om the following.

* * * * *

The sea offers but few sights more melancholy than the wave-washed
derelict--the now desolate, helpless and forlorn thing that was once a
_ship_, the home of men--seen in the half-light of a winter dawn, rising
and falling sluggishly on the dirty grey swell--the aftermath of
storm--with white water washing through its broken bulwarks, yards and
sails adrift, a thing without life on the sad sea waves.

A wireless message from a ship passing the derelict on the previous day
had brought an M.L. from the nearest naval base to search the area, and
after a night of wandering over shadowy grey slopes of water the dawn
had revealed it less than two miles distant.

There could be no doubt as to its nationality, for the white cross of
Denmark, on the red ground, was painted on the weather-beaten sides, now
showing just above the sea. Deserted and half-waterlogged, it was being
kept afloat by a cargo of timber, some of which could be seen in chaos
on the deck.

The M.L. approached cautiously, with thick rope fenders over her
rubbing-streak to prevent the frail hull from being damaged. This
coming alongside other ships in the open sea, except in the very calmest
of weather, is a ticklish manoeuvre, and requires considerable skill
in the handling of these small and very fragile craft. What would be
considered quite a light blow on the stout hull of any ordinary ship
would crush in the thin timbers of a patrol launch, for in the
construction of these boats speed and shallow draught were the
predominant factors considered.

When the M.L. had been made fast on the lee-side of the derelict a
boarding party scrambled over the damaged bulwarks on to the sea-washed
deck. Here was a scene of chaos--rigging tangled and swinging loosely
from masts and yards; sails torn and shreds still clinging to ropes and
spars; loose planks of her deck cargo lying all over the place, and a
general air of abandon and desolation difficult to describe.

A mass of broken woodwork in the well of the ship was soon discovered to
be the remains of a deck-house, and this gave the first clue to the
reason for her sorry plight. Pieces of shrapnel were found sticking in
the timbers, and further search revealed shell-holes through the hull
and cut rigging. A signal was flying from the mizen halyards, and the
name on the counter, although spattered with shot, was still, in part,
decipherable--_Rickivik