Dam Ships and Others
FOR a book to be introduced by Mr. H. M. Tomlinson and illustrated by Mr. Muirhead Bone of itself gives it an immedi- ate distinction. We recognize initially that such a book must be something ; but when we get right into Merchantmen- At-Arms—and those that do not will miss an important page of sea-history now presented-for the first time—we are going to get a good deal more, and this despite the often heard allega- tion that the public is becoming tired of War-books. War- books of the "heroic stuff" kind are not wanted; but for books which, brushing aside mere war-hysteria, read like truth and go deep into the analysis of things that inattered then and matter still, there is still a demand, and of such is the volume under review. To quote Mr. Tomlinson—a witness who knows " about the nature of man when tested by realities " and " the writer. who can record it imaginatively " must always command a hearing.
Captain Bone, who commanded great- transports in war, and now commands a favourite Atlantic liner, is the man to tell the story of how the Defensively Armed Merchant Ships (the Dam Ships) and others were the pivot on which the fortune of the whole War turned: "before a shot of ours was fired, the first blow in the conflict was swung by the passage of the ships ; throughout the length of it, only by the sea lanes could the -Shock be maintained." One might almost 'call
this fine strong book the Apologia for the Mercantile
Marine. How vital it is in peace we think little of—we complacently take it for granted ; how vital it was in war is' now very vividly and definitely brought home to
us. It was not, however, till after many a struggle, both Of admini4ration and practic6 that The Merchant Navy pulled its full weight in the War. The Royal Navy was not very cordial at first ; for the merchant captain, trained to autocracy and individualism, it was hard to accept direction -and team-work.- At the outset there was no con-
sidered scheme for competent control of transport, and even yet the regulations of the Board of Trade leave much to be
desired, especially in the matter of care for seamen ; indeed, it is. astonishing that the economic interests of farmer and of sailor, on both of whom our very lives depend, are so little considered. But gradually the various cogs of the great machine were made to interlock. Relations with the Navy grew less distant and in the. end cordially intimate ; our fishing-fleet, no longer able to trawl for plaice, fished for mines nstead ;. -the coastal services (to which the author pays whole -
souled tribute), pilots, and lightships held pluckily to their ,posts ; and finally, to .meet and curb the activities of the
U-boat,the convoy system was introduced, or (as you please) revived, for the Napoleonic wars knew it well. On all of these topics Captain Bone can write with knowledge, for he
is able, so to speak, to say with Edie Ochiltree, " I mind the higgin o't." -
He writes with knowledge, and he writes with grace. One
could quote from his -bobk indefinitely. Of the death of a troopship the story runs :—
" The Mediterranean. A bright sea and sky-disfigured by a ring of curling black smolte—a death screen for the last agoniei of a tor. pedoed troopship. Amid her littering entrails, she settles swiftly, the stern high up-reared, the bows deepening in a wash of wreckage: Boats, charged to inches of freeboard lie off, the rowers and theit soldier passengers still and open-mouthed awaiting her final plunge."
Or take, the final scene at Harwich.:—, " Two British destroyers, a flotilla of motor-vessels, :drifters— the brown sails of Thames barges appearing, then vanishing, in the wisps of fickle vapour. A breathless dawn.. • • Sim, the sili-er moon, a grey flat sea bearing motionless ships; were witness to the- drama the giving up of the murder craft, the end of piracy."
Merchantmen-At-Arms gives a glorious taste of the fellowship and humour of the sea. The skipper of a duty patrol hailed a great liner that was approaching the Clyde booms and advised her captain, " Tak ye'er bit boatie up a'tween thae twa trawlers." The bit boatie was the Aquitania.'
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