pe across
the minefield, where our deeper craft could not follow. The
mine-sweepers were escorted by destroyers and submarines, which did
their utmost to torpedo our ships, but failed to accomplish their
purpose. Sometimes, however, the enemy had better luck, as when they
torpedoed the _Mentor_ while she was escorting one of our mine-layers
in the Heligoland Bight. A huge hole was blown right through the
_Mentor_, from one side to the other. Fortunately, the sea was smooth,
and she contrived to return home.

On the other hand, the enemy's mine-layers were ever being hunted down
by the Harwich Force, and the sinkings of them were not few. The first
incident of the war in the North Sea was the sinking of a German
mine-layer off Lowestoft by the light cruiser _Amphion_. The story of
the _Meteor_ is worthy of note. This enemy mine-layer, disguised as an
innocent old tramp, laid a number of mines in the Cromarty Firth.
Having completed her work, she started on her homeward journey, but
attracted the attention and suspicion of the captain of the _Ramsey_,
the armed boarding steamer which lay off Cromarty. So he sent off a
boat to board and question her. On this the _Meteor_ let loose a
torpedo and blew the _Ramsey_ up. The _Meteor_ got away safely, but
her triumph was short-lived. The Harwich Force, which was patrolling
on the Jutland coast, fell in with her, as she was nearing home, off
Horn Reef, early in the afternoon. She was being escorted by two
Zeppelins. As she could not escape from the British patrol, she blew
herself up. On this occasion the Germans seem to have been caught
napping; for at eight o'clock that morning enemy seaplanes had flown
over our patrol and bombed it. The enemy therefore should have
received early information of the approach of a British force, and it
is strange that German ships, of which there were many within call,
did not come out to support the _Meteor_ and attack the patrol.

To our Navy, an enemy on the surface is a welcome sight, for with him
one can fight a fair fight. But the unseen mines of the enemy, lying
in wait to bring about disaster in a second, are another matter. I
imagine that there cannot be a sailor who does not curse the inventor
of mines. It is true that we got our own back on the enemy with our
own mines; but a good many ships of the Harwich Force have suffered
from mines in the course of the war. In a large majority of cases the
ships struck by mines did not sink, wer