adapting our commercial sea-gear to the more
instant demands of war service. They 'clear our hawse' from turns and
twists in the chain of our landward connections. Repairs and
adjustments, crew troubles, stores--that on a strict ruling may be
deemed private matters--became public and important when considered as
vital to the sailing of a convoy. In overseeing the ships at the
starting-line, indexing and listing the varying classes and powers of
the vessels, the convoy section have no light task. To the longshore
division, who compose and arrange the integrals of our convoys, we have
added a sea-staff of commodores, R.N. and R.N.R., who go to sea with us
and control the manoeuvres and operations of our ships in station. For
this, not only a knowledge of squadron movements is required: the ruling
of a convoy of merchantmen is complicated as much by the range of
character of individual masters as by the diverse capabilities of the
ships.

It was not until the spring of 1917 that Admiralty instituted a scheme
of instruction in anti-submarine measures for officers of the Merchants'
Service. We were finding the defensive tune difficult to pick up as we
marched. The German submarine had grown to be a more complete and deadly
warship. Sinkings had reached an alarming height: a spirit almost of
fatalism was permeating the sea-actions of some of our Service. Our guns
were of little avail against under-water attack. Notwithstanding the
tricks of our zigzag, the torpedoes struck home on our hulls. If our luck
was 'in,' we came through: if we had bad fortune, well, our luck was 'out'!
A considerable school--the bold 'make-a-dash-for-it-and-chance-the-ducks'
section of our fellows--did not wholly conform to naval instructions. In
many cases zigzag was but cursorily maintained; in darkening ship,
measures were makeshift and inadequate.

Schools for our instruction were set up at various centres, in
convenient seaport districts. At the first, attendance was voluntary,
but it was quickly evident to the Admiralty that certain classes of
owners would give few facilities to their officers to attend, when they
might be more profitably employed in keeping gangway or in supervising
cargo stowage. (The fatalistic spirit was not confined to the seagoers
among us.) Attendance at the classes of instruction was made compulsory;
it became part of our qualification for office that we should have
completed the course.

Although our new schooling