tly from the Admiralty, though also at times
working in co-operation with the Harwich Force of light cruisers and
destroyers, played a very useful part in the naval war, and was
especially instrumental in making the North Sea too uncomfortable for
German submarines. At the commencement of the war the _Maidstone_ was
the only depot ship of the flotilla, but later she was joined by two
others, the _Pandora_ and the _Forth_, while another ship, the
_Alecto_, was stationed as a branch depot ship at Yarmouth, that port
being somewhat nearer the usual objective of our submarines than
Harwich.

At the opening of the war, Commodore Roger Keyes was in command of the
flotilla. Then Captain Waistell was in command until the end of the
third year of the war. He was succeeded by Captain A.P. Addison, who
is still in command. The average strength of the flotilla was eighteen
submarines, the large majority of them being of the very useful "E"
type. This was the only organised flotilla existing in England at the
opening of the war. It had the advantage, therefore, of taking to
itself all the senior and most experienced submarine officers in the
Navy, a fact that may account for the large percentage of hits made
by the torpedoes of these submarines in the course of the war--a
percentage of which officers and men naturally feel proud. At first
the personnel of the flotilla comprised naval men only; but, later,
numbers of men from the merchant service and artificers from shore
works were absorbed into it. These latter became very keen and
efficient, and are spoken of in terms of high praise by the officers.

It was the practice, when the submarines returned after one or other
of their adventurous voyages, at once to remove the crews from their
confined quarters to the depot ships, in which they lived until the
time came to put to sea again. But as the war progressed the
accommodation afforded by the depot ships became inadequate.
Consequently the _Maidstone_ and other depot ships which had been
moored in the harbour were brought alongside Parkeston quay; while,
facing the quay, on the ground that had been taken over from the Great
Eastern Railway Company (a company, by the way, which co-operated with
the Admiralty in a zealous and patriotic fashion), there rapidly rose
an extensive shore establishment, with store-rooms, workshops,
offices, and comfortable quarters for the submarine crews, who lived
here instead of in the depot ships whe