e destroyers could
not follow, were sunk by our gun-fire.

Throughout the war the activities of the Harwich Force were unceasing,
and took a variety of forms. A detachment would go out with the object
of enticing the enemy over our submarines, which were lying below the
surface awaiting them. There were patrols that were watching to
intercept the Zeppelins and other aircraft that were crossing the
North Sea to bomb our undefended cities. Sections of the force were
lent to Dover to patrol off Ostend and Zeebrugge. It was while she was
engaged on this latter duty that the _Cleopatra_ was mined, but
happily not lost. There were continuous patrols along the Dutch coast
and the Frisian Islands to watch for and intercept the German naval
forces that were attempting to make the Belgian ports. On many a
stormy winter's night the destroyers would rush out in the teeth of
the icy spray to attack a foe or assist a friend in difficulty. It was
perpetual vigilance, peril, and sometimes toil almost beyond the
endurance of human flesh. Thus, on one occasion two light cruisers had
no sooner returned with their weary crews from a harassing three days'
patrol, than they were ordered out again to cross the North Sea and
reconnoitre the German High Sea Fleet, which, it was known, was coming
out to manoeuvre off Heligoland. Thus people in England were enabled
to sleep in their beds in confidence; for the unceasing patrols saw
to it that no serious attack could be made on our coasts without ample
warning being given.

At the beginning of the war--as all the world now knows--the number of
our destroyers in the North Sea was wholly insufficient, the enemy
being there far stronger than we were in these indispensable craft.
Consequently it became incumbent upon the destroyers of the Harwich
Force to perform duties which would have provided ample work for twice
their number. After the war had started, of course, the construction
of destroyers was carried on at a feverish speed in our shipyards, and
now there is no lack of them.

But the activities of the Harwich destroyers were extended far beyond
the limits of the North Sea. At the beginning of the war, for
example, a division of destroyers from Harwich had Newport in Wales
for its base, and was constantly employed in patrolling, screening big
ships at sea, fighting submarines, convoying in the Atlantic, and so
forth.

I will give a few details to show the sort of work that was done by
the