ce; then, in September 1915, he was given the command of
the Felixstowe Naval Air Station. This was his opportunity, and he did
not let it slip. The Curtiss flying boats which were procured from
America were of inferior workmanship and had many faults. He patiently
went to work to improve and perfect them. 'There would probably not have
been any big British flying boats', says one who worked with him, 'but
for the vision, persistence, and energy, in the face of disbelief and
discouragement, of Colonel J. C. Porte, C.M.G., who designed and built
at Felixstowe Air Station the experimental machine of each type of
British flying boat successfully used in the service. His boats were
very large, the types used in the war weighing from four and a half to
six and a half tons, and carried sufficient petrol for work far out from
land, and big enough bombs to damage or destroy a submarine otherwise
than by a direct hit.... The boats were very seaworthy, and no lives
were lost in operations from England owing to unseaworthiness.'

The technical problems to be faced were very difficult; and powerful
flying boats were not in action till the spring of 1917. But this was
in the nick of time to meet the great German submarine effort. During
the following year--the crucial year of the naval war--forty flying
boats were put into commission; they sighted in all sixty-eight enemy
submarines, and they bombed forty-four, some of which it was
subsequently proved that they had sunk.

Through all his strenuous work for the navy, Colonel Porte had to do
battle with ill health; he retired in 1919, and in October of that year
died suddenly at Brighton, in the thirty-sixth year of his age. The
shortest possible list of those who saved the country in its hour of
need would have to include his name.

Another purely naval use of aircraft, on which, during the war, much
effort was spent, was their use for the carrying and launching of
torpedoes. The torpedo has long been one of the chief weapons of naval
warfare; it is commonly carried by surface or submarine craft to the
place where it can be launched against the enemy. If it could be carried
and launched by rapid aircraft, its value would be enormously increased,
and the torpedo-carrying aeroplane or seaplane would outrival the
submarine as a weapon of offence against enemy shipping. This was very
early recognized by those who were concerned in developing naval
aircraft. The first experiments are sa