LOOKING FOR U- BOAT "PLANTS"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 112, 29 January 1918, Page 8

LOOKING FOR U- BOAT "PLANTS"

THE COAST WATCHER (By Vernon Bartlett—author of "Mud and Khaki"—in tho "Daily Mail.") I. ivas climbing over the rocks in a lonely little bay when 1 met him—a small, old man, tanned and wrinkled by tho weather, with a brassard bearing tho letters "0. \Y." round one ann and a worn swordstick, of all strange weapons, in his hand. The field-glasses round his shoulder, his armlot, and his swefi'dstick all attracted me, so that I stopped to pass the time of day with him. "You coast watchers must havo a rather dull time of it round here?" 1 suggested. He produced a blackened clay from his pocket and lit it with all the leisure of a man who has lived far from towns. "I'm sixty-two years old," he told mo nt length, "but I do my beat of ten miles up and down hill day and night. Besides that, I've spent dozens of nights watching from tho caves or lying on tho clift edge, keeping a lookout on tho shore below. No, it's not nearly so dull ns you might think." "But what's the point of spending nights in caves at your time of life?" I asked in astonishment. "There's nothing to watch for on this west coast." He laughod to himself and made as though to continuo his beat. Thon ho halted again. "Only thirty-two submarine bases," ho remarked. "That's all we've found round these twenty miles of coast. Why, only a month ago wo found a lot of petrol tins stored in a hollow under a big rock half-way up this very bit of cliff. I'd rather bo, back in my old ship, but it's worth 'while getting rheumatics to stop tho Hun from-getting his petrol." He saw my astonishment and became a little more explicit. "Although this is tho west coast of England there are plenty of submarines round about, and they want petrol to cruise for a [ long time. Most people imagine subI marine bases only exist in stories about ! spies, but they don't. Hither some German agent ashore hides petrol for tho submarines or tho submarines themselves dump it. on land when they begin a cruise and fetch it when they need it—it's not for me to say which; it's only for me to find it. There's been a U-hoat at work round here for weeks now—you can toll when she's about because the mine-sweepers warn tho other shipping—but no ono'B had tho luck to catch her yet, unless she's been sent to tho bottom, like so many others, without our knowledge. One tiling is certain, and that is that she has petrol hidden somewhere up this bit of coast and that she's mado several attempts to get it." "And how do you prevent it?" I asked. "It must be a hard job to spot them at night." "There's only one way," said the coast watcher, "and that is to keep a look-out all the time. There are plenty of caves down this coast where people never go —you only find the tracks of seals there, and bits of old wreckage, and sometimes, bones or pieces of clothes. It's one of the loneliest bits of coast in England. And down there I go with a mate of mine, and we keep a look-out all night long. I can tell ,vou that tho noises you hear down tilery, tinder the cliffs fairly make you shiver at times." "But do yon ever see the submarines near the shore? Havo they sunk many down this way?" I The old man laughed. "Ah, that's askinu questions that can't he answered," he said. "Besides, I must r 4et on now. But don't po away thinking that coast watchers have the .time to get bored. Thev do their little bit like everyone, else." And as lie tapned his way over the rocks with his old swordstick I fell to wondering-at tho strangeness of a war that calls upon men to snend the whole night in the caves that honeycomb tho loneliest cliffs in England watching for tho breaking of the surface of tho water that shall betray tho presence of the enemy.