her fighting days, being sunk full of
concrete. From all that remained of her still above water the
hero-king, Albert, was cheered into Ostend after the Armistice by the
Belgian Boy Scouts, as he steamed past with Sir Roger Keyes to land,
with his heroine-queen, on the soil so long fouled by German pirates.

These raids spoilt German chances from the nearest ports to Britain.
But they did not stop the submarine campaign; and there was still
plenty of work for camouflage, convoys, and "Q" ships.

Camouflage at sea is a very different thing from camouflage on land.
On land camouflage is meant to make one thing look like something else
or to hide it altogether. But no kind of camouflage will hide a ship.
Nor is there any point in making a boat look like anything else; for
everybody knows that ships are the only things at sea. Camouflage
afloat was therefore meant to confuse the submarine commander's aim by
deceiving his eye as to his target's speed and course. By painting
cunning arrangements of stripes and splashes of different colours a
ship's course and speed could be so disguised that the torpedoist was
puzzled in getting his sights on her and in working out the range and
speed. If an old-fashioned sailor could have suddenly been dropped on
to the deck of a transport in the midst of a convoy of camouflaged
ships he would have thought all their helmsmen were drunk or stark,
staring mad; for they would have seemed to be steering every which way
at large and not one on any proper course at all.

When this was added to their other troubles the submarines thought
twice before risking an attack on a convoy of ships guarded by
cruisers, as well as by destroyers ahead and on both sides, zig-zagging
about on the hunt for submarines, much as a good sporting dog quarters
likely ground for game. A "mothering" cruiser would keep station
astern, where she could have her weather eye on every one. In narrow
waters like the English Channel there would also be an airship
overhead, a little in advance, with seaplanes on the flanks. These
aircraft could spot a submarine almost a hundred feet down in fair
weather, just as seabirds spot fish. If a submarine did show up, it
was kept in sight till the destroyers charged near enough to ram,
shell, or torpedo it on the surface, or sea-quake it to death with a
depth bomb if submerged. Three hundred and seven ships brought wheat
from different parts of America to Britain, France, and