o "all did very well" under rifle and small-gun fire
"at a range of about ten yards." But she never says what she really
said about her motors.

A BRAWL AT A PIER

Now we will take E14 on various work, either alone or as flagship of a
squadron composed of herself and Lieutenant-Commander Nasmith's boat,
E11. Hers was a busy midsummer, and she came to be intimate with all
sort of craft--such as the two-funnelled gunboat off Sar Kioi, who
"fired at us, and missed as usual"; hospital ships going back and
forth unmolested to Constantinople; "the gunboat which fired at me on
Sunday," and other old friends, afloat and ashore.

When the crew of the Turkish brigantine full of stores got into their
boats by request, and then "all stood up and cursed us," E14 did not
lose her temper, even though it was too rough to lie alongside the
abandoned ship. She told Acting Lieutenant R.W. Lawrence, of the Royal
Naval Reserve, to swim off to her, which he did, and after a "cursory
search"--Who can be expected to Sherlock Holmes for hours with nothing
on?--set fire to her "with the aid of her own matches and paraffin
oil."

Then E14 had a brawl with a steamer with a yellow funnel, blue top and
black band, lying at a pier among dhows. The shore took a hand in the
game with small guns and rifles, and, as E14 manoeuvred about the
roadstead "as requisite" there was a sudden unaccountable explosion
which strained her very badly. "I think," she muses, "I must have
caught the moorings of a mine with my tail as I was turning, and
exploded it. It is possible that it might have been a big shell
bursting over us, but I think this unlikely, as we were 30 feet at the
time." She is always a philosophical boat, anxious to arrive at the
reason of facts, and when the game is against her she admits it
freely.

There was nondescript craft of a few hundred tons, who "at a distance
did not look very warlike," but when chased suddenly played a couple
of six-pounders and "got off two dozen rounds at us before we were
under. Some of them were only about 20 yards off." And when a wily
steamer, after sidling along the shore, lay up in front of a town she
became "indistinguishable from the houses," and so was safe because we
do not loewestrafe open towns.

Sailing dhows full of grain had to be destroyed. At one rendezvous,
while waiting for E11, E14 dealt with three such cases and then "towed
the crews inshore and gave them biscuits, beef, and rum and water