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.
takes real' courage to stand the suspense of long weeks at sea in these conditions, especially if you happen be sitting on 10,000 tons of gas0- line, oF a cargo of high explosive, and' especially, too, if your life is mainly spent in the engine room, where you know that you will have no warning of catastrophe, and perhhaps little chance of escaping from it." For the navigating officers the anxieties of running the ship are increased a hundredfold by the absence of the aids to navigation to which 1 have just referred, and, to all other anxieties are added the special ones fof sailing in convoy, for ofoers of those ships which do so.
This is, as a matter of fact, a most harrowing experience for all. ships: oticers. Imagine a convoy of thirty' or more ships trying to keep close' station on a pitch dark or foggy night} with a heavy sea running. The official speed of the convoy is, say, eight! Knots. "Under such conditions it is difheult enough for ships designed for higher speeds to maintain the constant speed required for them to keep station. But for a tramp that was never designed to do more than eight knots the feat is well nigh impossible. With the wind in her teeth and 8 Tough sea running she is bound to Rose speed, and will 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 Tead to those near her believing they fare in imminent danger of collision, 80 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 New Yorke for Liverpool with a cargo consisting mainly of high explosives. She was put in the centre Of the convoy for reasons which need of 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 fon end, may have no chance to get out of their clothes, and to their deck officers who, on double watches, may have to spend as many sixteen hours on end in ceaseless 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.