steadying himself against the fo'c'sle hatch cover. He
flinched at first when the spray stung the exposed parts of his body,
and then, with straining eyes and dripping oilskins, he managed, after
the words had been repeated several times, to read the signal which was
being sent down the line from the leading ship somewhere in the white
haze ahead.

"Proceed independently to allotted stations for night patrol" was the
order then conveyed to the bridge and afterwards passed on by flag to
the next astern. When the last ship had received the signal each unit of
the flotilla swung out of line and disappeared in the sliding snow.

As the darkness increased the cold strengthened and a little bitter wind
began to moan through the scanty rigging. Men stamped their feet and
swung their arms to increase the circulation in numbed limbs, and every
now and then during the next three hours one member of the watch on deck
would disappear for a few minutes down the galley hatchway to drink a
cup of hot cocoa, which, so far, the cook had succeeded in keeping warm
on the ill-natured petrol stove.

At 9 P.M. the first watch was over and half-frozen men climbed stiffly
down the iron ladder into the tiny fo'c'sle, where the heat and fugg of
oil stoves caused their thawing limbs to throb painfully. The starboard
watch, fresh from the heat of the tiny cabin, whose four hours on deck
now commenced, were shivering in the icy wind and showers of spray.

Glancing at the dimly lit chart on the small table cunningly fitted into
the front of the wheel-house, the commander noted the approximate
position of the ship in the 140,000 square miles of sea and snow around,
and then turning to the coxswain, whose "trick" it was at the wheel, he
gave the necessary orders for the course and speed. The duty of this
vessel was to patrol certain approaches to the great harbour on which
the flotilla was based until relieved at daybreak by another unit, and,
as merchant ships had many times been attacked in these waters, a sharp
look-out was necessary. To carry this out effectively in the darkness
and driving snow was a task calling for all the qualities of dogged
endurance inherent in the British sailor.

For over two hours nothing was seen or heard except the moaning of the
wind and the lash of the sea, but shortly after midnight one of the
look-outs reported the sound of engines away to the starboard.

The M.L.'s propellers were stopped and the watch on deck