both submarines and
mines under the surface.

During the Great War there were stations for armed aircraft all round
the British coast, and the patrols of the sea and air acted in close
co-operation. It often happened that one was able to render important
service to the other. An occasion such as this took place off an east
coast base in November, 1916.

SALVING AN AIRSHIP

A big car dashed up the wooden pier of a small seaport regardless of the
violent jolting from the uneven planking. It was pulled up with a jerk
when level with one of the little grey patrol boats known by the generic
name of M.L.'s, which was lying in the calm water alongside with its air
compressor pumping vigorously.

Two officers of the Royal Naval Air Service, with a P.O., carrying a
powerful Morse signalling lamp, jumped from the car and scrambled down
the wooden piles on to the deck of the M.L.

A nod from the commanding officer and the mooring ropes were cast off as
the telegraph was jammed over to "half ahead." Instantly the powerful
engines responded to the order and the little ship began rapidly to
gather way. When the harbour bar had been crossed the order for full
speed was given and the engines settled down to a low staccato roar as
they drove the M.L. over the heaving swell.

No word had yet been spoken between the officers of the sea and air. A
brief telephone message to the little hut on the quayside from the
adjacent naval base to the effect that M.L.A6 was to be ready to embark
two officers from the air station and was to proceed in search of an
airship which was foundering about twenty miles seawards was all that
had been told, and yet not a single second of time was lost in getting
under way. All recognised that it was a race to save the lives of men.

The little ship cleft the seas, smothering herself with foam, and bluish
fumes poured out of the engine-room ventilators. The first half-hour
seemed interminably long, and the horizon was continually searched with
the aid of powerful glasses for a sign of the wrecked airship. At last a
faint speck became visible away to the south-west, and as the distance
slowly lessened--terribly slowly, notwithstanding the speed of nearly
half-a-mile a minute--the crumpled envelope settling on the water could
be distinguished.

It was a question of minutes. Again the order was shouted down the
speaking-tube for more speed, but this time there was no reply. The C.O.
rang the telegraph vi