north, bound for their base, while the Harwich Force steered directly
for Harwich, which was reached that evening without the occurrence of
any further incident. In the course of the operations we had lost one
destroyer and three seaplanes, but the enemy had lost one destroyer,
two armed patrol boats, and one seaplane. Probably some damage was
also inflicted on the enemy by our seaplanes, for during the raid a
German wireless message from some shore station was intercepted by the
_Cleopatra_, to the effect that a bombardment was in progress.

It will be remembered that a subsequent air raid, which was carried
out by a squadron from the Grand Fleet in the summer of 1918, on the
same Zeppelin sheds at Tondern which were the objectives of the Sylt
raid, was attended with complete success. The sheds were wrecked by
the bombs from our aircraft, and two Zeppelins were destroyed.

As our air raids became more frequent the vigilance of the enemy
submarines increased. Many were the narrow escapes of our escorts.
Thus, in January 1916, the _Arethusa_, with some destroyers, was
escorting the seaplane-carrier _Vindex_ to the mouth of the Ems river.
Just before dawn the vessels stopped in order that the seaplanes
might be hoisted out. The first intimation that enemy submarines were
about was the track of a torpedo racing at the _Arethusa_ through the
darkness. The torpedo passed right under the _Arethusa's_ ram, missing
it by very little. A second torpedo followed, which was avoided by
prompt use of the helm. So the flagship was saved, but only to be
mined and sunk within sight of her base a few weeks later.

Our ships, as I have shown, always stood by a consort in distress, and
brought her safely back to her base if it were possible to do so, even
at the greatest risk to themselves; and there always was a great risk
of envelopment and destruction by a superior force whenever a disabled
ship was being slowly towed through enemy waters. Our crippled ships
of the Harwich Force were never allowed to fall into the enemy's
hands. Many are the stories of the saving of our ships in the North
Sea during the war.

Let us take, for example, the case of the _Landrail_. In May 1915, off
Borkum, while the seaplanes were being hoisted out from the
seaplane-carrier for a raid on the German coast, one of the usual
dense North Sea fogs rolled up. While the ships were shrouded in this,
the light cruiser _Undaunted_ was run into by the destroyer