THE "HUSH BOATS"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 34, 3 November 1917, Page 7

THE "HUSH BOATS"

THE NAVY'S TRUMP CARD. A lot of mystery has been spun nboufc what some writers have called the "Hush Boat" (says a writer in tho "Belfast News"). There is more thau one; in fact, there is a class of them. But what part have they played in this].war the public may well ask. Tho. ordinary, plain business man who is doing his own littlo bit to foot the gigantic war bill reads about those ships! of mystery; ho has,'perhaps,' never looked upon more than a single man-o'-war, perhaps never had the luck to see even one, and therefore he may wonder what is the &reat Navy doing and what is the use of -those ships. It need not be -emphasised 'hat each giant as it comes from the shipworkers' hands makes surer, and ever more sure, that the German Fleet will continue to ding the closer to the shelter of the German shore batteries, but the day may come—and the Navy firmlybelieves.the day will come and that not far distant—when in the throes of defeat on land'the German rulers will.order out their Imperial Fleet, and when the last desperate card is played out from tho gambler's hand in that hour the "Hush Boats" will be the overwhelming trump in our game.

. But. meantime, while that possibility is calmly awaited, they are, like tho rest of the Fleet, constantly and for ever en- | gaged on our guard. I can remember the afternoon that the word passed like | lightning through a little village that tho Germans had by some miracle got something "big" through our blockadeone the'dealiest and most rapid and dramatic of neacefnl commerce "destroyers— a. big raider. In that particular village you will sometimes meet of an evening more important naval men than you can see to-day at Portsmouth, and quickly most of the inhabitants 'were watching one of the "Hush Boats" that, lay I'ot far out. Soon-she 6wung clear of l.er moorings, and, by heavens, she went en the prowl at knots and knots more than any Clyde engineer believed n ship conld thresh through water. That she did her work. all right wo knew in time, for one morning, when the grey Scottish mists lifted, there 6he lay again, silent, brooding, the secret of the. deeds she had done sitting lightly on her massive size, but as impenetrable as the secrets she contains.. And it was a "Hush Boat" that carried' Mr. Balfour across tho MShe is the pride of the, Navy, the greatest ship of the.Fleet, audi out and home she did the trip in something under six days—how much, I won't say.