is, to the uninitiated, may sound a comparatively quick and simple
operation, but when it is performed in the darkness, with the doubtful
aid of two small searchlights, on a sea rising and falling under the
influence of a heavy ground swell, it is anything but an easy or rapid
operation, and occupied half the night.

The huge mass of the modern airship towered above the little patrol
boats like some leviathan of the deep. To attempt its towage over twenty
miles of sea seemed almost ludicrous for such small craft, and yet so
light and easy of passage was this aerial monster that progress at the
rate of three knots an hour was made when once the wreckage had been cut
adrift, the weights released and the envelope had risen off the surface
of the water.

Armed trawlers that passed in the night wondered if it was a captive
zeppelin and winked out inquiries from their Morse lamps. A destroyer
came out of the darkness to offer assistance. The cause of much anxiety
had been the likelihood of hostile submarines being attracted to the
scene by the helplessness of the airship, which had been visible, before
darkness closed over, for many miles as she slowly settled down into the
sea. This danger, however, passed away with the arrival of the destroyer
and the armed trawlers, but another arose which threatened to wreck the
whole venture.

About 5 A.M. the wind began to freshen from the north-west and the
M.L.'s towing the huge bag were immediately dragged to leeward. The
combined power of their engines failed to head the airship into the wind
and urgent signals for assistance were made to the destroyer and
trawlers, who had, fortunately, constituted themselves a rear-guard.

A trawler came quickly to the rescue and got hold of an additional wire
hanging down from the envelope. The destroyer, in the masterful way of
these craft, proceeded to take charge of the operations. Her
9000-horse-power engines soon turned the airship into the path of
safety, and with this big addition to the towing power it was less than
half-an-hour later when the great envelope was safely landed on the
quayside, much to the amazement of the townspeople.

"UNLUCKY SMITH"

There is, however, another side to this co-operation between fleets of
the sea and air. It has more than once occurred that vessels equipped
almost exclusively for submarine hunting have been engaged by
zeppelins, and actions between seaplanes and under-water craft have been
frequen