THE WAR CHANNEL

This carefully guarded fair-way consisted of a 320-mile stretch of sea,
extending along the east coast of England from the Downs to Newcastle,
which was marked on the seaward side by a continuous line of gigantic
buoys, two miles apart. It was patrolled day and night by hundreds of
small warships, and swept from end to end by relays of sweepers acting
in conjunction with each other from the different anti-submarine bases
along the coast.

The war channel formed a comparatively safe highway for all coastal
shipping passing north or south through the danger zone, and vessels
from Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden were able to cross the North
Sea at any point under escort and proceed independently and safely along
the British coast to whichever port could most conveniently accommodate
them at the time of their arrival. It also relieved the terrible
congestion on the railway lines between the north and south of England
by enabling a coast-wise traffic to be carried on between the ports of
London, Grimsby, Hull and Newcastle, as well as enabling the numerous
Iceland fishing fleet to pass up and down the coast in comparative
safety on their frequent voyages to and from the fishing grounds of the
far north. From the naval or strategic point of view it more or less
secured a line of supply for the Grand Fleet assembled in the misty
north. Colliers, oilers, ammunition and food ships were able to proceed
through the comparatively narrow section of the danger zone with a
minimum of risk; and, had it been required, there was available a
cleared passage for any squadron from the big fighting formations to
come south at high speed to checkmate a bombardment or attempted landing
on anything like a grand scale.

It may perhaps be wondered why _this_ channel was not extended up the
east coast of Scotland as far as Scapa Flow. In the first place, the
North Sea widens considerably as the higher latitudes are approached,
the coast of Scotland does not lend itself to a clearly defined channel
and the heavy weather which prevails for so many months in the year
made the maintenance of gigantic buoys and their moorings almost
impossible. Secondly, there were various systems of mine defences in
this area, and, although not defined by a chain of buoys, the passage
north from Newcastle to the Scottish islands was, in actual fact,
maintained by a vast organisation of patrols and sweepers, but over this
section of sea su