A SUSPICIOUS SHIP.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 July 1918, Page 4

A SUSPICIOUS SHIP.

The North Sea night has closed in with t he wind whistling in the rigging. The patrol ship fore-toots it proudly as she swings into the rising chop. Above, the stars are gleaming like points of silver. Away to starboard a stranger has been discovered. There is a hurried order from the bridge, followed by the patter of hurrying feet. The skipper yanks over the engine-room telegraph. The vessel sheers round a couple of points. The question in every mind is as to the nature of the stranger, and to find that out is often fraught with peril. . For that reason tlie greatest precautions have to be taken against surprise attack.

Meanwhile the sentinel ship has been drawing nearer and nearer. The gunners are at the guns. 'I lie watch below has been tumbled out. Every man is at bis battle station. Then his [Majesty's craft begins to “talk.” The signal yeoman hails her on the lla-hing lamp and then challenges. Back flusli tlie stranger’s answers—yellow stubs in the darkness. They are considered unsatisfactory, and she is ordered to stop, coining at the same time into the glare of our searchlights, which reveals a neutral steamer deeply laden and lurching uneasily in tlie lap of the sen As the stranger hauls to, tlie guns of tlie petrol are trained upon here. ’The bo’sun’s mate pipes away the sea-boat. Tim stranger is to be boarded.

Armed to the teeth, remind!; g ore of the days of the bold buccane; r-. the sea-boat's crew climb in. The officer in charge is able to speak the language of the nation to which the stranger belongs. The sea-boat swing- high at the davits. The bo’snn’s mate pipes again- • down she drops, reaching the water with a splash and a clatter. The crew pull with long, strong, rhythmical strokes, which take her grandly up the swells and gaily down into the trougn.-', oil and on, until she swings round on the slope of a slate-grey wavf, and eases up alongside the stranger, who is covered all the while by the patrol’s guns.

Up the rope ladder and inboard climbs the British officer, his men following at his heels. He demands the stranger’s papers. They are produced. He asks questions. His suspicions are aroused. He institutes a search ; for one never can tell what may be hidden beneath a superfi ial layer of merchandise. The neutral skipper protests in vain; The search is carried out thoroughly, and the officer’s suspicions are confirmed, for there is discovered a large store of material of which the enemy is desperately in need.

■ The patrol ship is tiding hard by. News of the find is flashed to her A prize crew is sent aboard, and the stranger is ordered to proceed to the nearest British potf, where her cargo will be deslt with bi r u Prize Courr. A code "wireless” is filing out to a supporting "policeman,” and the capture is shepherded into harbour before the soiling of another sun. The patrol ship gal hers up her seaboat and slips off into the night.