.M. and 4 P.M.

Her next day's work opens, as no pallid writer of fiction dare begin,
thus: "Having dived unobserved into Constantinople, observed, etc."
Her observations were rather hampered by cross-tides, mud, and
currents, as well as the vagaries of one of her own torpedoes which
turned upside down and ran about promiscuously. It hit something at
last, and so did another shot that she fired, but the waters by
Constantinople Arsenal are not healthy to linger in after one has
scared up the whole sea-front, so "turned to go out." Matters were a
little better below, and E11 in her perilous passage might have been a
lady of the harem tied up in a sack and thrown into the Bosporus. She
grounded heavily; she bounced up 30 feet, was headed down again by a
manoeuvre easier to shudder over than to describe, and when she came
to rest on the bottom found herself being swivelled right round the
compass. They watched the compass with much interest. "It was
concluded, therefore, that the vessel (E11 is one of the few who
speaks of herself as a 'vessel' as well as a 'boat') was resting on
the shoal under the Leander Tower, and was being turned round by the
current." So they corrected her, started the motors, and "bumped
gently down into 85 feet of water" with no more knowledge than the
lady in the sack where the next bump would land them.

THE PREENING PERCH

And the following day was spent "resting in the centre of the Sea of
Marmara." That was their favourite preening perch between operations,
because it gave them a chance to tidy the boat and bathe, and they
were a cleanly people both in their methods and their persons. When
they boarded a craft and found nothing of consequence they "parted
with many expressions of good will," and E11 "had a good wash." She
gives her reasons at length; for going in and out of Constantinople
and the Straits is all in the day's work, but going dirty, you
understand, is serious. She had "of late noticed the atmosphere in the
boat becoming very oppressive, the reason doubtless being that there
was a quantity of dirty linen aboard, and also the scarcity of fresh
water necessitated a limit being placed on the frequency of personal
washing." Hence the centre of the Sea of Marmara; all hands playing
overside and as much laundry work as time and the Service allowed. One
of the reasons, by the way, why we shall be good friends with the Turk
again is that he has many of our ideas about decency.

In