ew months in training depots and on
special ships completing their education. Cooks there were who could
make little else besides Scotch broth, while others, the engineers--or
motor mechanics, as they were called when appointed to some of the
petrol-driven patrol boats--knew their profession or trade better than
they could be taught, and proved themselves untiring and indomitable
when it came to the real thing--as will be seen later.

Having now described the training of both officers and men, we come to
the ships they were called upon to navigate down to the seas of
adventure.

ARMED LINERS

To set on record the formation of the ships of the new navy in
divisions, squadrons or units, and to classify them here under separate
headings--an easy enough matter with regular fleets constructed for
definite duties--is a task of considerable difficulty with a
heterogeneous fleet composed of several thousand vessels with seldom two
alike.

Beginning with the ocean liners, as the largest and most powerfully
armed of the new fleet: these were mostly grouped for administrative
purposes in one large formation, known as the "Tenth Cruiser Squadron."
But when at sea they operated in smaller units and frequently as single
ship patrols. Their principal zone of activity was the vast stretch of
Arctic sea extending from Norway and North Russia to Iceland, the
Hebrides and Labrador. Their work was arduous in the extreme, as will
easily be realised from the nature of the seas in which they primarily
operated.

Strictly speaking, were distinct divisions possible, the Tenth Cruiser
Squadron did not form part of the auxiliary navy in its true sense,
although many of the officers and men were drawn from newly raised
corps. It acted rather as a distinct patrol fleet, filling the wide gap
of sea between Scotland and the Arctic ice.

FIGHTING SLOOPS

Next in order of importance came the newly built screw sloops, with
powerful guns and engines. Their numbers varied and they were
continually being added to. Some of these vessels were used for patrol
duties and others for minesweeping. The sloop flotillas had many zones
of activity. One was the North Atlantic, with special care for the coast
of Ireland. Another was the North Sea, with a marked preference for the
east coast of Scotland and the Straits of Dover.

These flotillas also were frequently assigned duties independent of the
auxiliary patrol organisation, but nevertheless formed