l bent and twisted,
had not been blown away. It took a lot of nursing to turn it, and, when
we finally got her off under mainsail, forestaysail and jib, the
eccentricities it developed took a lot of getting used to. Although it
was quite fortuitous on our part, the course we steered during the
thirty hours we put in returning to base was the most complex and
baffling lot of zigzagging I ever had anything to do with. If a U-boat
skipper lying in wait for us could have told what she was going to do
next, I can only say that he would have known a lot more than I did.

"At the end of an hour or two a couple of trawlers hove in sight and
closed us to be of what help they could in screening. They made a very
brave show of it until we got under weigh, and then they were led just
about the wooziest dance you ever heard tell of. By a lucky chance, for
me, not for the trawlers, there was a spanking breeze on the port
quarter (for the mean course to base, I mean); and it wasn't long before
the little old girl, even under the comparatively light spread of sail
on her, was slipping away at close to nine miles an hour. That won't
surprise you if you noticed the lines of her. I've turned back in her
log and found where she's run for thirty-six hours at fourteen miles,
even with the drag of her screws, which always knock a knot or two off
the sailing speed of a yacht with auxiliary power.

"Well, that nine miles an hour was a good bit better than those trawlers
could do under forced draught, and after falling astern for a while,
they started to catch up by shortening their courses by cutting my
zigzags. That was where the fun came in. It would have been easy enough
if I had been zigzagging according to Hoyle. But where I didn't know
myself just what she was going to do next, how was I going to signal it
to them, will you tell me? About every other time that they tried to
anticipate my course they guessed wrong, and were worse off than before
as a consequence. They must have been a very thankful pair when one of
the two destroyers which finally came up took them off to hunt the
submarine. The other destroyer stood by to escort me in. Her skipper
offered me a tow, but I was anxious to save face as much as possible by
returning on my own, and so declined. In case of an attack it would have
been better to have him screening than towing anyhow. In the end, when
we got in to where the sea room was restricted, I was glad to take a
hawser fro