A ship may be weeks within the danger areas, and, voyage after voyage, the seamen know that every moment of the day or night sudden death lurks just round the corner. ble. With the wind in her teeth and a rough sea running she is bound to lose speed, be in constant grave danger of colliding with the vessel astern of her. One hears of strange things about these convoys—how some ships may have peculiarly penetrating engine-room noises which lead to those near her believing they are in imminent danger of collision, so they sheer off, and lose station, and, in turn, run the risk of collision with someone else.. As an example of the sort of thing that may happen, during the last war a ship was loaded in New York for Liverpool with a cargo consisting mainly of high explosives. She was put in the centre of the convoy for reasons which need not be discussed here. It is not altogether surprising that, after a particularly foggy night, those on board her awoke to find that they had the ocean to themselves. As a matter of fact, though collisions among ships in convoy are far fewer than might well be expected and this comparative immunity is due to the is due to the captains who, for days on end, may have no chance to get out of their clothes, and to their deck officers who, on double watches, may have to spend many as sixteen hours on end ceaseless in vigilance on the bridge, in addition to their other duties about the ship.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.