic of most successful -flying men, but it is the "hardness," not to say cruelty, of the mouth -which differentiates the German from the high-spirited, devil-may-care -air-warrior of England and America. - -These Zeppelin pilots seemed to me to run nearer to the German naval -officer type than did the seaplane officers. The latter were nearly -always slender of body, wiry and light of foot, where (though there were -several exceptions, including the great Von Butlar) the former were -mainly of generous girth, with the typical German bull neck corrugating -into rolls of fat above the backs of their collars. A Major of the -R.A.F., who had been walking at my side and doing a bit of "sizing up" -on his own account, put the difference rather well when he said, as we -waited our turn to pass in through the small side door of the great -grey wall of the shed: "If I was taking temporary refuge in a hospital, -convent, or orphan asylum during a German air raid, I'd feel a lot -better about it if I knew that it was some of those seaplane chaps -flying overhead rather than some of this batch. That thick-set one -there, with the cast in his eye and the corded neck, has a face that -wouldn't need much make-up for the Hun villain in a Lyceum melodrama. -Yes, I'm sure these Zepp. drivers will average a jolly lot 'Hunnier' -than the run of their seaplane men." - -Up to that moment my experience of German airships had been limited to -the view of them as slender silver pencils of light gliding swiftly -across the searchlight-slashed skies of London, and three or four -inspections of the tangled masses of aluminium and charred wood which -remained when ill-starred raiders had paid the supreme penalty. I was -indebted to the Zeppelins for a number of thrills, but only two or -three of them (and one was in the form of a bomb which gave me a shower -bath of plate glass in Kingsway) were comparable to the sheer wave of -amazement which swept over me when, having passed from the cold grey -light of the winter morning into the warm golden glow of the interior of -the big shed to which we had come, I looked up and beheld the towering -loom of the starboard side of "L-68," with the sweeping lines of her, -fining to points at both ends, exaggerating monstrously a length which -was sufficiently startling even when expressed in figures. The secret of -the hold which the Zeppelin had for so long on the imagination of the -German people was not hard for me to understand after that. It was easy -to see how they could have been led to believe that it could lay Paris -and London in ruins, and that the very sight of it would in time cause -the enemies of their country to sue for peace. One saw, too, how hard it -must have been for them finally to believe that the Zeppelin had been -mastered by the aeroplane, and that the high hopes they had built upon -it had really crashed with the fallen raiders. - -There were two Zeppelins in the shed we had entered--"L-68" and -another monster of practically the same size. The former, with great -irregularly shaped strips of fabric dangling all along its under side, -suggested a gigantic shark in process of being ripped up the belly for -skinning. Being deflated, the weight of its frame was supported by -a number of heavy wooden props evenly distributed along either side -from end to end. Its mate, on the other hand, being full of hydrogen -and practically ready for flight, had to be prevented from rising and -bumping against the yellow skylights by a series of light cables, the -upper ends of which were attached at regular intervals along both -sides of the framework, while below they were made fast to heavy steel -shoes which ran in grooves set in the concrete floor. The latter -contrivance--especially an arrangement for the instant slipping of -the cable--was very cleverly devised and greatly interested the Allied -experts. - -There were two or three things the popular mind had credited the modern -Zeppelin with embodying which we did not find in these latest examples -of German airship development. One of these was an "anti-bomb protector" -on the top, something after the style of the steel nets erected over -London banks and theatres for the purpose of detonating dropped -explosives before they penetrated the roof. The fact that attempts to -destroy Zeppelins by bomb had invariably--with the exception of the -one brought down by Warneford in Belgium in 1915--resulted in failure, -was doubtless largely responsible for this belief in the existence of -a protecting net, whereas the reason for those failures is probably to -be found in the fact that only about one bomb in a hundred will find -enough resistance in striking an airship to detonate. At any rate, -there were no indications that either the earlier or later Zeppelins we -saw had ever been protected in this way. Indeed, we did not even see a -single one of the machine-guns, which every one had taken for granted -were mounted on top of all Zeppelins to resist aeroplane attack, though -these, of course, with their platforms, may well have been removed in -the course of the disarmament imposed by the armistice terms. - -Nor had these late airships the bright golden colour of those that one -saw over London in the earlier raids. That the refulgent tawniness of -them was not due entirely to the reflected beams of the searchlights was -proved by the uncharred fragments of fabric one had picked up at Cuffley -and Potters' Bar. But the German designers had been giving a good deal -of study to invisibility, since that time, with the result that these -new airships were coloured over all their exposed surfaces a dull slaty -black that would hardly reflect a beam of bright sunshine. - -The cars, which were both smaller and lighter than those from the -airships brought down in England, were all underslung, and none of them -was enclosed in the framework, as had often been stated. Even these were -not built entirely of metal, heavy fabric being used to close up all -spaces where strength was not required. The bomb-dropping devices had -been removed, but the numbered "switchboard" in the rearmost car, from -which they could be released, still remained. The cars, free from every -kind of protuberance that could meet the resistance of the air, were -effectively and gracefully "stream-lined." The framework and bodies of -the cars were made of the light but strong "duraluminum" alloy, which -the Germans have spent many years in perfecting for this purpose. A -small fragment of strut which I picked up under "L-68" has proved, on -comparison, considerably lighter in specific gravity than similar pieces -from three of the Zeppelins brought down early in the war. Indeed, in -spite of its admixture of heavier metals for "stiffening," the latest -alloy seems scarcely heavier than aluminum itself. - -The inspection of an airship to see that it had been disarmed according -to the provisions of the armistice was, as may be imagined, rather -more of a job than a similar inspection of even a "giant" seaplane. In -a Zeppelin that is more or less the same size as the _Mauretania_ the -distances are magnificent, and while most of the inspection was confined -to the cars, that of the wireless, with a search for possible concealed -machine-gun mountings, involved not a little climbing and clambering. -One's first sight of the interior of a deflated Zeppelin--in an inflated -one the bulging ballonettes obstruct the view considerably--is quite as -impressive in its way as the premier survey of it from the outside. No -'tween decks prospect in the largest ship afloat, cut down as it is by -bulkheads, offers a fifth of the unbroken sweep of vision that one finds -opened before him as he climbs up inside the tail of a modern airship. -Although airy ladders and soaring lengths of framework intervene, they -are no more than lace-work fretting the vast space, and the eye roams -free to where the side-braces of the narrow "walk" seem to run together -in the nose. Only, so consummate the illusion wrought on the eye and -brain by the strange perspective, that "meeting point" seems more like -six hundred miles away than six hundred feet. The effect is more like -looking to the end of the universe than to the end of a Zeppelin. -No illusion ever devised on the stage to give "distance" to a scene -could be half so convincing. All that was "cosmic" in you vibrated in -sympathy, and it took but a shake of the reins of the imagination to -fancy yourself tripping off down that unending "Road to Anywhere" to the -music of the Spheres. You-- - -"Gee, but ain't that a peach of a little 'Gyro'?" filtering up through -the fabric beneath my feet awakened me to the fact that the inspection -of "L-68" having reached the rearmost car, was near its finish. -Clambering back to earth, I found the party just reassembling to go to -the carriages for the drive to the great revolving shed, which was the -next to be visited. - -Its central revolving shed is perhaps the most arresting feature of -the Nordholz station. It is built on the lines of a "twin" engine -turntable, with each track housed over, and with every dimension -multiplied twenty-five or thirty-fold. The turning track is laid in a -bowl-shaped depression about ten feet deep and seven hundred feet in -diameter. The floors of both sheds (which stand side by side, with only -a few feet between) are flush with the level of the ground, so that the -airships they house may be run out and in without a jolt. The turning -mechanism, which is in the rear of the sheds and revolves with them, is -entirely driven by electricity. The shifting of a lever sets the whole -great mass in motion, and stops it to a millimetre of the point desired, -the latter being indicated on a dial by a needle showing the direction -of the wind. - -The Germans assured us--and on this point the British and American -airship experts were in full agreement with them--that the revolving -shed is absolutely the ideal installation, as it makes it possible to -launch or house a ship directly _into_ the wind, and so allows them to -be used on days when it would be out of the question to launch them -from, or return them to, an ordinary hangar. The one point against it -seems to be its almost prohibitive cost. This central shed at Nordholz -was designed some time before the war, and was completed a year or so -after its outbreak. The Germans did not tell what it had cost, but -they did say that the latter was so great--both in money and in steel -deflected from other uses--that they had not contemplated the building -of another during the continuance of the war. - -Another interesting admission of a Zeppelin officer at Nordholz was to -the effect that one of their greatest difficulties had arisen through -the fact that it had been found practicable and desirable to increase -the size of airships far more rapidly than had been contemplated when -most of the existing sheds were designed. Thus many hangars--even at -Nordholz, where practice was most advanced--had become almost useless -for housing the latest Zeppelins. The proof of this was seen at one -of the older sheds which we visited, where both of the airships it -contained had been cut off fore and aft to reduce their lengths -sufficiently to allow them inside. Thirty or forty feet of the framework -of the bows and sterns of each, stripped of their covering fabric, were -standing in the corners. They assured us that while an airship thus -"bobbed" at both ends was not necessarily considered out of commission, -it would take several days of rush work to get it ready for flight, -and that during most of this time sixty to eighty feet of it--the -combined length of the nose and tail which had to be cut off to bring it -inside--would have to remain sticking out, exposed to the weather. - -To any one who, like myself, was not an airship expert, but had been -"among those present" at a number of the earlier raids on London, the -last shed visited was the most interesting of all, for it contained -what is in many respects Germany's most historic Zeppelin, the famous -"L-14." Twenty-four bombing flights over England were claimed for this -remarkable veteran, besides many scores of reconnaissance voyages. -All of the surviving pilots appeared to have an abiding belief in -her invulnerability--a not unnatural attitude of the fatalist toward -an instrument which has succeeded in defying fate. This is the way -one of them expressed it, who came and stood by my side during the -quarter-hour in which the inspecting officers were climbing about inside -the glistening yellow shell of the historic raider in an endeavour to -satisfy themselves, that she was, temporarily at least, incapable of -further activities:-- - -"It will sound strange to you to hear me say it," he said, "but it is a -fact that all of the officers and men at Nordholz firmly believed that -L-14 could not be destroyed. Always we gave her the place of honour in -starting first away for England, and most times she was the last to -come back--of those that did come back. After a while, no matter how -long she was late, we always said, 'Oh, but it is old L-14; no use to -worry about her; she will come home at her own time.' And come home -she always did. All of our greatest pilots flew in her at one time or -another and came back safe. Then they were given newer and faster ships, -and sometimes they came home, and sometimes they did not. ----, who was -experimenting with one of the smaller swift types of half-rigids when -it was brought down north of London--the first to be destroyed over -England--had flown L-14 many times, and come home safe, and so had, -----, our greatest pilot, who was also lost north of London, very near -where the other was brought down, and where we think you had some kind -of trap. L-14 saw these and many other Zeppelins fall in flames and the -more times she came home the more was our belief in her strength. The -pilot who flew her was supposed to take more chances (because she really -ran no risks, you see), and if you have ever read of how one Zeppelin -in each raid always swooped low to drop her bombs, you now know that -she was that one. Because we had this superstitious feeling about her -we were very careful that, in rebuilding and repairing her, much of her -original material should be left, so that whatever gave her her charmed -life should not be removed. Although our duraluminum of the present is -much lighter and stronger than the first we made, L-14 still has most -of her original framework; and, although improved technical instruments -have been installed, all her cars are much as when she was built. You -will see how much clumsier and heavier they are than those of the newer -types. And now, for some months, we have used L-14 as a 'school' ship, -in which to train our young pilots. You see, her great traditions must -prove a wonderful inspiration to them." - -A few minutes later I had a hint of one type of this "inspiration," -when a pilot (who had fallen into step with me as we took a turn across -the fields on foot to see the hangars of the "protecting flight" of -aeroplanes) mentioned that he had taken part in a number of the 1916 -raids over the Midland industrial centres. Knowing the Stygian blackness -in which this region was wrapped during all of the Zeppelin raiding -time, I asked him if he had not found it difficult to locate his -objectives in a country which was plunged in complete darkness. - -"Not so difficult as you might think," was the reply. "There were always -the rivers and canals, which we knew perfectly from careful study. -Besides, a town is a very large mark, and you seem to 'sense' the -nearness of great masses of people, anyhow. Perhaps the great anxiety -they are in establishes a sort of mental contact with you, whose brain -is very tense and receptive. Effective bombing is very largely a matter -of psychology, you see." - -I saw. Indeed, I think I saw rather more than he intended to convey. - -The inspection over and everything having been found as stipulated in -the armistice, we were conducted to the Officers' Casino for lunch. -Each member of the party, as had been the practice from the outset, -having brought a package of sandwiches from the ship in his pocket, it -was intimated to the Commander of the station that we would not need to -trouble him to have the luncheon served, which he said had been prepared -for us. The same situation had arisen at Norderney and several other -of the stations previously visited, and in each of these instances -our "hosts" of the day had acquiesced in the plainly expressed desire -of the senior officer of the party that we should confine our menu -to what we carried in our own "nose-bags." Nordholz, however--quite -possibly with no more than an enlarged idea of what were its duties -under the circumstances--was not to be denied. A couple of plates of -very appetizing German red-cabbage _sauerkraut_, with slices of ham and -blood sausage, were waiting upon a large sidetable as we entered the -reception-room, and to these, as fast as a very nervous waiter could -bring them in, were added the following: a large loaf of _pumpernickel_, -a pitcher of chicken _consommé_, a huge beefsteak, with a fried egg -sitting in the middle of it, for each member of the party, two dishes -of apple sauce, and eight bottles of wine--four of white and four of -red. The steaks--an inch thick, six inches in diameter, and grilled to a -turn--were quite the largest pieces of meat I had seen served outside of -Ireland since the war. The _hock_ bore the label "_Dürkheimer_," and the -other bottles, which were of non-German origin, "_Ungarischer Rotwein_." - -"Although I'd hate to hurt their feelings," said the senior officer of -the party, surveying the Gargantuan repast with a perplexed smile, "I -should like to confine myself to my sandwiches and leave a note asking -them to forward this to some of our starving prisoners. Since we've -been feeding their pilots and commissioners in the _Hercules_, however, -I suppose there's no valid reason why we should hesitate to partake of -this banquet. I'll leave you free to decide for yourselves what you want -to do on that score." We did. It was the American Ensign who, smacking -his lips over the last of his steak, pronounced it the best "hunk of -cow" he had had since he was at a Mexican _barbecue_ at Coronado; but -it was the General who had a second helping of apple sauce, and wondered -how they made it so "smooth and free from lumps," and what it was they -put in it to give that "very delicate flavour." - -Hung around all four walls of the room were perhaps a dozen oil -paintings of flying officers in uniform, and although they bore no -names, we knew (from what had been told us of a similar display in the -reception-room at Norderney) that they were portraits of pilots who had -lost their lives in active service. One--a three-quarters length of a -small wiry man, with gimlet eyes and a jaw that would have made that of -a wolf-trap look soft and flexible in comparison--I recognized at once -as having been reproduced in the German papers as the portrait of the -great Schramm, who had been killed when his Zeppelin was brought down -at Potters' Bar. Another--the bust of a man of rather a bulkier figure -than the first, but with a face a shade less brutal--was also strangely -familiar. I felt sure I had seen before that terribly determined jaw, -that broad nose with its wide nostrils, that receding brow, with the -bony lumps above the eyes, and the tentacles of my memory went groping -for when and where, while I went on sipping my glass of _Rotwein_ and -listening to Major P----[1] and Ensign E---- comparing sensations on -dropping from airplanes with parachutes. - - [1] Major Pritchard, who subsequently distinguished himself - by landing from R-34, after its transatlantic flight, - with a parachute. - -"If the Huns," the former was saying, "had had proper parachutes most of -the crews of the Zepps brought down in England could have landed safely -instead of being burned in the air. Of the remains of the crew of the -one brought down at Cuffley, hardly a fragment was recognizable as that -of a man. But if--" - -Like a flash it came to me. The warm, comfortable room, with its solid -"New Art" furniture and the table stacked with plates of food and wine -bottles, faded away, and I saw a tangled heap of metal and burning -debris, sprawling across a stubble field and hedgerow, and steaming in -the cold early morning drizzle that was quenching its still smouldering -fires. Five hours previously that wreckage had been a raiding Zeppelin, -charging blindly across London, pursued by searchlights and gun-fire. -I had watched the ghostly shape disappear in the darkness as it shook -off the beams of the searchlights, and when it appeared again it was as -a descending comet of streaming flame streaking earthward across the -north-western heavens. After walking all the rest of the night--with -a lift from an early morning milk cart--I had arrived on the scene at -daybreak, and before the cordon of soldiers which later kept the crowds -back had been drawn. They had just cut a way through the wreckage to -one of the cars, and were cooling down the glowing metal with a stream -pumped by a little village fire-engine. Then they began taking out -what remained of the bodies of the crew. Some had been almost entirely -consumed by the fierce flames, and it is literally true that many of the -blackened fragments were hardly recognizable as human. But there was one -notable exception. By a miracle, the chest and head of the body of what -had undoubtedly been the commanding officer had been spared the direct -play of the flames. The fingers gripping the steering wheel were charred -to the bone, but the upper part of the tunic was so little scorched -that it still held the Iron Cross pinned into it. The blonde eyebrows, -beneath the bony cranial protuberances, were scarcely singed, and even -the scowl and the tightly compressed lips seemed to express intense -determination rather than death agony. That portrait--and doubtless most -of the others that looked down upon our strange luncheon party that day -at Nordholz--must have been painted from life. - - - - -VI - -MERCHANT SHIPPING - - -The difference between the work of the Shipping Board of the Allied -Naval Armistice Commission and that of the other sub-commissions was -well defined by one of its members when he facetiously described it as -"the only branch of the business that pays dividends." The work of the -sub-commissions for the inspection of warships, seaplane and airship -stations and forts, in that it was for the purpose of seeing that -certain disarmament or demolition had been carried out, was largely -destructive; that of the Shipping Board, on the other hand, which had -as its end the return to the Allies of all of their merchant ships -interned in German harbours, was constructive. The Shipping Board began -to "pay dividends" (in the form of steamers dispatched for home ports) -almost from the day of the arrival of the _Hercules_ in Wilhelmshaven, -and these continued steadily until the last of the interned ships -surviving--a number had, unfortunately, been lost in mine-sweeping and -other dangerous work in which the Germans had employed them--had found -its way back to resume its place as a carrier of men and merchandise -and restore the heavily depleted tonnage of the country to which it -belonged. - -At the outbreak of the war there were ninety-six Allied vessels in -German harbours, and all of these were promptly placed under embargo. -Of these, eighty were British, fourteen Belgian, and two French. As -all of the French and Belgian ships were small craft, their tonnage -was practically negligible. Besides these embargoed ships, the Allied -Commission had been directed to demand and arrange for the return of the -thirty-one--twenty-one British, eight Belgian, one American, and one -Brazilian--Allied ships which had been condemned in German Prize Courts -since the outbreak of the war. Ten of these, it was subsequently learned -when the question came up in conference, had been sunk, the Germans -having made a practice of using Allied ships in their hands for all work -involving great risk. - -The question of the return of mercantile tonnage was taken up in the -course of the first conference in the _Hercules_ at Kiel. Admiral -Goette was requested to produce a complete list of all Allied and -American ships lying at the time in German ports, including all -mercantile vessels which had been condemned in Prize Courts. This list -was to show clearly which vessels were considered seaworthy, and if -unseaworthy, from what cause. It was also requested that information -should be given as to which of these ships were fitted for mine-seeking -or mine-sweeping, as it was planned to leave these temporarily in -German hands in order to facilitate the efforts she was supposed to -be making to clear the way for navigation. It was directed that ships -ready to take the sea should be bunkered and ballasted at once, and -that towage should be provided for sailing ships. All explosives were -to be removed, and the Germans were ordered to provide a steamer to -bring back the crews from the ports at which the embargoed ships had -been delivered--the Tyne, in case of British vessels, and Dunkerque for -French. - -In respect to the ships considered unseaworthy, Admiral Goette was -requested to arrange for all machinery, boilers, tanks, and spaces -to be opened up, and the equipment made ready for inspection by the -Sub-Commission for Shipping. Following this inspection, immediate -facilities for dry docking and the carrying out of such repairs as the -Sub-Commission considered necessary to prepare each vessel for sea were -to be provided. - -Although more than three weeks had passed since the signing of the -armistice, Admiral Goette admitted at once on the presentation of these -demands that not only had no seaworthy Allied ship started on its voyage -home, but that nothing whatever had been done in the way of repairing -any of those not seaworthy. He agreed, however, to do what he could -to expedite matters from that time on in the case of the embargoed -ships, but protested that, as the ships condemned in the Prize Courts -had, according to German law, ceased to be Allied vessels, he had no -authority to deliver them. On being told that the Allied Commission had -been appointed to deal with the terms of the armistice, not to discuss -matters of German or any other law, he finally gave way and agreed to -furnish a list of the prize ships. He made the reservation, however, -that the "question of legality," since it did not concern the conferring -commissions, should be taken up later between the interested Governments. - -Indeed, protests, as preliminaries to acquiescence, formed the major -part of the German notes on the shipping question, as will be seen from -the following extracts. "I herewith bring officially to your notice," -the President of the German Sub-Commission wrote after the first -conference, (1) "that we do not recognize the obligations demanded by -the Allies to deliver embargo ships on the 17th December by the fact -that we are willing to deliver them at the earliest possible moment"; -and (2) "that embargo ships proceeding out at the request of the Allies -without having been reconditioned in a manner to put them in the same -condition in which they were at the beginning of the war will leave -prematurely under protest. Germany declines any further obligations -with regard to these ships." Writing after the first extension of the -armistice and referring to that fact, he intimates that "the period for -fulfilling the provisions of Article XXX" (the repair of ships) "is also -prolonged until January 17, 1919. Accordingly Germany is not obliged to -hand over the interned ships before the 17th January. In spite of this -Germany will make every endeavour in the future also to deliver these -interned ships as soon as possible, and, as hitherto, will seek to carry -out the terms of the armistice most loyally.... Without being under any -obligation to do so, and merely in order to furnish further proofs of -the loyal and business-like intentions of carrying out the terms of the -armistice, measures have been taken for carrying on reconditioning, as -far as that is possible and without prejudice, in accordance with the -newest regulations of the British Lloyd." - -The same formula, it will be observed, was followed in connection with -each subject under consideration. There was first the protest, then an -intimation that the wish of the Allies should be carried out in spite of -the fact there was no obligation to do so, and finally the invariable -"patting of themselves on the back" on the part of the Germans for the -"loyalty of spirit" thus displayed. - -There was a subtle appeal to British sportsmanship in this paragraph -from one of the communications of the President of the German Shipping -Commission. "I again request you to signify your approval that the -German embargo steamer, _Marie_ (ex _Dave Hill_), now lying in Batavia, -in recognition of her signal services during the war, both from the -military point of view and seamanship, should be permitted first to put -in with her crew to a German port; the ship will then, after handing -over her German fittings, be delivered as quickly as arranged in the -Tyne." - -It was not stated what the "signal services" of the _Marie_ had been -in the war, nor for whom they had been performed; but I am under the -impression she was the ship which was credited with the very fine -exploit of running the British blockade of East Africa, delivering a -cargo of arms and munitions to Von Letow, and then making her escape -to the Dutch Indies. As this cargo was the one thing which enabled the -East African campaign to be carried on to the end of the war (when -it must otherwise inevitably have terminated a year or two earlier), -there can be no two ways of looking at the "signal service" the _Marie_ -performed--for the Germans. - -Owing to the difficulty in securing crews to take the ships to the Tyne, -Admiral Goette requested that the Allied Commission should furnish in -advance a guarantee of safety for those who could be induced to make the -voyage. Admiral Browning's reply was a counter-demand for a guarantee of -safety for the parties landing from the _Hercules_ to carry out their -inspections of German ships and air stations. "The word of my Commission -is given here and now," he said, "in the presence of many witnesses, -for the security of any German subject who may, in the course of the -execution of the armistice, land in Great Britain. It is not customary -to give written assurances regarding the honourable observation of -the law of nations, but in the case of Germany we are obliged to ask -for guarantees in writing because of the description which has been -furnished us of the state of the country. We are obliged to ask before -we take any steps to see that the terms of the armistice are executed, -that the parties should be able to perform their duties without danger, -let, or hindrance." - -Admiral Goette conceded this demand, and then went on to press his own -in a statement highly illuminative of the abject position the German -naval authorities found themselves in their relations with both the -men of the warships and merchant sailors. "I wish to explain," he -said, "that the request which we make is not to be construed into an -expression of suspicion or distrust. It is merely in the interests of -the men themselves, as we experienced in the case of the personnel of -the submarines taken to English ports that the men were obviously under -great apprehension that something might happen to them on coming into -English parts. The guarantee is merely wanted as something definite -to show the crews, as we have great difficulty in getting the men to -believe us. That is why we also suggest that the German Commission -should receive the minutes of the conference, as they would be quite -enough for our purpose in order to be able to show the men in print that -the declaration has been actually made." - -The mutual guarantees were subsequently given in writing as follows:-- - - GUARANTEE BY THE GOVERNMENT AT BERLIN AS TO THE SAFETY OF - MEMBERS OF THE ALLIED COMMISSION DURING THEIR STAY IN - GERMANY. - - Berlin. - _December_ 6, 1918. - - Foreign Office. - No. 172192. - - The safety of the members of the Allied Commission and - of the representatives of the United States is guaranteed - by the Government of the State for the whole extent of - German territory. All representatives and functionaries of - the Administration of the State, the Federal States and - Municipalities of the Army and of the Navy are requested to give - them every protection and to assist them in every way in the - unhindered execution of their work. - - The Government of the State. - - (_Signed_) EBERT. - HAASE. - - GUARANTEE AS TO SECURITY OF GERMAN CREWS OF MERCHANT VESSELS - - H.M.S. _Hercules_. - _December_ 6, 1918. - - The Allied Naval Armistice Commission. - No. 0379. - - In reply to your verbal request of yesterday, 5th December, - 1918, we hereby authorize you to communicate to those - concerned our assurance that the security of the crews sent - over in merchant vessels, restored under Article XXX, Terms of - Armistice, will be properly safeguarded on their arrival in - British or French ports. - - A copy of this document will be forwarded to the Admiralty - in London and to the Ministry of Marine in Paris accordingly. - - (_Signed_) M. E. Browning, _Vice-Admiral_. - (_Signed_) M. F. A. Grasset, _Contre-Amiral_. - - To Rear-Admiral Ernst Goette. - -Guarantees having been provided, the following instructions were handed -to the German Commission regarding the carrying out of inspections under -the terms of the armistice:-- - -1. The Allied Naval Commission shall be received on board each -mercantile vessel to be inspected by officers of approximately -equivalent rank and conducted through the vessel, visiting such places -and compartments as the Allied Commission may wish. - -2. All compartments are to be adequately lighted. - -3. All vessels shall be cleared of men before and during the inspection, -with the exception of those necessary to open up machinery, doors, -hatches, etc. - -4. If guns are mounted they are to be uncovered, and all explosives -removed from the vessel. - -The Allied inspection parties were instructed as follows:-- - -(_a_) To satisfy themselves that all Allied vessels are bunkered, -ballasted, and sufficiently manned for the passage to the Tyne, in the -case of British and Belgian vessels, and to Dunkerque, in the case of -French vessels. - -(_b_) To ensure that the necessary repairs and dry docking of -unseaworthy ships are carried out by the German authorities. - -(_c_) To ascertain that sufficient deck and engine stores are provided -for the passage. - -(_d_) That all ships' papers, including Log Book and Register, -confiscated on internment are returned. - -(_e_) That ammunition and explosives are landed from the vessels which -have been used for war purposes. - -The arrival of the lists of embargo and prize ships showed them to be -scattered about among a large number of ports on both the North Sea -and the Baltic. As lack of time precluded the possibility of visiting -Danzig or any other Baltic ports east of Kiel, it was arranged that all -seaworthy ships in these ports should proceed to Kiel for inspection. -After completing the inspection of the five ships in Wilhelmshaven (two -of which were found to have machinery defects which made it impossible -to deliver them without extensive repairs), the Shipping Board departed -by train for Hamburg and Bremerhaven, where the greater part of their -work was to be done. Before they rejoined the _Hercules_ three days -later at Kiel over thirty British ships had been inspected and the -preliminary steps taken for their return to the Tyne. - -Admiral Goette's report at the first conference respecting conditions -at Hamburg and the vicinity had made it appear probable that a visit -to the Elbe would be entirely out of the question, and even after -guarantees of safety had arrived it still seemed that venturing there -would be attended by uncertainty if not danger. "In the Elbe," the -President of the German Commission had said, "power is entirely in the -hands of the Workmen's and Soldiers' Council, and Naval Officers have -no authority or influence whatever. One of the chief supports of the -Workmen's and Soldiers' Council is the light cruiser _Augsburg_. There -are also some torpedo-boats, mine-sweeping vessels and other small craft -there which should be disarmed; but officers at Wilhelmshaven have no -power to see to it, nor can they give any definite information as to -what is there.... The Elbe is much less under the influence of the -Berlin Government than either Wilhelmshaven or Kiel. The Elbe Republic -appears to have been much more radical than the others from the start, -and has from the beginning of the Revolution refused to co-operate with -the Naval Officers, while such co-operation was at once in effect in -Wilhelmshaven and Kiel." - -It is by no means improbable that Admiral Goette was quite sincere in -this summary of conditions on the Elbe; indeed, so far as the lack -of authority on the part of Naval Officers was concerned, it was -an accurate statement of the case. But in assuming that this would -necessarily make it impossible for the Allied Shipping Board to carry -out their work he proved quite wrong. Contemptuous as they were of their -ex-officers, the men, far from displaying any desire to interfere with -the work of the Commission, proved themselves no less willing than their -mates in Wilhelmshaven to help in any way they could. The Workmen's and -Soldiers' Council took over the protection of the party from the moment -of its arrival, and, save for a single incident which could hardly have -been classed as "preventable," nothing of an untoward nature occurred in -the course of the visit. - -[Illustration: IN THE ELBE, HAMBURG] - -[Illustration: RAILROAD STATION AT HAMBURG] - -At Hamburg the party put up at the Hotel Atlantic, where they -reported that their comfort was extremely well looked after in every -way. Occupying a wing to themselves and using a private dining-room, -they saw little of the other guests. They were not allowed to linger in -the foyer or any of the public rooms on the ground floor, and as soon as -they had reached their rooms an armed guard of the Workmen and Soldiers -took station at the entrance to the corridor. These precautions appeared -quite unnecessary, as no signs of unfriendliness of any kind were in -evidence. - -The rooms were large and furnished with all their pre-war luxuriousness. -The linen was abundant and of fine quality. The steam heaters had to -be turned off to prevent the rooms becoming overheated. The response -from the hot-water taps was immediate. The brass fittings were still -in place, and there were no signs of _ersatz_ towels, sheets, or even -lace curtains. Soap was the only thing missing, but that difficulty -was common to all Germany. Food (even on one of the days which was -meatless) was both abundant and wholesome--"well up to the average in a -first-class English hotel," as one of the members put it. There was an -ample and varied wine list to order from, including--besides many Rhine -and Hungarian brands--several French and Italian brandies and liqueurs. -There was some discussion over the cigars, the only point upon which -the Commission were unanimous being that they were not tobacco, and -that any member desiring to experiment in the effect of them upon a -human being should do so upon himself, and in his own room. German -"substitute" tobacco looks better than it smokes; in fact, the only way -in which the Workmen's and Soldiers' guards attached to our parties were -in the least obnoxious was through putting up "smoke barrages," and even -these were avoidable except in turrets, magazines, shaft tunnels, and -other enclosed spaces. - -The inspection of the twenty-four British ships in the Elbe revealed -the fact that it had been the German practice to convert the best of -the embargo steamers into mine-layers, net-layers, seaplane carriers, -and other types of war auxiliaries. These had been kept in the best of -condition, and, allowing for the hard service they had been engaged in, -were in practically as good shape as when first seized. The second-grade -steamers and sailing vessels had merely been laid up and left to go -to rack and ruin. Stripped of everything in the way of metal or gear -that was likely to prove of use elsewhere, unpainted, uncared-for and -covered with four-and-a-half years' accumulation of rust and filth, they -presented a sorry sight. Although yielding little in the way of metal -or technical instruments, the sailing ships had furnished useful loot in -the form of hempen ropes and canvas, of both of which they were stripped -to the last ravellings. - -There was one very interesting discovery made in connection with the -inspection of these laid-up ships in the Elbe. _A number of them were -found to have been filled with concrete, with the evident intention of -using them as block ships._ Naturally, no explanation of what had been -in the wind to prompt this action was volunteered, but the fact that the -work had been done at a comparatively recent date pointed strongly to -the probability that the Germans, stung to the quick by the blocking of -Zeebrugge and Ostend, were preparing a reply, most likely against the -entrance to the Tyne. One has only to look at the chart to understand -that the latter is a readily "blockable" estuary--to any adequately -equipped force able to reach the proper point. Needless to say, such -a contingency was not unprovided against, and it would have been a -near-miracle if even the most dare-devil leadership could have brought -such a force halfway across the North Sea. Whether the armistice put -an end to uncompleted preparations, or whether the plan was given up -in despair before that time (perhaps through a failure to secure the -necessary force of volunteers), there was nothing to indicate, though -doubtless revelations throwing light on this interesting mystery will be -forthcoming from Germany before long. - -Fortunately, the concrete had been put into these ships in the form of -blocks instead of being poured, so that the clearing of their holds was -not a serious matter. - -The drives in motor-cars through the streets of Hamburg revealed the -same well-dressed, well-fed crowds which had been so much in evidence -in Wilhelmshaven, and not even in the docks or shipyards were there -any signs of the starvation we had been assured prevailed in all the -great industrial centres. The people were mildly curious but not in -the least unfriendly. The only occasion on which anything unpleasant -occurred was when a navvy, splashed by the mud from one of the leading -cars, petulantly slammed his shovel through the glass of the next in -line. The nerves and tempers of the three French shipping commissioners -were the only things beside the glass which suffered seriously as a -consequence of this contretemps. The Workmen's and Soldiers' guards -promptly asserted their authority by arresting the captious culprit, -profuse apologies for the indignity were offered by the German officers -conducting the party at the time, and later the President of their -Shipping Commission called on Commodore Bevan at the hotel to make -formal expression of regrets. - -There was a refreshing naïveté in the explanation offered by one of the -German officers of the reason for this little incident. "It was all the -fault of the chauffeur," he said. "The man used to drive for Admiral -X---- of the General Staff, and he forgot that he must no longer let his -car throw mud on the street workmen." - -The German naval officer who received the Allied party on one of the -British merchantmen was found in a state of considerable excitement. -He had been fired at from the darkness the night before, he said, and -missed by a hair. Interpreting this as a warning against wearing his -naval uniform ashore, he had dressed in civil attire that morning, -brought his uniform along in a parcel, and changed into it on board. - -"You'd pity any one but a Hun for having to do a thing like that," was -the dry comment of one of the British members of the party when this -tale of woe was translated to him. - -An instance of the unquenchable optimism of the German industrialist -regarding the eagerly awaited future when the seas and the markets of -the world are again open to him was furnished in the course of a visit -to the great Blohm and Voss yards, which occupy about the same position -on the Elbe as do those of John Brown or Fairfields on the Clyde, -or Harland and Wolff at Belfast. Several of the embargo ships were -undergoing repairs here, and in going over one of these it was pointed -out by Commodore Bevan that it ought to be ready to put to sea some days -inside the limit set by the Germans for the completion of reconditioning. - -"It is quite true the ship will be in a state to make the voyage to -the Tyne by the time you say," replied Herr M----, the Director who -was showing the party round, "but it will take a number of days longer -to put it in the same state it was when placed under embargo. It would -be a short-sighted policy on our part to send a badly repaired ship -out of our yards at the present time, for it would be certain to react -seriously in the matter of future orders. You must bear in mind, sir, -that we have a world-wide reputation for thoroughness to maintain." - -He appeared far from reassured when he was told that the condition he -sent the British ships home in would have no effect whatever upon his -future business with the rest of the world; moreover, he must have found -that the longer he pondered that plain statement the less comfort there -was to be extracted from it. It is astonishing how few Germans appear to -realize that there are other things besides workmanship and quality--to -say nothing of long credits, state subsidies and pushful salesmen--that -will profoundly affect the future of German trade. - -The inspection of the eight interned vessels at Bremerhaven brought out -nothing of more than routine interest, but the visit to the great home -port of the North German Lloyd on the Weser, just as had the one to -that of the Hamburg-Amerika Line on the Elbe, offered an incomparable -opportunity to see at first hand the staggering blow which the war -had dealt to German shipping and--through shipping--to German foreign -trade. Although the fact that I had been attached for the moment to the -sub-commissions inspecting seaplane and Zeppelin stations prevented -my visiting Hamburg and Bremerhaven with the Shipping Board, an -illuminating glimpse of the latter was offered me during the passage of -the Weser in the course of the journey to Nordholz. - -Although the day was overcast and there was some mistiness on the water, -one could still see far enough up and down stream during the passage -to note the effects of the complete stagnation which had settled from -the outbreak of the war upon this second of Germany's great maritime -ports. The name BREMERHAVEN had appeared in raised gilt letters -across the stern of every one of the hundreds of North German Lloyd -steamers, and from New York to Shanghai, from Sydney to Durban, one was -confronted with it in most of the ports of the world, but especially -those of the Far East and Australia. I had seen it on the black-hulled, -buff-funnelled freighters that were carrying Dutch goods from Ternate -to Batavia, Chinese goods from Tientsin to Foochow, Japanese goods -from Kobe to Nagasaki, British goods between Sandakan and Singapore. -The "Crossed Keys" house-flag was known throughout the East as the -symbol of that notorious German trade policy of heavy rate-cutting -until competition had been killed and then a forcing up of tariffs to -just under a figure which would be calculated to revive competition. -But while the Germans had plotted thus ruthlessly to strangle foreign -competition, between their own lines nothing of the kind was ever -allowed to go on. The Hamburg-Amerika and the Norddeutscher-Lloyd, with -three or four other German lines of secondary importance, had divided up -the world into "spheres" of trade, with no line encroaching upon that -of another except for certain inevitable "over-lapping" in passenger -traffic on the Mediterranean and North Atlantic routes. - -The lines of the Norddeutscher-Lloyd were stretched like the tentacles -of an octopus over the Indian Ocean and the Eastern Pacific, and at the -outbreak of the war it was sucking trade from every British, French, -Dutch, and Scandinavian line that plied to the ports of Australia, -Malaysia, China, and the Philippines upon which it had fastened its -slimy grip. The "N.D.L." was more than a German steamship line; it -was Germany itself--Germany beginning to rivet down the edges of its -"places in the sun." It was Herr Heiniken, the president of this great -instrument of "Deutschland Ueber Alles," who, in Hongkong in 1911, -exclaimed to a diplomat with whom he was discussing the Kaiser's Agadir -bluff: "War! that, sir, is the one thing I want to avoid. What do we -want to spend money and men on war when--within ten years at our present -rate of progress--we can win everything that the most successful war -could possibly give us? War might be a short cut to German world-power; -and again, it might not. But hegemony by the trade route--provided only -we continue to enjoy the freedom we have today--is sure. Our ships and -merchants have already won half the battle, and victory is in sight if -they are only allowed to go on." - -Herr Heiniken was a hard-headed, clear-seeing man, and one shudders to -think how much truth there was in the words quoted. But the slower, more -round-about "trade route" to world-power did not suit the hot-headed -Junkers, and they forced their country to attempt to reach by the -short-cut of war what was almost within the reach of their merchants -and shippers. And that day at Bremerhaven we saw one of the results. -There, sluddered down into the slime from which he rose, his tentacles -all either severed or drawn in, was the remains of the "N.D.L." octopus. -Miles and miles of what were once black-and-buff freighters and liners -were lying so deep in harbour silt that it would have taken a dredger -to get them out of their slips. The tangles of sagging, weed-fringed -mooring cables running over and about them--for all the world as though -they had been meshed in the web of a Gargantuan spider--accentuated the -helpless immobility of craft that had once flaunted the arrogant red, -white, and black bunting of the German merchant marine in the uttermost -corners of the Seven Seas. - -That river full of rotting ships was more than quiet--it was _dead_. -The anchorage of the interned High Sea Fleet, off the inner entrance -to Gutter Sound in Scapa Flow, was the first cemetery I had seen of -the ships of the power whose ruler had proclaimed that its future -was upon the sea. Bremerhaven was another graveyard of that ambient -ambition. And the rusting hulks of the remains of the "N.D.L." fleet -was not all that was buried in the port of opulent Bremen. The ships -were only the tombstones. Deep in the mud beneath their keels was -sunk the crumpled framework of a plan which was a long way farther on -the way to consummation than most of Americans and Britons will ever -realize--Germany's scheme to attain world domination by trade. Germany -will, in time undoubtedly have another merchant marine, and she may even -begin striving before long toward world domination by any means, fair or -foul, that offers a chance of success. But there is a slight probability -that she will ever again hit upon any road that will take her so far -toward the goal of "_Deutschland Ueber Alles_" as did the "trade route," -the way to which is now all but closed. There was the dankness of mould -in the wind that blew across the graveyard of the high ambitions that -lie buried beyond hope of resurrection in the mud beneath the weed-foul -bottoms of the ships of Bremerhaven. - -The whole atmosphere of the stagnant waterfront was brooding and gloomy, -and as we drew near to the landing I was conscious of a pronounced -depression, for no man who loves the sea can remain unmoved at the sight -of neglected ships. To this mood the cheery chatter of a young American -Ensign, who had just sauntered out on deck after warming his toes at the -charcoal brazier in the tug's cabin, came as a welcome diversion. - -"There's a lot of funny things chalked up on the walls around the -docks," he said, running his eyes over the signs along the front, "but -the one word that is written over the whole darn layout is 'Ichabod.' -'N.D.L.' is the only other to run 'one-two-three' with it. By the look -of things I take it that stands for 'No D----m Luck.'" - - - - -VII - -THE BOMBING OF TONDERN - - -The German airship station at Tondern was by no means the largest of -the enemy naval stations, but its position gave it an importance not -measured by the number of its sheds or its airships. - -Situated in Schleswig, not far from the Danish border, its ships were -available equally for reconnaissance in the North Sea or the Baltic, -including the Kattegat, and all the devious straits and passages -between Denmark and the Scandinavian Peninsula. In a way, with the -seaplane station at Sylt, it formed the first line of defence against -the ever increasing British mine-laying sorties in the North Sea and -Kattegat. The actual attacks against these mine-layers came to be left -more and more to the seaplanes, though, in the first years of the war, -considerable bomb-dropping was attempted here from Zeppelins. The -vulnerability of the airship to aeroplane attack--and, notably, the -destruction of a Zeppelin by a plane launched from the light cruiser -_Yarmouth_--put an end to their work in this _rôle_, and compelled them -to confine their activities entirely to reconnaissance. It was the -great effectiveness of the long observation flights from Tondern which -determined the R.N.A.S. to make a strong endeavour to put an end to the -menace by destroying the sheds. Besides greatly hampering the British -mine-laying program they were also credited with supplying the Germans -with invaluable information for both their surface raids and submarine -attacks on the Norwegian convoys. - -The only way in which Tondern could be reached was by machines launched -from a carrier ship, and for this purpose the _Furious_, on account of -her great speed and size, was perhaps better adapted than even a ship -of the type of the _Argus_, in spite of the fact that the latter was -specially built for the work, while the former was converted from a -cruiser of the _Courageous_ class. The raid, as any attempt of the kind -must be, was prepared for some time in advance, and was only launched -when it appeared that all conditions were especially favourable for its -success. Probably the astonishing Admiralty intelligence service played -an important, perhaps a decisive, part. - -There was one point which favoured a raid upon Tondern as compared -with an air attack upon one of the stations farther south. This was -its proximity to the Danish border, which offered an alternative way -of escape if return to the vicinity of the carrier ship should be -impracticable. This was fully reckoned with in planning the raid, for -it was well understood that the presence of numerous chaser squadrons -from the German coastal seaplane stations might effectually bar the way -back to the _Furious_ or her escorting destroyers. Of the raid from the -British standpoint I can tell little or no more than was revealed in the -bulletin issued by the Admiralty a few days after it took place. This -said, in effect, that a number of aeroplanes, launched from a carrier -ship, had carried out a raid upon the Zeppelin sheds at Tondern shortly -after daylight; that, in spite of the vigorous anti-aircraft fire -encountered, hits had been observed upon at least two of the sheds, and -that it was believed that any airships they contained must have been -destroyed; and that some of the pilots had been picked up at sea, while -others had landed safely in Denmark. Two or three were still unaccounted -for, and might have either been lost in the sea or been taken prisoner -by the enemy. This number was subsequently reduced to one, and he, it -was reckoned, must have sunk with his machine in the sea. - -This was all the public were told of what was undoubtedly the most -successful raid of its kind ever carried out, except for the usual more -or less conflicting versions from Denmark and Holland. No one seemed to -know for certain whether any Zeppelins had been destroyed or not, and -if the Admiralty Intelligence Department knew, it kept its knowledge -to itself. The fact that the British mine-laying squadrons had, from -that time on, less to report of Zeppelin activity in the Skager Rak was -encouraging, however, and seemed to show that the Zeppelins were being -kept out of harm's way. - -Under the armistice agreement the Allied Naval Commission had the right -of visiting any of the German naval air stations. This gave them an -opportunity to see at first hand what damage had been inflicted in -the Tondern raid. So one of the sub-commissions put this station upon -their itinerary. One officer in particular--he had directed the raiding -operations from the _Furious_--was especially anxious to go. But luck -was against him, for the destroyer in which he was visiting the Borkum -and Heligoland stations was delayed by fog, and he was too late to go -with the Tondern party. - -[Illustration: FLOATING DOCK FOR LIFTING SUBMARINES IN KIEL HARBOR] - -The efforts made by the Germans, first, to prevent this Tondern visit -being scheduled at all, and, after it was decided upon, so to delay -it that the party making it should only arrive after dark and thus -have limited opportunities for observation, were a revelation of Hun -psychology. "The Hun," said an officer of one of the air-station -parties on his return to the _Hercules_ one evening, "is one of the -most truthful individuals in the world--just as long as he knows you -are in a position to find out the truth anyway. But if he thinks he can -prevent your finding out the truth by lying, there seems to be no limit -to the lengths he will go." Then he went on to tell of how an unusually -affable and courteous young German flying officer, who had conducted -his party to Norderney two days previously, had taken every occasion to -point out how much trouble, and how profitless and uninteresting a visit -to Tondern would be. He said that the station was a long distance out -of the way, that reaching it would involve trips of some hours by both -train and destroyer, that it was not in a region under the control of -the Wilhelmshaven authorities, and that there was nothing to see anyway, -as the sheds had been dismantled before they were bombed, and that -there were no airships in them at the time they were destroyed. Pressed -on the latter point, he had reiterated the statement, adding that the -raid, though it was well planned and executed, had been a great waste of -effort. "It will take much time, and you will see nothing, nothing at -all, I assure you." - -"When I told him," continued the British officer, "that we would go -ahead with the visit for sentimental reasons, if for no others, he -seemed a good deal upset, and this morning he did not turn up at all. -The commander who came in his stead told me quite frankly that there -were two Zeppelins destroyed at Tondern, and that he was to go in person -with the party to see, as he put it, that it was 'properly received.' -He had such an 'open-and-above-board' manner about everything that I'm -inclined to think there's some 'catch' in his plan. It's probably on the -score of time, or connections, or something of that kind. He says that, -between destroyer, launch, and train, it is an eight-hour journey; but I -have made up a schedule that will give us a good two hours of daylight -there if there is no slip up on the Huns' end of the arrangements. We -push off in the _Viceroy_ at seven in the morning, and ought to be at -Tondern by three. When we rejoin her again at Brunsbüttel's another -matter." - -Just where the "slip up" was meant to come became evident the next -morning, when the German pilot was half an hour late in coming off to -the _Viceroy_. As the sixty-mile run to Brunsbüttel was to have been -covered at a rate of but fifteen miles an hour, a destroyer capable of -doing close to thirty-five had no difficulty in making up the lost time, -though once she was all but compelled to anchor on account of fog, -which closed down just before the outer Elbe lightship was picked up. -The railway station, close beside the gates of the Kiel Canal, was in -plain view from the deck of the _Viceroy_, but the delay in sending off -the promised tug to take us to the landing, with a further delay in the -starting of the waiting special, set back our departure from Brunsbüttel -an hour behind the time scheduled. - -As all the trains previously put at the disposal of the Allied -Commission had been given the right of way over everything else on -the line, we had good reason to believe that this time might also be -made up in the course of the run across absolutely level country which -separated us from Tondern. It was little more than one hundred miles. -When, far from making up time, we continued to lose it--both by waits -at stations and by slow running between them--our mounting suspicions -that the Germans meant to keep us hanging about till after dark seemed -to be confirmed. A protest to the Korvettenkapitän conducting the party -brought only a shrug of the shoulders and the assertion that the bad -conditions of the track and the engine made greater speed too dangerous. -As there was no doubt that the engine was clanking and banging a good -deal, and that the bogey immediately under our compartment had at least -one "flat" wheel, about the only reply we could make to this was to -point out that the twelve-car train which had just passed us was doing -at least twice our speed. - -"Ah! but that train had the good engine," was the naïve reply. It -hardly seemed worth while asking why our special had not also been -provided with a "good" engine. Some sort of directions were given to the -engineer, however, and there was sufficient acceleration of speed (at -the expense, it appeared, of cutting off the steam heating the car) to -bring us into Tondern station with something like three-quarters of an -hour of daylight still to the good. This was so contrary to the plans -of our hosts that the train was kept waiting in the station for fifteen -minutes on the pretext that the party of officers from the town who were -to accompany us had not yet arrived. The crowd on the platform, amongst -which Danish types predominated, seemed to be genuinely friendly, but a -couple of Red Cross girls who stepped forward to offer refreshments were -waved savagely back by an armed guard. - -The ragged silhouettes of the bombed sheds were in plain sight, but a -mile or so distant, when (the German officers having arrived and taken -their places in a spare compartment) the train, with much wheezing and -clanking, started up again and ran slowly out on to the spur towards -the airship station. It would be but a few minutes more, we told -ourselves, and there would still be light enough to see the general -lay of things. The engine never increased its snail's-pace of three -miles an hour all the way, and when it came to a stop at last, close -beside a towering wall of steel, there was barely light enough to show -the top of the wall against the dusky, low-hanging clouds of the early -twilight. Our conductor had maintained his schedule to the minute. When -we alighted he was voluble in his explanation of how the track of the -spur was in such a state of disrepair that a greater speed would have -been attended by the risk of derailment. There was nothing that we could -say to refute this specious protestation, until, on our return journey -an hour or two later, the engine (which had been making steam in the -interim) whisked the two cars over that same spur at the giddy rate of -twenty miles an hour--a good six times as fast as we had come. - -The commander of the station, saying that, as the hour was late, -we doubtless would desire to get the inspection over as quickly -as possible, started off into the darkness at a brisk pace, the -rest--British, Americans, and Germans--stumbling along in pursuit as -best they could. Entering the shed by a side door near which the -train had stopped, we found it so poorly lighted that the opposite -wall showed but dimly, while the ends and the soaring arches of the -roof were lost in dusky obscurity. At that first glimpse--probably the -fresh smell of the cement under foot and the palpable newness of the -pressed asbestos siding under one of the lights had something to do -with it--the shed gave one the impression of being just on the point of -completion. The description of the station furnished to us mentioned no -such structure, so that we were rather at a loss. No explanation was -volunteered, however, and our guide pushed on straight across, with the -evident intention of passing out through the opposite door. But the -senior Allied officer, an American, of commander's rank, stopped him -with a request for more light. Half a dozen switches were then thrown -over, and flooded the great structure with the brilliant radiance of -countless incandescent globes. At once the huge building was revealed as -a double Zeppelin shed of the largest size, just at the end of a long -spell of restoration after being badly damaged. Fragments of duraluminum -and charred pieces of wood and fabric, swept together in great heaps at -the sides, told more of the story, and great fresh patches at several -points in the roof the rest of it. This was the shed in which the two -Zeppelins, which the Germans admitted losing when the station was bombed -by the planes from the _Furious_, had been destroyed. It was the least -damaged of the sheds bombed, said the German commander, and it had -been rebuilt with materials from two other sheds both of which were in -process of demolition. - -I saw the Yankee officer's eyes glistening as the picture those words -conjured up flashed before them, and heard his muttered "Some raid that, -by cripes!" - -"If you are zatisfied, ve vill now go on to der oder sheds," the German -commander said presently, and we followed him out into the deepening -twilight. - -Tondern had nothing of the regularity of plan of Nordholz, nor, luckily, -the latter's magnificent distances. We found the two remaining sheds, -or what was left of them, at less than half a mile from the first. -One was nothing but a foundation, with prostrate steel pillars and -girders scattered about over it, and numerous deep pools of water. I -say deep, because it took two of his colleagues to fish out one of the -party who stumbled into it, and he, by the irony of fate, was a stout -German officer, with a deep bass voice and a magnificent vocabulary. We -had to take the German's word for it that this shed had been a small -one, which they were demolishing because it had been obsolete, and not -because it had been damaged by bombs. - -Men were at work pulling down a section of the next shed as we came up, -but they shambled away at a word from one of their officers. This one, -said the station commander, was much the worst damaged of the two bombed -in the raid, but, by good luck, there had been no airships in it at -the time. The reason that it was more badly knocked to pieces than the -other, in spite of the fact that, in the latter, the explosion of the -Zeppelins was added to that of the bombs, was due to its doors having -been tightly closed. This had caused the full force of the exploding -bombs to be exerted against the walls and roof of the shed, whereas, in -the first one, much of that force had been dissipated through the open -front of the structure. - -Save a flare or two by which the men had been working, there was no -lights in this shed, but, picking our way over heaps of broken glass and -asbestos sheeting, we managed to find a point from which the tangled -and twisted girders of a still undemolished section of the roof were -silhouetted against a stratum of western clouds, yet bright in the last -of the sunset glow. For the most part they bulged outward, where the -up-gush of the explosion had exerted its force against the roof, but in -two places they bent sharply inward, and ended in jagged bars of torn -metal. These were the places, the Germans told us, where two of the -bombs burst through. One of them explained the remarkable fact of the -great holes being almost exactly in a line down the middle of the roof -by saying: "Poof! they fly so low they could not miss. Any airman could -do that. But they did miss with one bomb, though," he said, brightening. -"Come mit me. I show you," and he led the way to a spot forty or fifty -feet in front of the wrecked building, where his electric torch revealed -a round hole in the earth about five feet in diameter by four feet deep. -"I think that bomb miss der top of der shed by one half-metre," he said, -sighting along his outstretched arm at what was evidently reckoned the -angle of a bomb from a low-flying machine. "Yes, it miss der shed by -half a metre; but it kills five men chust der same. Not so bad after -all, perhapds." Your Hun officer is ever a cold-blooded reckoner, and -one of the reasons he is so useful is that he never lets sentiment blur -his perspective. - -From various things heard and seen in the course of that hurried night -visit of inspection to Tondern it would have been possible to piece out -a fairly accurate picture of how the great raid must have appeared to -the Germans stationed there at the time. It will be better, however, to -set down a brief _résumé_ of the connected account I heard at Nordholz -from Von Butlar, Germany's most famous surviving airship pilot, who -had, as will be seen, good reason for remembering what occurred on that -eventful morning. - -[Illustration: BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF KIEL] - -[Illustration: IN KIEL DOCKYARD] - -Von Butlar's[2] chief claim to distinction is his notable long-distance -flights, the most remarkable of which was in connection with an attempt -to carry medical supplies to General Von Letow in German East Africa. -The German European forces there were being decimated by malaria at -the time, and Von Letow had sent word by wireless that unless a supply -of quinine reached him by a certain date he would be unable to carry -on. As this campaign was diverting far too much British effort for the -Germans to let it come to an end while any card still remained to be -played, it was decided to make an attempt to send relief by Zeppelin. -A rendezvous was arranged, and after some delay an airship, under Von -Butlar's command, was dispatched from a station in Bulgaria, the nearest -practicable point from which a start could be made. The delay alone -caused the failure of the boldly conceived project, for, flying without -a hitch of any kind, Von Butlar had already crossed the Mediterranean, -Lower and Upper Egypt, and was well over the Sudan when Von Letow -informed him by wireless that the British had occupied the point where -he was to have landed, and that, as it was not practicable to rendezvous -with him in a sufficiently open region elsewhere, it would be best for -him to return home. This remarkable feat was successfully accomplished, -Von Butlar bringing his airship safely to earth at a point on the -Turkish shores of the Black Sea. - - [2] Since returning to England I have received information - which, while confirming the fact that he commanded "L-59" - when it was commissioned, makes it probable that Von - Butlar was transferred to another Zeppelin before the - East African flight was attempted. A pilot by the name - of Bugholz is believed to have been in command on that - occasion. Although Von Butlar's representation of himself - as the hero of the remarkable African flight appears to - have been a case of pure "swank," there is every reason - to believe that his account of the Tondern raid is - substantially correct.--L. R. F. - -A scarcely less remarkable flight was one in which Von Butlar claimed -to have crossed the North Sea to near the Yorkshire coast, to have -passed north in sight of Rosyth, Invergordon, and Scapa Flow, to have -flown across to Norway, gaining useful information respecting convoy -and patrol movements, and back to his home station at Tondern or -Nordholz. The Admiralty, which had some information about this latter -flight, had credited Von Butlar with having been in the air 104 hours, -but he assured several members of the Commission that the actual time -was little short of six days. He also claimed to have taken a useful -photograph of the Grand Fleet at anchor at Scapa Flow. - -At the time of the Tondern raid, Von Butlar was flying from there, -one of the two Zeppelins destroyed being that which he commanded. As -he speaks little, if any, English, the following account is a free -translation of the story he related to us in German of what occurred on -that occasion. "We always recognized," he said, "from the time that we -learned that the British were developing swift flying-machine carriers, -that Tondern was especially vulnerable to an attack of this kind, and we -prepared against it as best we could. We had expected, however, that it -would come in the form of a raid by seaplanes, which would, of course, -have been comparatively heavy and slow, and which would have had to -return to the sea to land, and against these our defence would probably -have been effective. Where we deceived ourselves was in underrating the -risks that your men were willing to take, such as, for instance, that -of landing in the sea in an ordinary aeroplane on the chance of being -picked up in the comparatively short time such a machine will float." - -"We were not prepared for such a raid at any time, but especially at -the moment at which it occurred. We had had a protecting flight of -light fighting aeroplanes at Tondern, but the landing ground had never -been properly levelled. There had been many accidents, and a number of -the machines were always disabled. This trouble became so bad toward -the middle of last summer that it was finally decided to withdraw the -protecting flight, which was badly needed at the moment elsewhere, until -the landing ground had been improved. As usual, your Admiralty seem to -have learned of this within a few hours and to have decided to take -advantage of it at once. From the way your machines were flying when -they appeared, I am practically certain that they felt sure of being -opposed by nothing worse than gun-fire. - -"We received warning, of course, when the raiding planes were still -over the sea, but, unless some of the machines at once sent up from the -coastal stations could stop them, there was nothing for us to do but to -give them the warmest reception we could with the anti-aircraft guns, in -which we were fairly strong. Our gunners were well trained, and if your -planes had kept high, as they would have done if they had been expecting -a strong attack by a superior force of protecting machines, they would -most probably have been prevented from doing much harm, instead of just -about wiping the station off the map, as they did. - -"When we had the warning, most of those without special duties went to -the _abri_, which had been provided at all stations for use in case of -raids. But I was so concerned over the danger to my own ship that I -remained outside. It was quite light by the time they appeared. At first -they were flying high, but while they were still small specks I saw -them begin to plane down, as though following a pre-arranged plan. It -was all over in a minute or two after that. Part of them headed for one -shed and part for the other. Diving with their engines all out--or so it -seemed--they came over with the combined speed from their drop and the -pull of their propellers. Down they came, till they seemed to be going -to ram the sheds. Then, one after another, they flattened out and passed -lengthwise over their targets at a height of about forty metres, kicking -loose bombs as they went. - -"Our guns simply had no chance at all with them. In fact, one of the -guns came pretty near to getting knocked out itself. It was so reckless -a piece of work that I couldn't help noticing it, even while my own -airship was beginning to burst into flames. One of the pilots, it seems, -must have found that he had a bomb or two left at about the same time he -spotted the position of one of the guns that was firing at him. Banking -steeply, round he came, dived straight at the battery, letting go a bomb -as his sight came on when he was no more than fifteen metres above it. -Then he waved his hand and dashed off after the other machines, which -were already scattering to avoid the German planes beginning to converge -on them from all directions. It was one of the finest examples of nerve -I ever saw. - -"The precaution we had taken of opening the doors of the main shed saved -it from total destruction, for the airships, instead of exploding, -only burned comparatively slowly; but Tondern, as an air station, had -practically ceased to exist from that moment." - - - - -VIII - -THROUGH THE CANAL TO THE BALTIC - - -The _Hercules_ and her four escorting destroyers (the latter having been -scattered during the last few days to various ports and air stations in -connection with the inspection being pushed all along the German North -Sea coast) were to have rendezvoused at Brunsbüttel by dark of the 10th, -in order to be ready to start through the Kiel Canal at daybreak the -following morning. At the appointed time, however, only the _Viceroy_, -which had pushed through that morning with the "air" party en route to -the Zeppelin station at Tondern, was on hand. The _Hercules_, which had -got under weigh from Wilhelmshaven during the forenoon, reported that -she had been compelled to anchor off the Elbe estuary on account of -the thickness of the fog, and the _Verdun_, coming on from her visit -to Borkum and Heligoland, had been delayed from a similar cause. The -_Vidette_ and _Venetia_, which were helping the "shipping" and "warship" -parties get around the harbours of Bremen and Hamburg, signalled that -their work was still uncompleted and that they would have to proceed -later to Kiel "on their own." - -Returning to Brunsbüttel from the Tondern visit well along toward -midnight, the absence of the _Hercules_ compelled the four of us who -had made that arduous journey in the _Viceroy_ (the accommodations in -the "V's" appear to be as elastic as the good nature of their officers -is boundless), to spend the night aboard, and the impossibility of -rejoining our own ships in the morning was responsible for the fact -that we continued with her--the first British destroyer to pass through -the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal--on to Kiel. It was a passage as memorable as -historic. - -An improving visibility toward morning enabled the _Hercules_ to get -under weigh again before daybreak, and in the first grey light of the -winter dawn she came nosing past us and on up to the entrance of the -canal. At each end of the latter there are two locks--lying side by -side--for both "outgoing" and "incoming" ships. The right-side one of -the "incoming" pair was reserved for the _Hercules_, while the other was -kept clear for the _Regensburg_--flying Admiral Goette's flag--and the -two British destroyers. The difference in level between the canal and -the waters of the Elbe, varying considerably with the tide, is only a -few feet at most, and the locking through, as a consequence, only the -matter of minutes. - -The _Hercules_ and _Regensburg_ were already in their respective locks -as the _Viceroy_, with the _Verdun_ half a cable's length astern, came -gliding up out of the fog, the former already beginning to show her -great bulk above the side as she lifted with the in-pouring water. The -attention of the score or so of Germans standing on the wall between -the locks was centred, not on the _Hercules_, as one might have -expected, but on the _Regensburg_, the most of them being gathered in a -gesticulative group abreast the latter's bow. The reason for this we saw -presently. - -[Illustration: H. M. S. "VICEROY" ENTERING KIEL CANAL LOCK AT -BRUNSBÜTTEL] - -The handling of the British destroyers on this occasion was one of the -smartest things of the kind I ever saw. Indeed, under the circumstances, -"spectacular" is a fitter word to describe it than "smart." Without -reducing the speed of her engines by a revolution, the _Viceroy_ -continued right on into the narrow water-lane of the lock at the same -pace as she had approached its entrance. Certainly she was doing ten -knots, and probably a good bit over that. On into the still more -restricted space between the _Regensburg_ and the right side of the -dock she drove, while the waterside loafers--scenting a smash--grinned -broadly in anticipation of the humiliation of the Englanders. Straight -at the loftily looming lock gate she drove, and I remember distinctly -seeing men who were crossing the canal on the bridge made by the folded -flaps break into a run to avoid the imminent crash. And she never did -slow down; she _stopped_. While there was still a score of yards to -go the captain threw the engine-room telegraph over to "Stop!" and -"Half-Speed Astern!" and, straining like a dog in leash as the reversed -propellers killed her headway, stop she did. The superlative _finesse_ -of the thing (for they had seen something before of the handling of -ships in narrow places) fairly swept the gathering dock-side vultures -off their feet with astonishment, and one little knot of sailors all but -broke into a cheer. Then the _Verdun_ came dashing up and repeated the -same spectacular manoeuvre in our wake; only, instead of bringing up a -few feet short of the lock gates, it was the stern of the _Viceroy_, -with its festoon of poised depth-charges, that her axe-like bow backed -away from after nosing up close enough to sniff, if not to scratch, the -paint. - -"You've impressed the Huns right enough, sir," I remarked to the captain -as he rang down, "Finished with the Engines," and turned to descend the -ladder of the bridge; "but wasn't it just a bit--" - -"Yes, it was rather slow," he cut in apologetically in answer to what -he thought I was going to say; "but I didn't dare to take any chances -of coming a cropper in strange waters. Now, if it had been the 'Pen' at -Rosyth, we might have shown them what one of the little old 'V's' can do -when it comes to a pinch." - -At the time I thought he was joking--that I had seen the extreme limit -that morning of the "handiness" of the modern destroyer. But the -_Viceroy_, astonishing as that performance had been, still had something -up her sleeve. A week later, in the fog-shrouded entrance to Kiel Fiord, -where a slip would have been a good deal more serious matter than the -telescoping of a bow on a lock gate, I saw how much. - -From the vantage of the bridge I saw, just before descending for -breakfast, what it had been that had deflected the attention of the -lock-side loafers from the _Hercules_ to the _Regensburg_. That most -graceful of light cruisers had paid the penalty of being left with a -most disgraceful crew. _She_ had rammed the lock gate full and square, -and--from the look of her bows--while she still had a good deal of way -on. We had remarked especially the trim lissomeness of those bows when -she met us off the Jade on the day the _Hercules_ arrived in German -waters. And now the sharp stem was bent several feet to port, while -all back along her "flare" the buckled plating heaved in undulant -corrugations like the hide on the neck of an old bull rhino. As it was -the kind of repair that would take a month or more in dock to effect, -there was nothing for the Germans to do but go on using her as she was. -Luckily, she did not appear to be making much water. She followed us -through the canal without difficulty, and--as the days when she would -be called on to shake out her thirty knots were gone for ever--it is -probable that she served Admiral Goette as well for a flagship as any -other of her undamaged sisters would have. But they were never able to -smooth out her "brow of care" during all our stay in German waters; -indeed, I shall be greatly surprised if (to use the expressive term I -heard a bluejacket in the _Viceroy_ apply to it that morning) she does -not come poking that "cauliflower nose" in front of her when she is -finally handed over for internment at Scapa. - -Although they would be dwarfed beside such great structures as the Pedro -Miguel or Gatun locks of the Panama Canal, the locks at Brunsbüttel -are fine solid works, displaying on every hand evidences of the great -attention which had been given to providing for their rapid operation -under pressure, as when the High Sea Fleet was being rushed through -from the Baltic to the North Sea. Having been enlarged primarily to -"double the strength of the German Fleet," expense had not mattered in -the way it would have had the canal been expected to justify itself -commercially. The merchant traffic of the waterway for many years to -come would not have demanded the double locks at either end; but naval -exigencies called for speedy operation at any cost, and they were built. - -Everything about the locks was in extremely good repair. Even the great -agate and onyx mosaic of the name KAISER WILHELM KANAL, set between -the double-headed eagles of the Imperial arms, was swept and polished -to display it to best advantage. The locks were only the front window -display, however, for the badly eroded banks of the canal itself -testified to the same lack of maintenance as the railways were suffering -from. As our pilot reported that the revolutionists had spent the -night obliterating all the Imperial names--such as _Kaiserstrasse_ and -_Kronprintzstrasse_--in Brunsbüttel, one felt safe in assuming that the -gaudy mosaic on the lock wall had been furbished as a decoration, not as -a symbol. - -The _Hercules_, having been raised to the proper level, was locked -out into the canal, along which she proceeded at the steady six-knot -speed laid down as the limit not to be exceeded by ships of her size. -Although of considerably less displacement than a number of the largest -of the German capital ships, she was of greater draught than any of -these, and even the burning of several hundred tons of coal in the -voyage from Rosyth still left her drawing slightly more than the thirty -odd feet that the German naval command had set as the limit. This had -been figured out in advance, however, and an oiling all round of the -destroyers before leaving Wilhelmshaven had brought her up just the few -inches necessary to making the passage without inflicting injury to -herself or to the canal. - -The _Hercules_ had traversed about a mile of the canal before the -_Viceroy_ was locked out to follow in her wake, and something like that -interval was preserved throughout most of the passage. The _Verdun_ -kept about a quarter of a mile astern of the _Viceroy_, with the -_Regensburg_--but so far back as to be out of sight--bringing up the -rear. Two squat patrol launches--one on either quarter, a couple of -hundred yards astern--followed the _Hercules_ all the way, but for just -what purpose we could not make out. - -For the first few miles the country on either side of the canal was -of the same low-lying nature as that through which all of our railway -journeys from Wilhelmshaven had been made. Ditched and dyked marshland -alternated with stretches of bog and broad sheets of stagnant water -where the drainage system had proved unequal to carrying off the -overflow in the inundations following the winter rains. Cultivation was -at a standstill here, probably until the water-logged soil dried out in -the spring. Like the East Frisian peninsula, the region was essentially -a grazing rather than an agricultural one, and the farmers were paying -the penalty of having broken up grassland that was only dry enough for -cultivation during a few months of the year. Cattle were scarce, sheep -scarcer, and such of the inhabitants as were visible around the dismal -farmsteads had the dull, purposeless air of people with nothing to do -and plenty of time to do it in. - -[Illustration: SEMAPHORE STATION ON KIEL CANAL, FROM "HERCULES"] - -As we fared inland only the gradually heightening banks told that the -country was increasing in elevation. Ponds and bogs were still frequent, -and it was not until the first low hills were reached that there -appeared to be enough drainage for the land to shake itself free of -water. Here the country took on a more cheerful aspect, due principally -to the fact that the people, many of whom were working, seemed less -"bogged down"--mentally and physically--than their countrymen in the -water-logged areas near the sea. Most of them were capable of -recognizing us as Allied warships (something which few of the others -appeared to have done), and when this had sunk home they usually hurried -down to the bank of the canal for a closer view. Most of these isolated -farming people were undemonstrative, and it was not until the more -sophisticated inhabitants of the villages and towns were encountered -that women and children were seen to wave their hands and men to doff -their hats and bow. Most of the population, both agricultural and -industrial, is found toward the Kiel rather than the Brunsbüttel end of -the canal. - -At one point we came upon two men and a girl feverishly engaged in -skinning a horse, which appeared to have dropped dead in the furrow. -Or rather, they had already skinned it and were busy cutting up the -carcass. Watching through my glass from the bridge of the _Viceroy_, I -saw all three of them rush helter-skelter over a hill and out of sight -as the _Hercules_ came abreast of them, only to hurry back and resume -their grisly work when she had disappeared around a bend just ahead. -When they again took to their heels on sighting the _Viceroy_, I asked -the pilot what they were afraid of. The law required, he replied, -that the authorities should be notified of the death of any head of -live stock in order that the meat (in case it was deemed fit for -human consumption) should be distributed through the regular rationing -channels. These people, he thought, were in the act of stealing their -own dead horse, and doubtless their guilty consciences made them fear -they would be reported and delivered up to justice. - -Since witnessing this incident I have found myself rather less inclined -to dwell in retrospect on that huge, juicy "beefsteak" I had devoured -with such gusto when it was the _pièce de résistance_ on the menu of our -luncheon at the Nordholz Zeppelin station a couple of days previously. - -Through the low country the construction of the canal had evidently been -only a matter of dredging, but the multiplication in size and number of -the "dumps" as the elevation increased showed that there had been places -where digging on an extensive scale had been necessary, especially in -connection with the widening and deepening operations. The fact that -most of the "dumps" appeared to consist of earth of a very loose and -sandy nature, some of them so much so that they had been planted thickly -with young trees to prevent their being shifted by the winds, showed -that the excavation problem had been a comparatively simple one, more of -the nature of that at Suez than Panama, where so much of the way had to -be blasted through solid rock. - -The looseness of the earth had made it necessary to cut the banks at as -low an angle as forty-five degrees in places to prevent caving, and at -these points the under-water part of the channel was faced with roughly -cut stone to minimize erosion. As this work was only carried a few feet -above the surface of the water, it required but slight speed on the -part of a large ship to produce a wave high enough to splash over on to -the unprotected earth and bring it down in slides. This had doubtless -happened very often in the course of the frequent shuttling to and fro -of the High Sea Fleet, for the stonework was heavily undermined in many -places, with few signs to indicate that much had been done in the way of -repairs. - -Except in the locks (and even there the concrete was cracking badly in -places, particularly at the Kiel end), the canal shows many evidences -of the haste of its construction and the serious deterioration it has -suffered from heavy use and poor maintenance. It will require much money -and labour to put it in proper condition, and neither of these is likely -to be over plentiful in Germany for some years to come. - -Our first glimpse of Allied prisoners in their "natural habitat" -occurred at a point about twenty miles inland from Brunsbüttel, where -a new and very lofty railway viaduct was being thrown across the -canal. The extensive groups of huts along the bank in the shadow of -the half-completed final span of steel looked, from the distance, like -ordinary workmen's quarters. As we drew nearer, however, broad belts of -barbed wire surrounding those on the right side suggested that they were -used as a prison camp even before our glasses had revealed the motley -clad group on the bank waving to the _Hercules_. As the _Viceroy_ came -abreast the excited and constantly augmenting crowd, we saw that the -uniforms were mostly French and Russian, though there were three or -four men in the grey of Italy and at least one with the unmistakable -cap of the Serbs. A hulking chap in khaki, whom I was making the object -of an especially close scrutiny on the chance that he might be British -or American, put an end to doubt by slapping his chest resoundingly and -announcing proudly, "_Je suis Belge!_" From the fact that they were all -in good spirits, we took it that they were getting enough to eat and -that prospects for repatriation were favourable. - -We had quite given up hope of sighting any British when suddenly, from -behind a barbed-wire barrier fencing off the last groups of huts, rang -out a cry of "'Ow's ol'Blighty?" Sweeping my glass round to the quarter -from whence the query came, I focussed on a phiz which, despite its -mask of lather, I should have recognized as Cockney just as surely in -Korea or Katmandu as on the banks of the Kiel Canal. Waving his brush -jauntily in response to the salvo of delighted howls boomed out by the -bluejackets lining the starboard rail, he turned back to the little -pocket mirror on the side of the hut and resumed his interrupted shave. - -"Can you beat that, I ask you?" gasped an American Flying officer who -had just clambered up to the bridge. "Here it is the first time that -'Tommy' has seen his country's flag in anywhere from one to four years; -and yet, even when he must know he could get a lift home for the asking, -all he does is to--go on scraping his face! I say, can you beat it?" - -The captain did not reply, but his indulgent grin indicated a -sympathetic understanding of "British repressiveness." - -But if this particular "Tommy" had been somewhat casual in his greeting, -there was nothing to complain of on that score in the reception given -us by the next British prisoners we encountered, a few miles further -along. The incident--one of the most dramatic of the visit--occurred -just after the _Hercules_ had passed under the great railway viaduct -which crosses the canal almost midway between Brunsbüttel and Kiel. -Wherever practicable, I might explain, all railways have been carried -across the canal at a height sufficient to allow even the lofty topmasts -of the German warships to pass under by a comfortable margin. Not one -of the several viaducts runs much under two hundred feet above the -canal, and to attain this height at an easy grade long approaches -have been necessary. Some of these--partly steel trestle, partly -embankment--stretched beyond eyescope to left and right; but at the -viaduct in question the ascent was made by means of two great spiral -loops at either end. - -A segment of the loop on the left ran close beside the canal in the form -of a steep embankment, and as the _Hercules_ glided under the viaduct -I saw (we had closed up to within a few hundred yards of her at the -time) a long train of passenger cars, drawn by two puffing engines, just -beginning the heavy climb. Suddenly I caught the flash of what I took to -be a red flag being wildly waved from one of the car windows, and I was -just starting to tell the captain that we were about to pass a trainload -of revolutionaries when the gust of a mighty cheer swept along the -waters to us and set the radio aerials ringing above my head. - -"You can't tell me that's a 'Bolshie' yell," observed the American -officer decisively. "Nothing but Yanks or Tommies could cough up a roar -like that, believe me." - -Then I saw that all the canal-ward sides of the dozen or more coaches -were wriggling with khaki arms and shoulders (for all the world as -though a great two-hundred-yard-long centipede had been pinned up there -and left to squirm), and that what I had taken for the red flag of -anarchy was only the mass effect of a number of fluttering bandannas. -Again and again they cheered the _Hercules_ and the White Ensign, with a -fresh salvo for the _Viceroy_, which they sighted just before the curve -of the loop the train was ascending cut off their view of the canal. -That was all we ever heard or saw of them. We were never even sure -whether they were British or American. We felt certain, however, that -the fact that most of them were still in khaki indicated that their stay -in the "Land of Kultur" had not been a long one, and, moreover, that -they were already on the first leg of their journey home. - -Prisoners working on the land--mostly Russian--were more and more in -evidence as we neared the Kiel end of the canal. The majority of them -still wore their army uniforms, but otherwise there was little to -differentiate them--a short distance away at least--from the native -peasant labour. None of them appeared to be under guard, and in many -places they were working side by side with German farm hands of both -sexes. At a number of points I saw Russians lounging indolently in -groups consisting mostly of Germans (several of which included women) -that had gathered along the banks of the canal to watch us pass, and two -or three times I observed unmistakable Russian prisoners (or perhaps -ex-prisoners) walking arm-in-arm and apparently in animated conversation -with German girls. They seem quite to have taken root in the country. -Indeed, the pilot of the _Viceroy_ for the first half of the passage -through the canal--he was a Schleswig man, strongly Danish in appearance -and probably in sympathies--assured me that the Germans had had the -greatest difficulty in getting Russian prisoners to leave the country -at all, and that there had been frequent "desertions" from trains and -boats whenever it had been attempted. This may well have been true, -though--with labour in Germany as much in demand as it was throughout -the war--I doubt very much if a great deal in the way of repatriation of -Russians had ever been attempted. - -[Illustration: KIEL DOCKYARD FROM THE HARBOR] - -With the towns and villages increasing in size and number as we came -to the fertile rolling country toward the Baltic end of the canal, -evidences multiplied that the population expected our coming and -that, directly or indirectly, they had been instructed to adopt a -"conciliatory" bearing. In the farming region toward the North Sea end -their bearing had been more suggestive of indifference than anything -else; but in the crowds that came down to line the railed "promenades" -along the banks an ingratiating attitude was at once apparent. Some of -these people, of course, were of Danish extraction and probably sincere, -especially a number who waved their hands from well inside their -doorways, as though to avoid being observed by their neighbours; but for -the most part it was the same nauseating exhibition we had already seen -repeated so often at railway stations all over the North Sea littoral. - -The only individual we saw in the whole passage who thoroughly convinced -me of his sincerity was a bloated ruffian who hailed us from the stern -of the barge he had edged into a ferry slip to give us room to pass. -"Go back to England, you English swine!" he roared to the accompaniment -of a lewd gesture. We learned later that he gave both the _Hercules_ -and _Verdun_ the same peremptory orders. Yes, he was quite sincere, -that old bargee, and for that reason I have always thought more kindly -of him than of all the rest of his grimacing brethren and sistern we -saw along the canal that day. A spectacled student (though it is quite -possible he was trying to put the same sentiment in politer language) -was rather less convincing. "English gentlemen," he cried, drawing his -loose-jointed frame up to its full height and glaring at the bridge of -the _Viceroy_ from under his peaked cap, "why do you come here?" That -may have been intended for a protest, or, again, he may merely have been -"swanking" his linguistic accomplishments. - -The bluejackets were splendid. There were places--notably at several -industrial establishments where crowds of rather "on-coming" girls in -trousers exerted their blonde witcheries to the full in endeavours to -"start something"--when the least sign of friendliness from the ship -would have undoubtedly been met with loud acclaim. But not a British -hand did I see lifted in response to the hundreds waved from the banks, -while many a simpering grin died out as the moon-face behind it passed -under the steady stare of the imperturbable _matelots_ lining the rails -of the steadily steaming warships. - -The length of the Kiel Canal is just under a hundred kilometres (about -sixty miles), so that--at the speed of ten kilometres an hour to which -we were limited--the passage required about ten hours, exclusive of -the time spent in locking in and out. As it was an hour after dawn -when we began the passage at Brunsbüttel, the short winter day was not -long enough to make it possible to reach the other end in daylight. -By five o'clock darkness had begun to settle over the waters, and the -grey mists, piling ever thicker in the narrow notch between the hills, -deepened through violet to purple before taking on the black opacity -of the curtain of the night. Then the lights came on--parallel rows of -incandescents narrowing to mist-softened wedges of blurred brightness -ahead and astern--and we continued cleaving our easy effortless way -through the ebony water. - -The blank squares of lighted villa windows heralded the approach to -Kiel; then factories, black, still, and stagnant, with the tracery of -overhead cranes and the bulk of tall chimneys showing dimly through the -mists; then the locks. As the difference between the canal level and the -almost tideless Baltic is only a matter of inches, locking-out was even -a more expeditious operation than locking in from the Elbe at the other -end. There was just time to note that the "_Kaiser Wilhelm_" mosaic, -there as at Brunsbüttel, had been scrubbed up bright and clean, when the -gates ahead folded inward and the way into the Baltic was open. Half an -hour later, after steaming slowly across a harbour past many moored -warships, we were tying up alongside the _Hercules_, where she had come -to anchor a mile off Kiel dockyard. - - * * * * * - -The fog lifted during the night, and for an hour or two the following -morning there were even signs that our long-lost friend, the sun, was -struggling to show his face through the sinister shoals of cumulo-nimbus -banked frowningly across the south-eastern heavens. It was evident -dirty weather was brewing, but for the moment Kiel and its harbour were -revealed in all their loveliness. Completely land-locked from the open -Baltic, the beautiful little fiord disclosed a different prospect in -whichever direction one turned his eyes. The famous _Kaiserliche_ Yacht -Club was close at hand over the port quarter of the _Hercules_, with a -villa-bordered strand opening away to the right. The airy filagree of -lofty cranes revealed the location of what had been Europe's greatest -naval dockyard, while masses of red roofs disclosed the heart of Kiel -itself. Heavily wooded hills, still green, rippled along the skyline -on the opposite side of the fiord, with snug little bays running back -into them at frequent intervals as they billowed away toward the Baltic -entrance. Singularly attractive even in winter, it must have been a -veritable yachtsman's paradise in summer. Recalling the marshes and bogs -of the Jade, I marvelled at the restraint of the German naval officer -whom I had heard say that he and his wife "much _preferred_ Kiel to -Wilhelmshaven." - -The warships in the harbour proved far less impressive by daylight -than at night. Looming up through the mists in the darkness, they had -suggested the presence of a formidable fleet. Now they appeared as -obsolete hulks, from several of which even the guns had been removed. -There was not a modern capital ship left in Kiel; in fact, the only -warship of any class which could fairly lay claim to that designation -was the _Regensburg_, which had managed to push her broken nose through -the canal and was now lying inshore of us, apparently alongside some -sort of quay or dock. The most interesting naval craft (if such a term -could be applied to it) in sight was a floating submarine dock, anchored -a cable's length on the port beam of the _Hercules_, but even that--as -was proved on inspection--was far from being the latest thing of its -kind. - -The British ships were the object of a good deal of interest, especially -during the first few hours of the day while the fog held off. Various -and sundry small craft put off with parties to size us up at close -range, amongst these--significant commentary on the fact that at every -one of the conferences, including the one held that very day, the -Germans had advanced "petrol shortage" as the reason why cars could -not be provided to reach this or that station--being a number of motor -launches. As all of these seemed to be in the hands of white-banded -sailors or dockyard "mateys," the inference might have been drawn that -the petrol used was not under the control of the naval authorities; -but so many of the other "reasons," advanced to discourage, if not to -obstruct, inspections which the Germans, for one reason or another, did -not want to have made turned out to be fictitious, that one was tempted -to believe that "the absolute lack of petrol" was on all fours with them. - -Most of these excursion parties kept at a respectful distance, but there -was one launch-load of men and girls from the docks, which persisted in -circling close to the ships, and even in coming up under the stern of -the _Hercules_, and offering to exchange cap ribbons. The two-word reply -of one of the bluejackets to these overtures would hardly do to print, -but its effect was crushing. Nothing but poor steering prevented that -launch from taking the shortest course back to the dockyard landing. - -[Illustration: FORESHORE OF KIEL HARBOR WITH THE KAISERLICH YACHT CLUB -AT LEFT OF GROVE OF TREES] - -The German Naval Armistice Commission which came off to the -_Hercules_ at Kiel to discuss arrangements for inspection in the Baltic -differed from that at Wilhelmshaven only in a few of the subordinate -members. Rear-Admiral Goette continued to preside, with the tall, -blonde Von Müller, of the first _Emden_, and the shifty, pasty-faced -Hinzmann, of the General Staff at Berlin, as his chief advisers. -Commander Lohmann still presided over the German sub-commission for -shipping, but there was a new officer in charge of "air" arrangements. -This latter individual, who proved to be one of the most "Hunnish" Huns -we encountered anywhere, I shall have something to say of in the next -chapter. - -That the German Commission had been "stiffened" under the influence of -new forces in Kiel was evident from the opening of the conference; in -fact, a good part of this opening Baltic sitting was devoted to reducing -them to the same state of "sweet reasonableness" in which they had risen -from the closing sitting at Wilhelmshaven. One of the most astonishing -of their contentions arose in connection with three unsurrendered -U-boats, which had been discovered in the course of warship inspection -at Wilhelmshaven. Asked when these might be expected ready to proceed -to Harwich, Admiral Goette replied that his Government did not -consider themselves under obligation to deliver the boats at all. The -justification advanced for this remarkable stand constituted one of the -most delightful instances of characteristic Hun reasoning that developed -in the course of the visit. This was the gist of it: "We agreed to -deliver all U-boats in condition to proceed to sea in the first fourteen -days of the armistice," contended the Germans; "but--although we don't -deny that they _should_ have been delivered in that period--the fact -that they _were not_ so delivered releases us from our obligation to -deliver them now. As evidence of our good faith, however, we propose -that the vessels in question be disarmed and remain in German ports." - -The Germans had so thoroughly convinced themselves that this fantastic -interpretation would be accepted by the Allied Commission that Admiral -Goette did not consider himself able to concede Admiral Browning's -demand (that the three submarines should be surrendered at once) without -referring the matter back to Berlin. Definite settlement, indeed, was -not arrived at until the final conference nearly a week later, and in -that time news had been brought of several score U-boats completed, or -nearing completion, in the yards of the Elbe and the Weser. - -There was no phase of the Allied Commission's activities which some -endeavour was not made to obstruct or circumscribe in the course of -this opening session at Kiel. The German sub-commission for shipping -reported that their Government did not feel called upon to grant the -claim of the Allies for the return of vessels seized as prizes; the -inability to arrange for special trains and the lack of petrol would -make it impossible to reach certain air stations by land, while, so far -as the experiment station at Warnemünde was concerned, the armistice did -not give the Allies the right to visit it at all; as for the Great Belt -forts, they were already disarmed, and really not worth the trouble of -inspecting anyway. - -And so it went through some hours, the upshot of it being that the -Germans, as at Wilhelmshaven, "vowing they would ne'er consent, -consented." Merchant ship inspection began that afternoon, continuing -throughout the remainder of the stay at Kiel as one steamer after -another came in from this or that Baltic port and dropped anchor. The -following day search of the numerous old warships was started, and the -day after that word came that the way had even been cleared for the -inspection of the great experimental seaplane station at Warnemünde. For -the first time there was promise that the work of the Commission would -be completed within the period of the original armistice. - - - - -IX - -TO WARNEMÜNDE AND RÜGEN - - -There had been a half-mile or more of visibility when we got under weigh -at eight o'clock, but in the mouth of Kiel Fiord a solid wall of fog -was encountered, behind the impenetrable pall of which all objects more -than a few yards ahead were completely cut off. The mist-muffled wails -of horns and whistles coughed eerily in the depths of the blank smother -to port and starboard, and once the beating of a bucket or saucepan -heralded the spectre of a "bluff lee-boarded fishing lugger" as the bare -steerage way imparted by its flapping yellow mainsail carried it clear -of the _Viceroy's_ sharp stem. - -Three or four more units of that same fatalistic fishing fleet had been -missed by equally narrow margins when, looming high above us as they -sharpened out of the fog, appeared the bulging bows of what looked to be -a large merchantman. At the same instant, too late by many seconds to be -of any use as a warning, the snort of a deep-toned whistle ripped out in -response to the querulous shriek of our own syren. - -When two ships, steaming on opposite courses at something like ten -knots, meet in a fog the usual result is a collision, and nothing but -the quick-wittedness of the captain of the _Viceroy_ prevented one on -this occasion. The stranger, in starboarding his helm, bared a long -expanse of rusty paunch for the nose of the destroyer to bury itself -in, as a sword-fish stabs a whale, and that is what must inevitably -have happened--with disastrous consequences to both vessels in all -probability--had the _Viceroy_ also attempted to avoid collision by -turning to port. Realizing this with a sure judgment, the captain fell -back on an alternative which would hardly have been open to him with a -destroyer less powerfully built and engined than the latest "V's." I -have already told how, in the lock at Brunsbüttel, he had stopped his -ship dead, just short of the gates, by going astern with the engines at -the proper moment. Here, in scarcely more time than it takes to tell -it, he not only stopped her dead but had her backing (at constantly -accelerating speed) away from the slowly turning merchantman. The jar -(followed by a prolonged throbbing) was almost as sharp as when the -air-brakes are set on the wheels of a speeding express, and the outraged -wake of her, like the back of a cat whose fur has been rubbed the wrong -way, arched in a tumbling fountain high above her quivering stern. But -back she went, and so gave the burly freighter room to blunder by in. - -There was just time to note her high bulwarks, two or three -suspicious-looking superstructures (which one's passing acquaintance -with "Q" boats suggested as possibly masking guns), and a folded -seaplane housed on the poop, before the menacing apparition thinned and -melted into the fog as suddenly as it had appeared. - -"I think that ship is the _Wolf_," volunteered the pilot, watching -with side-cast eyes the effects of the announcement. "You will perhaps -remember it as the great raider of the Indian Ocean." - -The captain looked up quickly from the chart as though about to say -something; then thought better of it, and, with a wistful smile, turned -back to his study of the channel. I had seen him smile resignedly like -that a few days previously off the Elbe estuary when a speeding widgeon, -whose line of flight had promised to carry it right over the forecastle, -had sheered off without giving him a shot. What he had said on that -occasion was, "Hang the blighter; another chance missed!" - -Going aft to breakfast, I was hailed by Korvettenkapitän M---- (the -officer commanding all Baltic air stations who was accompanying us to -Warnemünde and Rügen), warming himself at the engine-room hatchway, and -informed that the ship just sighted was "the famous raider, _Moewe_, -that has been so many times through the English blockade." It was he -that was correct, as it turned out. We found the _Moewe_ anchored three -or four cables' lengths on the port bow of the _Hercules_ when we -returned to Kiel the following evening. - -They were two thoroughly typical specimens of their kind, the pilot and -the flight commander, so much so that either would have been pounced -on with delight by a cartoonist looking for a model for a figure of -"Hun Brutality." The former claimed to have served most of the war -in U-boats, and from the fact that he was only a "one-striper," one -reckoned that he was a promoted rating of some kind. He was tall, dark, -and powerful of build, with hard black eyes glowering from under bushy -brows. He talked of his submarine exploits with the greatest gusto, -among these being (according to his claim) the launching of the torpedo -which damaged the _Sussex_. It is possible that he was quite as useful a -U-boat officer as he said he was (for he looked fully capable of doing -a number of the things one had heard of U-boat officers doing); but he -turned out, as the sequel proved, only an indifferent pilot. - -The flight officer is easiest described by saying that he was like what -one would imagine Hindenburg to have been at thirty-five or thereabouts. -The resemblance to the great Field-Marshal was physical only, for -the anti-type, far from having the "bluff, blunt fighter" air of the -former, was a subtle intriguer of the highest order. Just how "subtle" -he was may be judged from the fact that within ten minutes of coming -aboard that morning he had drawn one of the British officers aside to -warn him of the menace to England in Wilson's "fourteen points," and -that, a quarter of an hour after the snub this kindly advice won him, -he had cornered one of the American officers to bid him beware of the -inevitable attack his country must very soon expect from England and -Japan. - -[Illustration: "HINDY" (LEFT) AND GERMAN PILOT WHO CLAIMED TO HAVE -LAUNCHED THE TORPEDO WHICH DAMAGED THE "SUSSEX"] - -A half-hour more "by luck and lead" took us out of the fog, and an -almost normal visibility made it possible for the _Viceroy_ to increase -to her "economic" cruising speed of seventeen knots. The red roofs of -the summer hotels along Warnemünde's waterfront began pushing above the -horizon a little after noon, and by one we were heading in to where -the mouth of a broad canal opened up behind a long stone breakwater. -A large ferry steamer, flying the Danish flag, was just rounding the -end of the breakwater and turning off to the north-west, and from the -word "ARMISTICE" painted on her sides in huge white letters we -took it she was engaged in repatriating Allied prisoners by way of -Copenhagen. As we closed her, this impression was confirmed by the sight -of two men in the unmistakable uniforms of British officers pacing -the after-deck arm-in-arm. Surprised that they appeared to be taking -no notice of the _Viceroy_, with the White Ensign at her stern doing -its best to flap them a message of encouragement, I raised my glass -and scanned them closely. Then the dark glasses both were wearing, and -their slow uncertain steps, at once suggested the sad explanation of -their indifference. There was no doubt the sight of both was seriously -affected, and that they were probably hardly able more than to feel -their way around. As nothing less than "Rule Britannia" or "God Save the -King" on the syren would have given them any hint of how things stood, -we had to pass on unrecognized. - -Running a quarter of a mile up the canal, the _Viceroy_ went alongside -the wall a hundred yards above the railway station. The news of our -arrival had spread quickly in the town, and among a considerable crowd -which assembled along the waterfront were a number of British prisoners, -most of them in their khaki. Several German sailors--one or two of them -with white bands on their arms--to whom the Tommies had been talking, -kept discreetly in the background, but the latter, grinning with delight -and exchanging good-natured chaff with the bluejackets, caught our -mooring lines and helped make them fast. They looked in extremely good -condition and spirits, the consequence--as we learned presently--of -having had a considerable accumulation of prisoners' stores turned over -to them since the armistice. Beer, they said, was the only thing they -were short of, and this difficulty they seemed in a fair way to remedy -when I left with the "air" party for the seaplane station. - -The great Warnemünde experiment station occupied the grounds of what -appeared to have been some kind of a pre-war industrial or agricultural -exposition. Crossing the canal in a launch, a few steps took us to and -through a somewhat pretentious entrance arch, from where it was several -hundred yards to the first of a long row of wood and steel hangars. -The Commander of the station had received us at the landing; the rest -of the officers met us in the roadway in front of the first shed to -be inspected. Evidences of the resentment they undoubtedly felt over -having to give way in the matter of the visit (it had been the German -contention that Warnemünde, not being a service station, was not liable -to inspection under the terms of the armistice) were not lacking, but -as these were mostly confined to scowling glances they did not interfere -seriously with the work in hand. - -As the Allied Commission, in the conference of a couple of days -previously at Kiel, had insisted on the visit to Warnemünde on the -grounds of satisfying itself that what the Germans claimed was an -experiment station was not used for service work, inspection was limited -to the comparatively perfunctory checking over of the machines against -a list furnished in advance, seeing that they displayed no evidences -of having been used for anything more than experimental flights, and -ascertaining that they had been properly disarmed. This, as soon as -it became evident that the station was in fact quite what the Germans -had claimed it to be, was done very rapidly, the inspection of well -over a hundred machines, housed in eight or ten different sheds, being -completed within three hours. - -The machines were, of course, an extremely interesting assortment, -for practically all of them were either new designs or else old ones -in process of development. There was the last word in steel pontoons, -with which the Germans have been so successful, and also a number of -the very striking all-metal _Junker_ machines, in the construction of -which wood, and even fabric, has been replaced by the light but tough -alloy called "duraluminum." One of the German officers volunteered the -information that the principal advantage of the latter over the ordinary -machine was the fact that more of it could be salved after a crash. -The fact that there was nothing to burn sometimes rendered it possible -to save an injured pilot entangled in the wreckage, where the wood -and fabric of an ordinary machine would have made him a funeral pyre. -Against these advantages, he added, stood the handicap of greater weight -and the fact that the metal wings occasionally deflected into the pilot -or petrol tank a bullet which would have passed harmlessly through wood -and fabric. - -There were several of the late _Travemunde_ and _Sablatnig_ types, -medium-sized machines which, with their powerful engines and trim lines, -looked extremely useful. A large double-engined Gotha torpedo-launching -seaplane was viewed with a good deal of interest by the experts of the -party, because it was a type to the development of which it had been -expected that the Germans had given a great deal of attention. Down to -the very day of the armistice the Grand Fleet--whether at Rosyth or -Scapa--was never considered entirely free from the menace of an attack -by a flotilla of torpedo-carrying seaplanes, and it was a matter of -considerable surprise to the sub-commission for naval air stations when -it transpired in the course of their visits to the German North Sea -and Baltic bases to find a practically negligible strength in these -types. The almost prohibitive odds against getting a seaplane carrier -within striking distance of either of the Grand Fleet bases--handicap -imposed by the complete surface command of the North Sea by the -British--was undoubtedly responsible for Germany's failure to develop -a type of machine which there was little chance of finding an occasion -to use. Even this one at Warnemünde--representing as it did the latest -development of its type--was far from being equal to machines with which -the British were practising torpedo-launching a year before the end of -the war. - -The most imposing exhibit at Warnemünde was a "giant" seaplane rivalling -in size the great monoplane flying boat we had seen at Norderney. The -two were so different in type that it was difficult to compare them, -though it is probable that in engine power--both of them had four -engines of from 250 to 300 horse-power each--and in wing area they were -about equal. The Warnemünde machine--which was a biplane, with two -pontoons instead of a "boat"--had a somewhat greater spread of wing, -but this must have been compensated for by the vastly greater breadth of -those of the monoplane. Superior seaworthiness had been claimed for the -latter on account of the greater height of its wings from the water when -afloat; but that was _ex parte_ evidence, and we had no chance to hear -what Warnemünde had to say in favour of _its_ pet. - -An incident which occurred in connection with the inspection of the -"giant" furnished a very graphic idea of the really colossal size of it. -In order to get over it the more quickly, all of the several members -of the Allied party climbed up and took a hand in the work. Whether -the German officers thought some of the gear might be carried off by -the visitors, whether they were afraid the secrets of some of their -technical instruments might be discovered, or whether they were simply -"doing the honours of the occasion," we were never quite sure. At any -rate, up swarmed at least a dozen of them, scrambling like a crowd at -a ticket turnstile to get inside. In a jiffy they had disappeared, -swallowed completely by the capacious fuselage. Not even a head was in -sight. Only the clatter of many tongues and the clang of boots tramping -on steel plates told that close to a score of men were jostling each -other in the cavernous maw of the mighty "amphibian." - -Only the Commander of the station--a somewhat porcine-looking -individual, whose rotund figure furnished ample explanation why _he_ had -not joined the scramble--and myself were left on _terra firma_. Plainly -disturbed by the thought that Germany's supreme achievement in aerial -science was passing under the eye of the enemy, he paced up and down -moodily for a minute or two and then, with clearing brow, came over and -asked me what was the horse-power of the largest "Inglisch Zeeblane." - -"I really can't tell you," I replied, half angry, half amused at the -supreme cheek of the man. - -"Ach, but vy will you not tell me?" he urged wheedlingly. "Der war iss -over; ve vill now have no more zeecrets. Today you see all ve haf. -Preddy soon ve come und see all you haf. There iss much ve can learn -from you, und much you can learn from us. Ve vill haf no more zeecrets." - -There were several things that I wanted to say to that Hun optimist, -and it required no little restraint to pass them over and confine -myself to suggesting that he should take up the matter of the exchange -of "zeecrets" with Commander C----, the Senior Officer of-the party. -He looked at the latter (who was just descending) irresolutely once or -twice, and then, doubtless seeing nothing encouraging in the set of -Commander C---- 's lean Yankee jaw, shrugged his fat shoulders and -resumed his moody pacings. We encountered a number of eager "searchers -for knowledge" in the course of the visit, but no other that I heard of -who employed quite such a "Prussian mass tactics" style of attack as -this one. - -Going from shed to shed as the inspection progressed, one noticed -at once the much greater extent to which wood had figured in their -construction than in that of those of the North Sea stations. Only -the frames were of steel, and even the fireproof asbestos sheeting -which figured so extensively in the great Zeppelin sheds had been very -sparingly employed. As this also proved to be the practice in the two -large stations we visited the next day on the island of Rügen, it -was assumed that the comparative cheapness of wood in the Baltic had -been responsible for the freedom with which it had been employed to -save steel and concrete. The inevitable penalty of this inflammable -construction had been paid at Warnemünde, where the tangled masses of -wreckage in the ruins of a burned hangar indicated that all the machines -it had contained were destroyed with the building. - -When we returned to the _Viceroy_ after the inspection was over, we -found a number of British prisoners aboard as the guests of the -bluejackets. Several of them had asked for "rashers, or anything -greasy," but for tobacco and "home comforts" they appeared to be rather -better off than their hosts. The captain said that he had offered -passages back to the _Hercules_ to any that cared to go, but they had -all declined with thanks, saying that they were helping to distribute -food for other prisoners passing through Warnemünde on their way home -_viâ_ Denmark, and that they would not return home until this work was -finished. We left them without any misgivings save, perhaps, on the -score that they seemed rather too tolerant of the presence among them of -a number of white-banded German sailors. - -During our absence the German harbour master had come aboard to warn -the captain that, as it was _verboten_ to use the turning basin after -five o'clock, it would be necessary for him to proceed there before -that hour. When the captain thanked him and replied that he hoped to be -able to carry on without resorting to the turning basin, the astonished -official warned him that it was highly dangerous to go out backwards, -that even the German T.B.D.'s never thought of doing so mad a thing. -The sight of the _Viceroy_ going astern at a good ten or twelve knots -straight down the middle of that half a mile or more of canal must have -been something of an eye-opener to that _Kaiserliche_ harbour master. - -Passing close to the railway station on the way out we had a brief -glimpse of the sorry spectacle of a huge mass of Russian prisoners, who -appeared to have been dumped there from one train to wait for another, -going heaven knows where. A thousand or more in number, they had -overflowed the narrow strip of platform under the train-shed, and as we -passed some hundreds of them, huddling together like sheep for warmth -and with no protection save the square of red blankets thrown over their -hunched shoulders, were soaking up the rain which came drizzling down -through the early winter twilight. - -"Russian prisoners that we now send back to their homes," explained -Korvettenkapitän M---- as I passed his perch in the hot-air stream from -the engine-room hatchway. "They do not like to leave Germany, but we -have not now the food for them." - -"Out of the frying-pan into the fire," commented the chief. "A return to -Russia is the one thing left worse than what they've been through here. -Poor devils--but listen to that! Talk about your bird singing in the -rain----" - -Deep, reverberant, pulsing like the throb of a mighty organ, the strains -of what might have been either a hymn or a marching song were wafted to -our ears on the wings of the deepening dusk. For two or three minutes -the strangely moving sound, rising and falling like the roll of a surf -on a distant shore, followed us down the canal before it was quenched in -the roar of the accelerating fans as the bridge rang down for increased -speed. The German was the first to break the silence in which we had -listened. - -"The Russians are a strange people," he said, with a note of sincerity -in his voice I had never remarked before. "There is always sadness in -their happiness, and always hope in their despair. I think they can -never be broken." - -For the first and last time I was inclined to agree with him. - -A three-hour run at a speed of fifteen knots brought us to the island -of Rügen, where we anchored in shallow water three or four miles off -the station of Büg, which we were scheduled to inspect in the morning. -It was only a fair-weather anchorage, however, and the lee shore, -together with a falling barometer and a rising wind, caused the pilot -to advise running round to the somewhat better protection of Tromper -Bay, on the opposite side of the island. This shift, which there was -no real necessity for making, involved an alteration of plan, for the -shores of Tromper Bay (where we now had to attempt a landing) were -four or five miles from Wiek, the second station to be inspected, and -entirely cut off from communication with Büg by a long lagoon. Under the -circumstances, the only practicable plan seemed to be to walk to Wiek -across the island, go from there to Büg by launch, and then endeavour -to rejoin the destroyer at her first anchorage of the night before, -to which she would return in the interim. This intricate itinerary we -finally succeeded in following, but it almost killed poor "Hindenburg," -the fat German flying officer escorting the party, who had confidently -counted on doing all of his travelling by launch. - -[Illustration: BRITISH PRISONERS AND GERMAN SAILORS AT WARNEMÜNDE] - -The motor launch refusing to start in the morning, the whaler was used -to land the inspection party. As there appeared to be nothing in the -way of a quay or landing-stage, the most likely place to get ashore -seemed to be a dismantled pier, the piles of which were visible from -the deck of the destroyer. "Hindy" (the name had already begun to stick -to him), however, promptly appointing himself as pilot, in spite of the -fact that he knew no more of that particular stretch of coast than any -one else in the party, ruled in favour of landing directly upon the -beach. Pulling straight in on the course he indicated, the heavily laden -whaler grounded a couple of hundred yards from the shore, and was -only worried off by all hands going aft and raising the stranded bow. -Commander C---- took over the direction of affairs at this juncture, -and the incidence of events was such that "Hindy" did not essay the -leadership _rôle_ again for some hours, and even then but transiently. - -The old pier, to the end of which the whaler was now pulled, had -evidently been wrecked in a storm of many years before and never -repaired. Its planking was gone entirely, but two strings of timbers -running along the tops of the tottering piles offered a possible, though -precarious, means of reaching the two-hundred-yard-distant beach. When -two of the American officers clambered up, however, they found the -timbers so slippery with moss that it was a sheer physical impossibility -to stand erect and walk along them. The only alternative was to sit -astride one of them and slither along shoreward, a few inches at a time. -This they did, pushing along a thick roll of filthy slime in front of -them as they went, and stopping every now and then to disengage the -end of a projecting spike that was holding their trousers. Following -behind one of them, I found the progress both vile and painful, even -after his wiggle-waggle advance had swabbed up the worst of the slime -and uncovered the longest of the spikes lurking to ambush the seat of -my trousers. It must have been unspeakable for the two self-sacrificing -pioneers. - -Halfway in, the timbers, less exposed to the splashing spray, offered a -better footing, and from there, following the lead of Commander C----, -we managed to stand up and walk. Not until we reached the end and jumped -off on to the firm sand and began to count noses before striking off -inland did any one notice that "Hindy" was missing. The account of that -worthy's doings in the meantime I had that evening after our return to -the _Viceroy_ from the coxswain of the whaler. - -For the first time "Hindy" had neglected to insist on the precedence -due to his rank as a "three-striper" and push out in the lead at a -landing. On the contrary, it appears, he had lingered in the stern -sheets of the whaler until the last of the Allied officers had slid -along out of hearing, and then coolly ordered two of the crew to wade -ashore carrying him between them. He would show them, he said, how the -German sailors joined hands to make a chair for their officers on such -an occasion. Failing in this manoeuvre, he had suggested that two of the -oars be lashed together with the strip of bunting in the stern sheets -and laid along across the tops of the piles to give him a firm footing. -Two of the bluejackets, he explained, could go with him and "relay" -this improvised gangway along ahead. It was only when the coxswain, in -English probably too idiomatic to convey its full meaning to a German, -expressed his lack of sympathy with this ingenious proposal that he -screwed up his nerve to tackling the "wiggle-waggle" mode of progression. - -Given a leg up by the whaler's crew, he wriggled astride the nearest -longitudinal strip of timber and began his snail-like, shoreward crawl. -At the end of a quarter of an hour he had barely reached the less -slippery timbering halfway in, but here, instead of getting up on his -hind legs, as the rest of us had done, and ambling along on his feet, -the shivering wretch still persisted in embracing the slimy beam with -his fat thighs and continuing to worry on "wiggle-waggle." - -Finally Commander C----, whose eyes for the last fifteen minutes had -been turning back and forth between the ludicrously swaying figure on -the pier and the hands of his watch, uttered an impatient exclamation -and squared his shoulders with the air of a man who has come to a great -decision. - -"We're already two hours behind time," he said, buttoning his waterproof -and pulling on his gloves, "and it's touch and go whether we can finish -in time to return tonight to Kiel per schedule. It's a cert we won't -make it if we have to wait any longer for our tortoise-shaped and -tortoise-gaited friend out there. There's a disagreeable duty to be -performed, and since it is not of a nature that I can conscientiously -order one of my subordinate officers to do, I guess it's up to me to -pull it off myself. Kindly note that I'm wearing gloves." - -Vaulting lightly from the sand to a line of timbering running parallel, -at a distance of about five feet, to the one upon which "Hindy" was -slithering along, he trotted out opposite the latter, reached across, -lifted that protesting bundle of anatomy to his feet, and then, leading -him by the hand, started back for the beach. The German followed -like Mary's Little Lamb as long as he had the dynamic pressure of -the American's fingers to give him courage, but when Commander C---- -withdrew his guiding hand after he had led his fellow tight-rope walker -in above the sand, "Hindy's" nerve went with it. Trying to sludder down -astride the timber again after tottering drunkenly for a moment, he -lost his balance and tried to jump. The drop was not over five feet, -and to soft sand at that; but the remains of a riveter I once saw fall -to the pavement of Broadway from the fortieth story of the new Singer -building looked less inert than the shivering pancake that fat Prussian -made when he hit the beach of Rügen. There was really very little to -choose between it and a flatulent jelly-fish slowly dissolving in the -embrace of a mass of stranded seaweed a few yards away; indeed, the -subtle suggestion of that comparison may have had something to do with -the reflex action behind a kick I saw some one aim at the jelly-fish in -passing. - -That was the last we saw of "Hindy" (except as a wavering blur on the -rearward horizon) for nearly two hours. - -Striking inland through the dunes and a plantation of young pine trees, -we emerged at a crossroad where a signboard conveyed the information -that Wiek (our immediate objective) was six and four-tenths kilometres -distant. "If we can hike that four miles inside of an hour there's a -fair chance of cleaning up the whole job today," said Commander C----, -striking out along the lightly metalled highway with a swinging stride. -"'Hindy' will have to get along as best he can. We won't need him for -the inspection anyhow." - -Passing several rather dismal summer hotels (one of which was called -the "Strand Palace"), we came to a picturesque little village of brick -and thatch houses, with brightly curtained windows, and standing in -well-kept flower gardens. The villagers evidently a half-agricultural, -half-fisher folk--could have had no warning of our coming, as even -the station at Wiek was expecting us from the opposite direction, and -by launch. Quite uninstructed in the matter of adopting "conciliatory" -tactics (as those of so many of the places previously visited had so -plainly been), they simply went their own easy way, displaying neither -fear, resentment, nor even a great amount of curiosity. Most of the -shops, except those of the butchers, were fairly well stocked, the -displays of Christmas toys (among which were some very ingeniously -constructed "working" Zeppelins) being really attractive. - -Beyond the village the Wiek road, which turned off at right angles from -the main highway, became no more than a muddy track. Deeply rutted and -slippery with the last of the snow which had drifted into it from a -recent storm, walking in it became so laborious that we finally took -to the fields, across the light sandy loam of which we just managed to -maintain the four-miles-an-hour stride necessary to keep from falling -behind schedule. The several peasants encountered (mostly women with -baskets of beets or cabbages on their backs) regarded us with stolid -impersonal disinterest, and seemed hardly equal to the mental effort of -figuring out where the motley array of uniforms came from. - -A tall spire gave us the bearing for Wiek, and we passed close by the -ancient stone church which it surmounted in skirting the village on a -short-cut to the air station. This took us to the rear entrance of the -latter (instead of the main one where we were naturally expected to -come) and had the interesting sequel of bringing us face to face with a -sentry wearing a red band on his sleeve, the first of that particular -brand of revolutionist we had encountered. Although failing to stand at -attention as we approached, he was otherwise quite respectful in his -demeanour and made haste to dispatch a messenger informing the Commander -of the station of our arrival. A number of other "red-banders" were seen -in passing through the barracks area on the way to the sheds, one of -them even going so far as to click heels and salute. - -In spite of the flutter of red at the rear, there was no evidence of -anything Bolshevik in the display set out for us in the shop-window. -The men lounging about the sheds fell in at once on the order of the -Commander, paraded smartly, and when dismissed showed no disposition -to hang about the doors, as had occasionally been the case at other -stations. They apparently had not even insisted on one of their -representatives being present during the inspection. None but the five -or six officers receiving the party conducted it around. These were -all keen-eyed, quick-moving youngsters, but the fact that they were -comparatively sparsely decorated seemed to indicate that the station was -not of an importance to command the services of the "star turn" men we -had seen at Norderney, Borkum, and other North Sea bases. - -There was one thing which turned up in the course of the inspection -which was not upon the list furnished us by the Germans, and that was -a large stack of second-hand furniture which I stumbled across in an -out-of-the-way corner of the first shed visited. An unmistakable French -name on the back of a red plush-upholstered divan first suggested -the lot was an imported one, and looking closer I discovered a -half-obliterated maker's mark, with the letters "Brux-l-s" following -it. Diverting one of the inspecting officers in that direction as -opportunity offered, I asked him what he thought the word had been. -"Probably the Belgian spelling of Brussels," he replied promptly, "and -certainly the English spelling of loot." When the German Commander -chanced to mention, a few minutes later, that his flight had only -recently come from Zeebrugge, both conjectures seemed to be confirmed. - -The inspection was over by the time "Hindy" arrived, and we departed -for Büg immediately he had completed the wash-down and brush-up that -his brother officers, who treated him with a good deal of deference, -insisted on his having. He was too dead beat to display temper when he -had been bundled into the launch, and he impressed me as telling the -bare literal truth when he said it was the hardest walk he had ever -taken in his life. - -A half-hour's run brought the launch alongside the landing-stage at -Büg, which ideally located station occupied a quarter of a mile of the -narrow spit of sand separating the broad, shallow lagoon we had just -crossed from the open Baltic. Concrete runways sloped down to both -strands, so that seaplanes could be launched in either direction. It -was an admirably planned and equipped station in every respect. An -hour's inspection showed that the provisions of the armistice, here as -at all of the other stations visited, had been satisfactorily carried -out. A novel feature of the visit was the presence of a couple of -photographers--evidently official ones, judging from the fine machines -they had--who waylaid the party at every corner and exposed a large -number of plates. - -"Hindy," who had disappeared shortly after we landed, turned up again -about the time the inspection of the last hangar was completed, -picking his teeth and considerably restored in aplomb by the hearty -_mittagessen_ he had regaled himself with at the Commander's mess. -Not until then were we informed that the station had no launch or -boat of any kind available on the Baltic side. This meant that -the _Viceroy_--she had now come to anchor three or four miles -off-shore--would have to send a boat in for us, and that an hour's time -had been wasted before making a signal for it. Hastily writing a message -requesting that the motor launch or whaler be sent in to the landing, -Commander C---- handed it to the Commander of the station, suggesting -that it be made by "Visual" to the _Viceroy_ in International Morse. -Here "Hindy," brave with much beer, asserted his authority again. -Snatching the paper from the station Commander's hand, he read over the -signal with a frown of disapproval, and then handed it back to Commander -C----. - -"That is much too long and complicated for a German signalman to send in -English," he growled. "You should write only, 'Send boat immediately.' -That is quite enough." - -There was a look in Commander C----'s face like that it had worn when he -turned and left "Hindy" in a heap on the beach by the jelly-fish, but he -controlled himself and spoke with considerable restraint. - -"Since the _Viceroy_ is not my private yacht," he said quietly, "any -signal I make to her will begin 'Request.' I might add that if I were -her captain, and a passenger of mine made me a signal like the one you -suggest, he could wait till--till the Baltic froze over before I'd -send a boat to take him off. Unless you're prepared to wait that long, -you can't do better than see that the signal is made exactly as I have -written it." - -In spite of its "length and complication," that signal, as we saw it -later in the _Viceroy_, was identical with the original to a T. - -It was rather hard luck that Büg, which was the first station we -visited without carrying our own lunch in the form of sandwiches, was -also the only one where we were not offered shelter and refreshment. -"Hindy" disappeared again during the next hour of waiting, and even -had to be sent for when the whaler finally did arrive. The rest of -us were so thoroughly chilled from standing out in the biting Baltic -wind that we were only too glad to warm up a bit by "double-banking" -the oars with the whaler's crew on the pull back to the destroyer. -The sight of American and British officers bending to the sweeps with -common bluejackets created a tremendous furore at the station. The -photographers rushed out to the end of the jetty to make a permanent -record of the astonishing sight, and from the significant glances all -of the Germans were exchanging one gathered that they thought that -theirs was not the only Navy in which there had been a revolution. - -Climbing up to the bridge shortly after the _Viceroy_ got under weigh -for the run back to Kiel, I found the captain on watch with a hulking -Number 8-bore shot-gun under his arm, at which vicious weapon the German -pilot, pressing as far away from it as the restricted space allowed, -kept stealing apprehensive sidelong glances with eyes ostensibly -searching the horizon through his binoculars. On asking the captain -what the artillery was for, he motioned me back beside the range-finder -stand, where he presently joined me. - -"I'm watching for ducks--great place for them along here," he said in a -low voice; "but don't give it away to the Hun. He seems to think it's -for _him_. It's old B----'s gun. He shot ducks with it from the bridge -of his E-boat all over the Bight during the war." - -"You don't mean to say that you'd stop the destroyer and circle back to -pick up a duck in case you happened to wing one?" I asked incredulously. - -"Wouldn't I?" he laughed. "Just tumble up if you hear a shot and see. -There's no finer duckboat in the world than a destroyer if you got the -sea room to handle her in." - -It was an hour or two later that I was shaken out of a doze on a -ward-room divan by a sudden jar, followed by the threshing of reversed -screws. "The skipper's got his bird," I thought, and forthwith scrambled -out and up the ladder, especially anxious to arrive in time to see -the expressions on the face of the Germans when they realized that -the "mad Englander" was going back in his warship to pick up a duck. -Compared to that it turned out to have been an event of no more than -passing interest which had happened. The pilot (perhaps because his -mind was absorbed in the menace of that terrible 8-bore) had merely -missed--by three or four miles as it transpired presently--the gate of -the anti-submarine net fencing off that neck of the Baltic, with the -result that the _Viceroy_ had barged into that barrage at something like -seventeen knots. Cutting through the first of what proved to be a double -net, she brought up short against the second, the while her spinning -propellers wound in and chewed to bits a considerable length of the -former. - -The seas were agitated for a half-mile on either side by the straining -of the outraged booms, while from the savagely slashing screws floated -up a steady stream of mangled metal floats like _wienerwursts_ emerging -from a sausage machine. Luckily, the cables of the nets were rusted and -brittle, so that the propellers readily tore loose from them without -injury. Backing off clear, the pilot ran down the boom until the buoys -marking the gate were sighted, and from there it was comparatively open -going to Kiel, which we reached at nine-thirty that evening. - - - - -X - -JUTLAND AS A GERMAN SAW IT - - -It must have been the unspeakable position of humiliation he found -himself in as a consequence of being ignored, flouted, and even -openly insulted by the men he had once treated as no more worthy of -consideration than the deck beneath his feet that was responsible for -the fact that the German naval officer with whom the members of the -staff of the Allied Naval Armistice Commission were thrown in contact -almost invariably assumed an air of injured martyrdom, missing no -opportunity to draw attention to, and endeavour to awaken sympathy in, -his sad plight. He took advantage of any kind of a pretext to "tell his -troubles," and when nothing occurred in the natural course of events -to provide an excuse, he invented one. Thus, a Korvettenkapitän in one -of the ships searched at Wilhelmshaven took advantage of the fact that -a man to whom he gave an order about opening a water-tight door in a -bulkhead slouched over and started discussing with the white-banded -representative of the Workmen's and Soldiers' Council, to speak at some -length of the "terrible situation" with which he had been faced at the -time when the High Sea Fleet had been ordered out last November for a -decisive naval battle. The filthy condition his ship was in furnished -the inspiration for another officer to tell at some length of how he -had hung his head with shame since the day he had been baulked of "The -Day." An ex-submarine officer--acting as pilot in one of the British -destroyers in the Baltic--did not feel that he could leave the ship -without setting right some comments on German naval gunnery, which he -had found in a London paper left in his cabin. - -And so it went. Now and then one of them, after volunteering an account -of something in his own naval experience, would counter with some more -or less shrewdly interpolated query calculated to draw a "revealing" -reply; but for the most part they were content with a passive listener. -That fact relieved considerably the embarrassment this action on the -part of the Germans placed Allied officers, who were under orders -to hold no "unnecessary conversation" in the course of their tours -of inspection. A "monologue" could in no way be construed as a -"conversation," and when, as was almost invariably the case, it was up -on a subject in which the "audience" was deeply interested, it was felt -that there was no contravention of the spirit of the order in listening -to it. The statements and comment I am setting down in this article -were heard in the course of such "monologues" delivered by this or that -German naval officer with whom I was thrown--often for as long as two or -three days at stretch--in connection with the journeys and inspection -routine of the party to which I chanced to be attached at the moment. In -only two or three instances--notably in the case of an officer in the -flying service who endeavoured to dissuade us from visiting the Zeppelin -station at Tondern by giving a false account of the damage inflicted in -the course of the British bombing raid of last summer--did statements -made under these circumstances turn out to be deliberate untruths. On -the contrary, indeed, much that I first heard in this way I have later -been able to confirm from other sources, and to this--statements which -there is good reason to believe are quite true--I am endeavouring to -confine myself here. In matter of opinions expressed, the German naval -officer has, of course, the same right to his own as has anybody else, -and, as one of the few things remaining to him at the end of the war -that he _did_ have a right to, I did not, and shall not, try to dispute -them. - -Perhaps the one most interesting fact brought out in connection with -all I heard in this way--it is confirmed, directly and indirectly, -from so many different sources that I should consider it as definitely -established beyond all doubt--was that _at no time from August, 1914, -to November, 1918, did the German seriously plan for a stand-up, -give-and-take fight to a finish with the British Fleet_. Never, not -in the flush of his opening triumphs on land, nor yet even in the -desperation of final defeat, did the hottest heads on the General Naval -Staff at Berlin believe that there was sufficient chance of a victory -in a gunnery duel to make it worth while trying under any conditions -whatever. The way a number of officers referred to their final attempt -to take the High Sea Fleet to sea after it became apparent that -Ludendorff was beaten beyond all hope of recovery in France, gave the -impression at first that an "all out" action was contemplated, that all -was to be hazarded on a single throw, win or lose. It is probable, even, -that the great majority of the officers afloat, and certainly all of the -men (for fear of the results of such an action is the reason ascribed -by all for the series of mutinies which finally put the navy out of the -reckoning as a fighting force) believed this to be the case. But those -officers who, either before or after the event, were in a position to -know the details of the real plans, were in substantial agreement that -it was not intended to bring the High Sea Fleet into action with -the Grand Fleet, but rather to use it as a bait to expose the latter -to a submarine "ambush" on a scale ten times greater than anything of -the kind attempted before, and then to lure such ships as survived the -U-boat attack into a minefield trap. Should a sufficiently heavy toll -have been taken of the capital ships of the Grand Fleet in this way, -then--but not until then--would the question of a general fleet action -have been seriously considered. - -[Illustration: VIEW OF KIEL CANAL FROM NEARMOST TURRET OF THE "HERCULES"] - -But although the General Naval Staff, and doubtless most of the senior -officers of the German navy, realized from the outset that the High Sea -Fleet would certainly be hopelessly outmatched in a gunnery battle and -that their only chance of victory would have to come through a reduction -of the strength of the Grand Fleet in capital ships by mine or torpedo, -the greatest efforts were made to prevent any such comprehension of the -situation finding its way to the lower decks. The men were constantly -assured that their fleet was quite capable of winning a decisive victory -at any time that the necessity arose, and there is not doubt that they -believed this implicitly--until the day after Jutland. Then they knew -the truth, and they never recovered from the effects of it. That was -where Jutland marked very much more of an epoch for the German navy -than it did for the British. The latter, cheated out of a victory -which was all but within its grasp, was more eager than ever to renew -the fight at the first opportunity. The several very salutary lessons -learned at a heavy cost--and not the least of these was a very wholesome -respect for German gunnery--were not forgotten. Structural defects were -corrected in completed ships and avoided in those building. Technical -equipment, which had been found unequal to the occasion, was replaced. -New systems were evolved where the old had proved wanting. Great as was -the Grand Fleet increase in size from Jutland down to the end of the -war, its increase of efficiency was even greater. - -With the High Sea Fleet, though several notable units were added to its -strength during the last two years of the war, in every other respect -it deteriorated steadily from Jutland right down to the mutinies -which were the forerunners of the great surrender. This was due, far -more than to anything else, to the fact that the real hopelessness of -opposing the Grand Fleet in a give-and-take fight began to sink home -to the Germans from the moment the first opening salvoes of the latter -smothered the helpless and disorganized units of the High Sea Fleet -in that last half-hour before the shifting North Sea mists and the -deepening twilight saved them from the annihilation they had invited -in trying to destroy Beatty's battle-cruisers before Jellicoe arrived. -What the most of their higher officers had always known, the men knew -from that day on, and, cowed by that knowledge, were never willing to -go into battle again. From what I gathered from a number of sources I -have no hesitation in affirming that, up to Jutland, the men of the -High Sea Fleet would have taken it out in the full knowledge that it -was to meet the massed naval might of Britain, and, moreover, that they -would have gone into action confidently and bravely, just as they did -at Jutland. But it is equally clear that, after Jutland, any move which -the men themselves knew was likely to bring them into action with the -British battle fleet would instantly have precipitated the same kind of -revolt as that which started at Kiel last November and culminated in -the surrender. It was the increasing "jumpiness" of the men, causing -them to suspect that every sally out of harbour might be preliminary -to the action which they had been living in increasing dread of every -day and night for the preceding two years and a half, which finally -made it practically impossible for the Germans to get out into the -Bight sufficient forces to protect even their mine-sweeping craft. As -a consequence, it is by no means unlikely that the continuation of -the war for another few months might well have found the German navy, -U-boats and all, effectually immobilized in harbour behind ever-widening -barriers of mines. - -By long odds the most reasoned and illuminative discussion I heard of -German naval policy, from first to last, was that of an officer who -was Gunnery Lieutenant of the _Deutschland_ at Jutland, and whom I met -through his having had charge of the arrangements of the visits of the -airship party of the Allied Naval Commission to the various Zeppelin -stations in the North Sea littoral. Of a prominent militarist family--he -claimed that his father was a director of Krupps--and a great admirer -of the Kaiser (whom I once heard him refer to as an "idealist who did -all that he could to prevent the war"), he was extremely well informed -on naval matters, both those of his own country and--so far as German -information went--the Allies. Harbouring a very natural bitterness -against the revolution, and especially against the mutinous sailors of -the navy, he spoke the more freely because he felt that he had no future -to look forward to in Germany, which (as he told me on a number of -occasions) he intended to leave as soon as the way was open for him to -go to South America or the Far East. Also, where he confined himself to -statements of fact rather than opinion or conjecture, he spoke truly. I -have yet to find an instance in which he made an intentional endeavour -to create a false impression. - -It was in the course of our lengthy and somewhat tedious railway journey -to the Zeppelin station at Nordholz that Korvettenkapitän C---- first -alluded to his life in the High Sea Fleet. "I was the gunnery officer of -the _Deutschland_ during the first two years of the war," he volunteered -as he joined me at the window of the corridor of our special car, from -which I was trying to catch a glimpse of the suburban area of stagnant -Bremerhaven; "but I transferred to the Zeppelin service as soon as I -could after the battle of Horn Reef because I felt certain--from the -depression of the men, which seemed to get worse rather than better as -time went on--that there would never be another naval battle. Although -we lost few ships (less than you did by a considerable margin, I think -I am correct in saying), yet the terrible battering we received from -only a part of the English fleet, and especially the way in which we -were utterly smothered during the short period your main battle fleet -was in action, convinced the men that they were very lucky to have got -away at all, and seemed to make them determined never to take chances -against such odds again. I knew that if we ever got them into action -again, it would have to be by tricking them--making them think they -were going out for something else--and that is why I felt sure the day -of our surface navy was over, and why I went into the Zeppelin service -to get beyond contact with the terrible dry-rot that began eating at the -hearts of the High Sea Fleet from the day they came home from the battle -of Horn Reef. What has happened since then has proved my fears were -well founded, for the men, becoming more and more suspicious every time -preparations were made to go to sea, finally refused to go out at all. -And that was the end." - -Commander C---- (to give his equivalent British rank) volunteered a good -deal more about Jutland on this occasion, as well as of the strategy in -connection with those final plans which went awry through the failure -of men, but it will be best, perhaps, to let this appear in its proper -sequence in a connected account of what he told, in the course of the -several days we were thrown together, of the German naval problems -generally, and his own experiences and observations at Horn Reef in -particular. - -"We were greatly disappointed when England came into the war," he said, -"but hardly dismayed. We had built all our ships on the theory that it -was the English fleet they were to fight against, and we felt confident -that we had plans that had a good chance of ultimately proving -successful. But those plans did not contemplate--either at the outset, -or at any subsequent stage of the war down to the very end--a gunnery -battle to a finish. The best proof of that fact is the way the guns were -mounted in our capital ships, with four aft and only two forward. That -meant that their _rôle_ was to inflict what damage they could in swift -attacks, and that they were expected to do their heaviest fighting while -being chased back to harbour. Since the British fleet had something like -a three-to-two advantage over us in modern capital ships, and about -two-to-one in weight of broadside, I think you will agree that this was -not only the best plan for us to follow, but practically the only one. - -"I think it will hardly surprise you when I say that, up to the outbreak -of the war, we knew a great deal more about your navy than you did -about ours. To offset that--and of much greater importance--is the fact -that your knowledge of our navy and its plans during the war was far -better than ours of yours. You always seem to score in the end. But at -the outset, as I have said, we were the better informed, and, among -other things, we knew that we had better mines than you had, and (as I -think was fully demonstrated during the first two years) we had a far -better conception in advance of the possibilities of using them--both -offensively and defensively--than you had. During the first two years -and a half your mines turned out to be even worse than we had expected, -and it is an actual fact that some of the more reckless of our U-boat -commanders used to fish them up and tow them back to base to make -punchbowls of. In the last twenty months you not only had two or three -types of mine (one of them American, I think) that were better than -anything we ever had, but you were also using them on a scale, and with -an effectiveness, we had never dreamed of. - -"We also thought we had a better torpedo than you had--that it would -run farther, straighter, keep depth better, and do more damage when -it struck. I still think we have something of the best of it on that -score, though at no time was our superiority so great as we reckoned. -Your torpedoes ran better than they detonated, and--especially in the -first two years--a very large number of fair hits on all classes of our -lighter craft were spoiled by 'duds.' This, I am sorry to say, was not -reported nearly so frequently during the last year and a half. - -[Illustration: "HERCULES," WITH THREE V-CLASS DESTROYERS IN KIEL HARBOR] - -"But it was on the torpedo that we counted to wear down the British -margin of strength in capital ships to a point where the High Sea -Fleet would have a fair chance of success in opposing it. We expected -that our submarines would take a large and steady toll of any warships -you endeavoured to blockade us with, and that they would even make the -risk of patrol greater than you would think it worth while to take. -Although we made an encouraging beginning by sinking three cruisers, -we were doomed to heavy disappointment over the U-boat as a destroyer -of warships. We failed to reckon on the almost complete immunity -the speed of destroyers, light cruisers, battle-cruisers, and even -battleships would give them from submarine attack, and we never dreamed -how terrible an enemy of the U-boat the destroyer--especially after -the invention of the depth-charge--would develop into. As for the use -of the submarine against merchant shipping, to our eternal regret we -never saw what it could do until after we had tried it. If any German -had had the imagination to have realized this in advance, so that we -could have had a fleet of a hundred and fifty U-boats ready to launch -on an unrestricted campaign against merchant shipping the day war was -declared, I think you will not deny that England would have had to -surrender within two months. - -"We also made the torpedo a relatively more important feature of the -armament of all of our ships--from destroyers to battleships--than -you did. They were to be our "last ditch" defence in the event of our -being drawn into a general fleet action--just such an action, in fact, -as the battle of Horn Reef was. We knew all about your gunnery up to -the outbreak of the war, and the fact that the big-gun target practices -were only at moderate ranges--mostly under 16,000 metres--told us that -you were not expecting to engage us at greater ranges. But all the time -we were meeting with good success in shooting at ranges up to, and even -a good deal over, 20,000 metres, and so we felt sure of having all the -best of a fight at such ranges. We knew that our 11-inch guns would -greatly out-range your 12-inch (perhaps you already know that even -the 8.2-inch guns of the _Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_ out-ranged the -12-inch guns of the _Invincible_ and _Indefatigable_ at the Falkland -battle), and we hoped they might even have the best of your 13.5's. -We also knew that our ships were better built than yours to withstand -the plunging fall of long-distance shots, and we felt sure that our -explosive was more powerful than your lyddite. I am not sure that -this proved to be the case, though there is no question that our hits -generally did more harm than yours because more of them penetrated decks -and armour. - -"Feeling confident, then, of having the best of a long-range action, -our plan was, as I have said, to use the torpedo as a 'last ditch' -defence in case the English fleet tried to reduce the range to one at -which it could be sure of securing a higher percentage of hits and thus -making the greater weight of its broadside decisively felt. In such a -contingency we planned to literally fill the sea with torpedoes, on -the theory that enough of them must find their targets to damage the -enemy fleet sufficiently to force it to open out the range again, and -perhaps to cripple it to an extent that would open the way for us to -win a decisive victory. Theoretically, this plan was quite sound, for -it was based on the generally recognized fact that from three to five -torpedoes--the number varying according to the range and the interval -between the targets--launched one after the other at a line of ships -_cannot_ fail to hit at least one of them, providing, of course, that -they all run properly. - -"Well, almost the identical conditions under which we had planned and -practised to run our torpedo barrage were reproduced at Horn Reef when -the British battle fleet came into action near the end of the day, but -it failed because the English Admiral anticipated it--probably because -he knew in advance, as you always seemed to know everything we were -doing or intended to do, what to expect--by turning away while still -at the extreme limit of effective torpedo range. Most of our spare -torpedoes went for almost nothing, so far as damage to the enemy was -concerned, in that 'barrage,' and it would have gone hard with us had -there been enough daylight remaining for the English fleet to have -continued the action. Its superior speed would have allowed it to make -the range whatever its commander desired, and--even before half of the -battleships of it were firing--we were absolutely crushed by sheer -weight of metal, and it would not have been long before every one of our -ships would have been incapable of replying. You will see, then, that, -in the sense that it postponed the brunt of the attack of the English -battle fleet attack until it was too late for it to be effective, our -torpedo barrage undoubtedly saved the High Sea Fleet from complete -destruction. - -"Our lavish expenditure of torpedoes at that juncture, though, compelled -us to forgo the great opportunity which was now presented to us to -do your fleet heavy damage in a night action. Darkness, as you know, -goes far to equalize the difference in numbers of opposing fleets, and -makes an action very largely a series of disjointed duels between ship -and ship. In these duels the odds are all in favour of the ship with -the best system of recognition, the most powerful searchlights, and -the most effective searchlight control. We believed that we had much -the best of you in all of these particulars, and (although it was our -plan to avoid contact as far as possible on account of our shortage of -torpedoes) such encounters as could not be avoided proved this to be -true beyond any doubt. You seemed to have no star shells at all (so far -as any of our ships reported), and our searchlights were not only more -powerful than yours, but seemed also to be controlled in a way to bring -them on to the target quicker. It may be that the fact that our special -night-glasses were better than anything of the kind you had contributed -to this result. In any case, in almost every clash in the darkness it -was the German's guns which opened fire first. Practically every one -of our surviving ships reported this to have been the case, but with -those that were lost, of course, it is likely the English opened up -first. Another way in which we scored decisively in this phase of the -action was through solving the reply to your night recognition signal, -or at least a part of it. One of our cruisers managed to bluff one of -your destroyers into revealing this, and then passed it on to as many -of our own ships as she could get in touch with. We only had the first -two or three letters of the reply to your challenge, but the showing of -even these is known to have been enough to make more than one of your -destroyer commanders hesitate a few seconds in launching a torpedo, -only to realize his mistake after he had been swept with a broadside -from the secondary armament of a cruiser or battleship which left him -in a sinking condition. It was an English destroyer that hesitated at -torpedoing the _Deutschland_ until I almost blew it out of the water -with my guns, that afterwards launched a torpedo, even while it was -just about to go down, that finished the _Pommern_, the flagship of my -squadron." - -Commander C----'s account of his personal observations at Jutland threw -light on a number of points that the Allied public--and even those to -whom the best information on the subject was available--were never able -to make up their mind upon. - -"The English people," he said, "to judge from what I read in your -papers, always deceived themselves about two things in connection with -the battle you call Jutland. One of them was that the High Sea Fleet -came out with the purpose of offering battle to the English fleet, or at -least endeavouring to cut off and destroy its battle-cruiser squadron. -This is not the case. Quite to the contrary, indeed; it was the English -fleet that went out to catch us. We had been planning for some time a -cruiser raid on the shipping between England and Norway--which was not -so well protected then, or even for a year and a half more, as it was -the last year--and the High Sea Fleet and Von Hipper's battle-cruisers -were out to back up the raiding craft. As usual, your Intelligence -Bureau learned of this plan, and the English fleet came out to -spoil it. It was Von Hipper, not Beatty, who was surprised when the -battle-cruisers sighted each other. Beatty's surprise came a few minutes -later, when two of his ships were blown up almost before they had fired -a shot. That seemed to vindicate, right then and there, our belief in -our superior gunnery and the inferior construction of the English ships. -Unfortunately, there was nothing quite so striking occurred after that -to support that vindication. The other English battle-cruiser, and the -several armoured cruisers, sunk were destroyed as a consequence of -exposing themselves to overwhelming fire. It was the chance of finishing -off all the English battle-cruisers before the battle fleet came to -their rescue that tempted Von Scheer to follow Beatty north, and as a -consequence he was all but drawn into the general action that it was his -desire to avoid above anything else. - -"The other thing that the English naval critics (although I think your -Intelligence Bureau must have had the real facts before very long) -deceived themselves and the public about was in the matter of Zeppelin -reconnaissance during, and previous to, the Horn Reef battle. They have -continued to state from that day right down to the end of the war that -it was the German airships which warned Von Scheer of the approach of -Jellicoe, and so enabled the High Sea Fleet to escape. Perhaps the most -conclusive evidence that we _did not_ have airship reconnaissance was -the fact that Von Scheer was not only drawn into action with Jellicoe, -but that he even got into a position where he could not prevent the -English ships from passing to the east of him--that is, between him -and his bases. I will hardly need to tell you that neither of these -things would have happened if we had had airships to keep us advised of -the whereabouts of your battle fleet. It was our intention to have had -Zeppelin scouts preceding us into the North Sea on this occasion--as -we always have done when practicable--but the weather conditions were -not favourable. We _did_ have Zeppelins out on the following day, -and these, I have read, were sighted by the English. But if any were -reported on the day of the battle, I can only say it was a mistake. It -is very easy to mistake a small round cloud, moving with the wind, for a -foreshortened Zeppelin, especially if you are expecting an airship to -appear in that quarter of the sky." - -Of the opening phases of the Jutland battle Commander C---- did not -see a great deal personally. "We were steaming at a moderate speed," -he said, "when Von Hipper's signal was received stating he was -engaging enemy battle-cruisers and leading them south--that is, in -the direction from which we were approaching. As there were a number -of pre-dreadnoughts in the fleet, its speed--as long as it kept -together--was limited to the speed of these. In knots we were doing -perhaps sixteen when the first signal was received, and even after -forming battle line this speed was not materially increased for some -time. I understood the reason for this when I heard that the engine-room -had been ordered to make no more smoke than was positively necessary. We -had given much attention to regulating draught, and on this occasion it -was only a few minutes before there was hardly more than a light grey -cloud issuing from every funnel the whole length of the line. The idea, -of course, was to prevent the English ships from finding out any sooner -than could be helped that they were being led into an 'ambush.' As long -as we did not increase speed it was easy to keep down the smoke, and I -am sure that the first evidence the enemy had of the presence of the -High Sea Fleet was when they saw our masts and funnels. But we saw them -before that--we saw the two great towers of smoke that went high up -into the sky when two of them blew up, and we saw the smoke from their -funnels half an hour before their topmasts came above the horizon. At -this time, although all of the ships of the High Sea Fleet were coal -burners, they were making less smoke than the four oil-burning ships of -the _Queen Elizabeth_ class, which we sighted not long after the English -battle-cruisers. As soon as we began to increase speed, of course, we -made more smoke than they did. - -"The four remaining English battle-cruisers turned north as soon as -they sighted us, and I do not think the fire of the High Sea Fleet did -them much harm. They drew away from us very rapidly, of course, so that -our 'ambush' plan did not come to anything after all. A squadron of -English light cruisers, which were leading the battle-cruisers when we -first sighted them, almost fell into the trap, though, or, at any rate, -their very brave (or very foolish) action in standing on until they -were but little over 10,000 metres from the head of our line gave us -the best kind of a chance to sink the lot of them. That we did not do -this was partly due to the fact that most of the ships of our line were -still endeavouring to reach the English battle-cruisers with long-range -fire, and partly (I must admit it, though my own guns were among those -that failed to find their mark) to poor shooting. These light cruisers -did not turn until we opened fire at something over 10,000 metres; but -although all our squadron concentrated upon them during the hour and -more before the great speed they put on took them out of range, none of -them were sunk, and I am not even sure that any was badly hit. - -"When the four ships of the _Queen Elizabeth_ class came into action -there was a while when they were receiving the concentrated fire of -practically the whole High Sea Fleet, and possibly some of that of our -battle-cruisers as well. Yet it did not appear that--beyond putting one -of them (which we later learned was the _Warspite_) out of control for a -while--we did them much damage. The weight of our fire seemed to affect -theirs a good deal, though, and at this stage of the fight they did not -score many hits upon those of our ships--it was upon the squadron of -_Königs_ that they seemed trying to concentrate--that they gave their -attention to. Later, when the effort to destroy several of the newly -arrived squadron of English battle-cruisers and armoured cruisers drew -a part of our fire, their heavy shells did much damage. - -"The High Sea Fleet's line became considerably broken and extended in -the course of the pursuit of the English battle-cruisers and the _Queen -Elizabeths_, the swifter _Königs_ steaming out well in advance in an -effort to destroy some of the English ships before their battle fleet -came into action, and my own squadron dropping a good way astern. That -was the reason that my ship neither gave nor received much punishment -in the daylight action. It was our battle-cruisers and the more modern -battleships of the High Sea Fleet--principally the latter--which, -tricked by the bad visibility, suddenly found themselves well inside -the range of the deployed battleships of the main English fleet. I can -only say that I am thankful that I did not have to experience at first -hand the example they received of what it meant to face the full fire of -that fleet. The English shooting, which opened a little wild on account -of the mists, soon steadied down, and I have heard officers of four or -five of our ships say that it was becoming impossible to make reply with -their guns when darkness broke off the action. I have already told you -how our torpedo 'barrage'--in forcing the English fleet to sheer off -until it was too late for decisive action--saved a large part, if not -all, of our fleet from destruction. What would have happened in the -event that the attack had been pressed, no one can say. It would all -have depended upon the extent of the damage inflicted by our torpedoes. -I can only say that--as it was a contingency we had prepared for by long -practice--Jellicoe would only have been playing into our hands in taking -his whole fleet inside effective torpedo range, and I have confidence -enough in the plan to wish that he had tried it. It would have meant a -shorter war whatever happened, and, what is more, anything would have -been better for us than what did come to pass--two years of gradual -paralysis of the German navy, with a disgraceful surrender at the end. - -"As I have said, we were anxious to avoid a night action on account of -our shortage of torpedoes, however much such an action would have been -to our advantage had not our supply of these been so nearly exhausted. -So we were a good deal relieved when it became apparent that the enemy -were not making any special effort to get in touch with us again after -darkness fell. As a consequence of this disinclination of both sides to -seek an engagement, such clashes as did occur were the sequel to chance -encounters in the dark, and in most cases they seem to have been broken -off by the common desire of both parties. Some of your destroyers -persisted in their attacks whenever they got in touch with one of our -ships, but we usually made them pay a very heavy price for the damage -inflicted. - -"Von Scheer took the High Sea Fleet back to harbour by passing astern of -the English battle fleet, which had continued on to the south. I think -I am correct in saying that none of the capital ships of either fleet -were in action with those of the other after dark. There were two or -three brushes between cruisers and a good many between destroyers and -various classes of heavier ships. In fact, our principal difficulties -arose through running into several flotillas of destroyers which seemed -to have straggled from the squadrons to which they had been attached. -My squadron, with a division of cruisers, ran right through a flotilla -of about a dozen large English destroyers, and it would be hard to say -which had the worst of it. We lost the _Pommern_ (it would have been my -ship, the _Deutschland_, had not the line been reversed a few minutes -previously) and a cruiser, and had two other cruisers badly damaged, -one from being rammed by a little fighting-cock of a destroyer which -must have committed suicide in doing it. We sank two or three of the -destroyers by gun-fire, and left two or three more stopped and looking -about to blow up. Two of them were seen to be in collision, and there -was also a report that they were firing at each other in the mêlée, but -that was not corroborated. This fight only lasted a few minutes, and we -saw no more English ships of any kind on our way back to harbour. - -"In the matter of the losses at Horn Reef, we have never had any doubt -that those of the English were much heavier than ours, even on your own -admissions. And since we inflicted those losses with a fleet of not much -over half the size of yours, we have always felt justified in claiming -the battle to have been a German victory. The _Lützow_ was our only -really serious loss, though the other battle-cruisers--especially the -_Derfflinger_ and _Seydlitz_--were of little use for many months, so -badly had they been battered by gun-fire. The battleship and cruisers -sunk were out of date, and we lost only one modern light cruiser. We may -have lost as many destroyers as you did, though yours would have footed -up to a greater tonnage, as they average larger than ours. We made a -great mistake in concealing the loss of the _Lützow_ for several days, -for, after that, the people never stopped thinking that there were other -and greater losses not announced. - -"But although the English losses must have been much greater than -ours, I am not sure that they were enough greater to offset the loss -of _morale_ in the men of the German fleet. As I have said, I do not -think--unless we had tricked them into it, as we tried so hard to do at -the end--that we could ever again have got them to take their ships out -in the full knowledge that they were in for a fight to a finish with the -English battle fleet. It would have been better that they had all been -lost fighting at Horn Reef than that they should have survived to bring -upon themselves and their officers a disgrace the like of which has -never been known in naval history." - - - - -XI - -BACK TO BASE - - -The German Naval Armistice Commission, perhaps as a reaction from -its belligerent attitude at the first conference at Kiel, manifested -an increasing amenability to reason with every day that passed, as a -consequence of which the work of the Allied Commission was pushed to a -rapid completion. The search of the warships was completed in a couple -of days, and the decision to limit the inspection of air stations to -those west of Rügen reduced the visits of this character to three, all -easily reached by destroyers. Of the town of Kiel, nothing was seen at -close quarters, visits in that vicinity being limited to the dockyard, -ships in the harbour, and the seaplane station of Holtenau, near the -entrance to the canal. - -Although the Allied ships under embargo hardly arrived at Kiel for -inspection at the rate promised, there was little to indicate that the -Germans were endeavouring to evade their promise of doing everything -possible to facilitate the return of these to the Tyne at the earliest -possible moment. The _City of Leeds_, a powerfully engined little -packet which had been on the Hamburg-Harwich run before the war, -furnished the only glaring instance of deliberate bad faith. The German -Shipping Commission, declaring that her crew had ruined her engines -and boilers by pouring tar into them when she was seized, claimed -that she had been quite useless since that time, and disclaimed any -responsibility for reconditioning her. On inspection by the Allied -Shipping Commission, the statement that the engines had been damaged by -anything but use and neglect was proved to be absolutely false. Why the -Germans should have told so futile a lie was not fully explained, though -as a possible reason it was suggested that some private party, desiring -to keep the ship in his hands, had made a false report of her condition -to the Shipping Commission. - -The arrival and departure of Allied prisoners of war was one of the -most interesting features of the week in Kiel. The most of these were -British--picked up by one or another of the destroyers at this or that -port touched at--but there was one large party of French, from a camp -near Kiel, and several Belgians, Serbs, and Italians from heaven knows -where. These were all made as comfortable as possible in the _Hercules_, -and dispatched to England in the next mail destroyer. Except for a -man now and then who was suffering from a neglected wound, they were -in fairly good condition, a fact, however, which did not lessen their -almost rapturous enjoyment of the heaping pannikins of "good greasy -grub" (as one of them put it) that was theirs for the asking at any -hour of the day they cared to slip up to the galley. Their delight in -the band, in the ship's kinema, in "doubling round" for exercise in the -morning, in anything and everything in the life in this their halfway -station on the road home was a joy to watch. - -Some of the British prisoners came from the same towns or counties -as did men of the ship's company, and the exchange of reminiscences -often went on far into the night. Passing across the flat between -the ward-room and the commission-room late one evening, I heard a -Lancastrian voice from a roll of blankets on the deck protesting to a -bluejacket in the hammock above that "Jinny X----" of Wigan didn't have -yellow hair when he (the owner of the voice) used to know her, and that, -in fact, he'd always thought her rather a "shy 'un." - -"Thot was afore she worked in a 'T.N.T.' fact'ry," replied the -"hammock," with an intonation suggesting that he felt that was -sufficient explanation of both changes. - -A good deal of rivalry developed between the four escorting destroyers -in the matter of picking up prisoners, and to hear their officers -discussing their "bags" or "hauls" when they foregathered at night in -the ward-room of the _Hercules_ reminded one of campers drifting in at -the end of the day and yarning of the ducks they had shot and the fish -they had caught. "If we could have waited another half-hour twenty more -were coming with us," claims _Venetia_. "But even with those," replies -_Vidette_, "you would not have been anywhere near our sixty-nine." -It was this latter "bag," indeed, which proved the record one of the -"season," both in numbers and "quality," for it consisted entirely of -non-commissioned officers from a camp near Hamburg. - -[Illustration: H. M. S. "HERCULES" AND H. M. S "CONSTANCE" IN KIEL LOCKS] - -The same cringing attempts at ingratiation and conciliation which had -been so much in evidence in the attitude of the civil population toward -parties from the Commission when they met in streets or stations seem -also to have been consistently practised in the case of prisoners about -to be repatriated. Although the German takes naturally and easily -to this kind of thing, just as he did to his _schrecklichkeit_ and -general brutalities, there was much in the way he went about making -himself pleasant to returning prisoners that bore the marks of official -inspiration. Several men who came to the _Hercules_ brought copies of -circular letters in English which, after pointing out that they had -invariably been treated with the greatest courtesy and consideration -possible under the very trying circumstances Germany found herself in -on account of the blockade, hoped that they would bear no ill will away -with them, and that the years to come might bring them back to Germany -under happier circumstances. The screeds really had much the tone of an -apologetic country host's farewell to guests whom he has had to keep on -short commons on account of being snowed in or a breakdown on the line. - -One of the best of them was addressed to "English Gentlemen," and went -on as follows:-- - -"You are about to leave the newest, and what we intend to make the -freest, republic in the world. We very much regret that you saw so -little of what aroused our pride in the former Germany--her arts, -sciences, model cities, theatres, schools, industries, and social -institutions, as well as the beauties of our scenery and the real soul -of our people, akin in so many things to your own. - -"But these things will remain a part of the new Germany. Once the -barriers of artificial hatred and misunderstanding have fallen, we hope -that you will learn to know, in happier times, these grander features of -the land whose unwilling guests you have been. A barbed wire enclosure -is not the proper place from which to survey or judge a great nation. -There will be no barbed wire enclosure in the Germany to which you will -return a few months hence. In the meantime we feel that we can count -upon you, forgetting the unpleasanter features of your enforced sojourn -with us, to exert your influence to reunite the bonds of friendship -and commerce which were bringing our countries ever closer and closer -together before their unfortunate severance by the sword of war, and -upon the knitting up again of which the future of both so greatly -depends. - -"Three cheers for peace and good will to all mankind!" - -Rather a delicate little touch, that "bonds of commerce" one! - -Unfortunately, the language in which most of the prisoners described the -state of mind which this kind of thing left them in is not quite suited -for publication. It was one of the mildest of them--a London cockney -who seemed never quite to have got back all the blood he lost when his -thigh was ripped open with shrapnel at the assault on Thiepval--who said -that "Jerry" never would get over being surprised when "a bloke called -'im a b----y blighter arter 'e'd tried to shove a _ersatz_ fag on you -an' 'oped you w'udn't be bearin' 'im any 'ard feelin's in the years to -come." - -The attitude that German girls and women appear to have adopted -toward Allied, and especially British, prisoners from the time the -armistice went into force is not a pleasant thing to write of, and I -confine myself to a single observation which an old sergeant of the -"Contemptibles"--one of the sixty-nine that the _Vidette_ brought from -Hamburg--made on the subject. It was one of the most witheringly biting -characterizations of a nation I have ever heard fall from the lips of -any man. He had been telling me in a humorous sort of way of "raspberry -leaf tea," _ersatz_ coffee of various kinds, paper sheets, and various -and sundry other substitutes, and then, switched off to the subject by a -question regarding a statement a German officer had been heard to make -about the relations of prisoners and women of the country, he spoke of -the ways of the girls of Hamburg since the armistice. - -"There is no doubt," he said, "that the young of both sexes have been -getting more and more shameless in their morals ever since the beginning -of the war, but it is only since we were practically set free by the -armistice that the state of things has come home to prisoners. I don't -think that there are very many British prisoners--certainly no man that -I know personally--who have had anything to do with these young hussies; -but that is not the fault of the girls, for they have pestered us only -less in our camp than upon the street. It's principally because we have -a bit of money now, and sometimes a bit of food that isn't _ersatz_. I -don't think I'm exaggerating very much, sir, when I say that fifty per -cent. of the girls of the lower classes in Hamburg would sell themselves -for a cake of toilet soap or a sixpenny packet of biscuits. _Ersatz_ -food and _ersatz_ women! By God, sir, Germany's a country of substitutes -and prostitutes, and it's glad I am to be seeing the last of it!" - -I have yet to hear the Germany of today summed up more scathingly than -that. - -Speaking of the moral degeneracy of Germany, a poster found by a -member of the Commission in a train by which he was travelling sheds -an interesting light on the subject. It was addressed to the "Youth of -Wilhelmshaven and Rüstringen" by the Council of Workmen and Soldiers, -and the following is a rough translation. - -"The German youth has been a witness of the great liberating act of -the German Revolution. It has witnessed how the fetters of the old -_régime_ were burst and Freedom made her entry into the stronghold of -reaction, the Prussian military state. And it is the youth of today -which will reap the fruits of this great change. It will one day find -as an accomplished fact all that for which the best of the people have -sacrificed themselves. - -"Therefore the most serious duties are laid upon the youth of today, to -which it is becoming increasingly necessary to draw their attention. -Complaints are unfortunately increasing of late that the youth is -lapsing more and more into moral anarchy, which carries with it the -most serious dangers for the future. Revolution does not mean disorder, -but a new order. Remember that the whole future of Germany depends upon -you; you are the trustees of the future. Be conscious of the great -responsibility which rests today upon your young shoulders.... You must -now learn to be equal to the task which awaits you. Obey your teachers -and leaders. That is the first demand made upon all today. - -"We expect, therefore, that you take this warning to heart, and that we -may not be forced to take stronger measures against those among you who -either cannot or will not submit!" - - * * * * * - -There was a suggestion of power and strength in the name itself, and -in setting out to inspect the Great Belt Forts there were few in the -party who had not visions of uncovering the secrets of something very -much in the nature of a Baltic Gibraltar or Heligoland. "Number One" -or the "International" sub-commission turned out in full strength -in anticipation of what had generally been regarded as the crowning, -as it was the concluding, event of the visit. The very protestations -of the Germans only whetted their interest the keener, for it was a -precisely similar line to one they had taken in the matter of the visit -to Tondern, where there _had_ been something worth seeing. "Look out -for surprises in connection with the 'Great Belt' inspection," was the -word, and every one in any way entitled to attach himself to what was to -be the last party landed before the return of the Commission to England -made arrangements to do so. - -Brave with swords, bright with brass hats, aglitter with aiguillettes -was the imposing line of French, British, Italian, American and Japanese -officers who filed across from the _Hercules_ to the _Verdun_ an hour -before dawn on the morning of December 16. An hour after darkness -descended, wet with rain, bespattered with mud, ashiver with cold, those -same officers straggled back to the _Hercules_ again. This is the order -in which one of them summed up the day's observation: "The most notable -event of the inspection," he said as he warmed his chilled frame before -the ward-room fire, "was the sight of the first pig we have clapped eyes -on in Germany; the next so was meeting a Hun with enough of a sense of -humour to take us three miles round by a muddy road and over ploughed -fields and deep ditches to a point he could have reached by a mile of -comparatively dry railway track; and the third was a drive through ten -miles of Schleswig countryside that was beautiful beyond words, even in -the pelting rain. The Great Belt Forts? Oh, yes, we saw them. They were -five holes in the ground on top of one hill, four holes in the ground on -the top of another fifteen miles away, and a dozen or so ancient guns -dumped into the hold of a tug. But--let's talk about the pig." - -There is not much that I can add to the succinct summary of the -inspection of the forts of the "Baltic Gibraltar." What the -sub-commission saw--or rather failed to see--there went a long way -toward confirming the impression (which had been growing stronger ever -since the arrival of the _Hercules_ at Wilhelmshaven) that Germany had -depended upon mines rather than guns for the defence of her coasts. -The porker mentioned was the one I alluded to in an earlier chapter as -just failing to win the officer sighting it the pool which was to go -to the first man who saw a pig in Germany, because an Irish-American -member of the party had testified that it had "died from hog cholera -an hour before it had been killed." The lovely stretch of farming -country driven through showed many signs of its Danish character, and at -several windows I even saw the red-and-white flag of the mother country -discreetly displayed. This region, of course, falls well north of the -line that is expected to form the new Danish boundary. - - * * * * * - -At the final conference with the German Naval Armistice Commission, -which was held in the _Hercules_ on the morning of the 17th, -Admiral Goette and his associates, in striking contrast to their -belligerent attitude at the first meeting in Kiel, proved thoroughly -docile and conciliatory. All of the important points at issue were -conceded--including the surrender of submarines building and the -delivery of the _Baden_ in place of _Mackensen_--and tentative -arrangements were made for future visits of special Allied Commissions -whenever these should be deemed necessary to insure the enforcement -of the provisions of the armistice. Work on the reconditioning of -all Allied merchant ships was to be given precedence over everything -else. Considering that he had no trumps either in his hands or up his -sleeve, Admiral Goette played his end of the game with considerable -skill. Such futile attempts at "bluffing" as he made were invariably -traceable to pressure exerted upon him from the "outside," probably -Berlin. Personally, in spite of the severe nervous strain he was under -(the effects of which were increasingly noticeable at every succeeding -conference), he deported himself with a dignity compatible with his -heavy responsibilities. The same may be said of Captain Von Müller, -which is perhaps as far down the list as it would be charitable to go in -this connection. - - * * * * * - -Weighing anchor at noon of the 18th, the _Hercules_ was locked through -into the canal in good time to see in daylight that section which -had been passed in darkness in coming through from the North Sea. A -rain, which turned into soft snow as the afternoon lengthened, was -responsible for rather less frequent and numerous crowds of spectators -than on the previous passage. The ubiquitous Russian prisoner was -still much in evidence. An especially pathetic figure was that of a -lone _poilu_--still in horizon blue, with the skirts of his bedraggled -overcoat buttoned back in characteristic fashion--whom I sighted just -before dark. Leaning dejectedly on his hoe in a beet-field, he watched -the _Hercules_ pass without so much as lifting a finger. Most likely the -unlucky chap took her for a German, for the rapturous demonstrations -with which a score of his comrades signalized their arrival aboard a few -days before showed very clearly how a French prisoner would greet a -British ship if he knew her nationality. - -The _Hercules_ went into her lock at Brunsbüttel an hour before -midnight. The _Regensburg_, which had preceded her through the canal, -was already in the adjoining lock, and in attempting to pass on the -light cruiser _Constance_ and three British destroyers at the same -operation the canal people made rather a mess of things. There was -a savage crashing and tearing of metal at one stage, followed by a -considerable flow of profanity in two languages. When, the next morning -in the Bight, a signal of condolence was made by the _Hercules_ to -one of the destroyers following in her wake on the "messy" state of -its nose, the reply came back. "Don't worry about my nose. You ought -to see the _Regensburg_. I've got a piece of her side-plating on my -forecastle!" That was the second time the unlucky _Regensburg_ had come -to grief in locking through at Brunsbüttel with the ships of the Allied -Naval Commission. - -Owing to the fog, the Germans were unable, or unwilling, to send a ship -to take off their pilots from the _Hercules_ and escorting destroyers -after the outer limits of the mine-fields had been passed, and it became -necessary as a consequence to carry them on to Rosyth. The change of -air and food incidental to their personally conducted tour to Scapa -(to await the next German transport home) was evidently a by no means -disagreeable prospect to them, judging by the way they took the news. -The steward who reported that the pilot he was looking after had been -"stowing away grub like he expected a long continuance of the blockade," -may have stumbled upon the reason for their philosophic attitude. - -We found the Firth of Forth as we left it--wrapped in fog. There was -just enough visibility to make it possible to find the gates in the -booms and the main channel under the bridge. The historic voyage came to -an end when the _Hercules_, after tying up to the _Queen Elizabeth's_ -buoy for a few hours, went into the dry dock at two-thirty in the -afternoon of the 20th. The Commission left for London the same evening -in a special train provided by the Admiralty. - - -THE END - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - - -Simple typographical errors were corrected. - -Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant -preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. - -Spelling in "dialect" passages not changed. - -German nouns printed in lower-case have not been changed to upper-case. - -Inconsistently-spaced abbreviations have not been changed. - -The following three typographical errors were corrected by referencing a -later edition of this book: - -Page 90, paragraph ending: "Liverpool or Liverpool?" ended with a comma -and closing quote. - -Page 144 "the latter being" was printed as "the later being". - -Page 287: "model cities" was printed as "model cites". - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's To Kiel in the 'Hercules', by Lewis R. 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