DOVER PATROL.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 265, 5 April 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

DOVER PATROL.

WORK OF THE MOTOR BOATS. ACT AS FAGS FOR THE FLEET. *i is only when you go to Dover and walk round the harbour that you gain any idva of the real extent of the Dover patrol (says H. C. Ferraby in the Daily Express). There seems to be everv type of scouting craft that you can imagine. Actually 1 believe the admiral in command has 26 different classes of vessel under his control. How many there axe of each class. I may not say. They am far too many, however, all to be' stationed at Dover, and so other ports and roadsteads on the ccast of the Straits have tiieJr ciiiota. This however, is a tale of the "movies," though there is no cinema Jn at. Why they are called movies you would know if you *pcnt some hours of a December night on the open sea in one. with a beam ,wind blowing that would roll a Dreadnought. The "movie" is the pet name for one of the navy's war-time dodges. Her official description is "His. Majesty's motor launch 999/' or such other number as circumstance may dictate. It is not for me to say how many there are o; them. WILD WORK. I was out in one the other dav. The breeze had torn the dull cloud pall into long ribbons that trailed across the sinking sun. It nad also whipped the sea into nn uncertain surge, and as wa shot out of the lee of the harbour wall at a nice turn of speed, her nose went suddenly into the air, she displayed i great tendency to lio djpn on rer* right side, and at the same time her stern did a complicated twist of its own.

Then her nose went down and down and down and lier left side went over and the sen came across the canvas protection, behind which the commanding officer, the coxswain, and I were stand" ing. The coxswain spat out several mouthful* of sea water. I washed I had not ducked quite so low and let water in between the collar of mv oilskin and my muffler. The skipper"shook it off his face and cap peak mith the ease of long experience. These motor launches have all been built since the war began, and are manned and officered mostly bv men who, in the early part of 1914, had no thought taht ever thev were to be : n the King's Navy. The "movies" are a special department cf the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and among their officers you tritl find barristers and architects, singers and painters. Many of them were amateur yachtsmen in the days of p:\aee, but to-day the navy has put its stamp on all of them.

You meet "movies" at .practically every naval port you go to nowadays, for they are the " fags" of the, big ships, ready to go anywhere at any time to do anything, from saving the 6urvivors of a mined ship, to carrying a civilian to visit the flagship. They, too, are part of the patrol, and they stick it 99 nights out of the 100, when the 'landsman would say that no craft of their size could live.

MODEST HEROES. Aft they have two tiny cabins, not so large as the servants' bedroom of a cheap flat, and a galley. There the lieutenant and his "sub" Eve and sleep and have their being in the few hours that ate not spent on deck. We sat down there one night, two lieutenants, a "sub" and I, and talked "movies." I heard tales of their doings that I may not Jell, but I heard two fnat I may, and here they are. The Maloja was mined outside Dover. It was a rough day, with just such another sea running as we had come back from. Every boat that w.as out was sent to the sinking ship to pick up whom it could. The wretched liner had fallen over on or side, .and had flung scores of people off her decks into the water. The two "movies" with whom I am concerned curvetted to the scene at the outmost speed they could coax out of their cylinders, and pranced in among the floating human debris. Within two minutes seme liad been drawn on board and passed aft to the wardroom. In another minute two of the "movie's" crew had been carried overboard' as they were trying to haul survivors to the deck. The sub-lieutenant (a prominent marmo painter in civil life) was swept off his feet and into the waSer. and only struggled back with great difficulty. A young woman was rescued at the last gasp, and as she reached the deck she saw the man who had been holding her throw up his hands and drop back. She screamed. It was a scream that there was no misunderstanding. That man was near and dear to her. No difficulty should stand in the way of saving him, if the "movie" men could do it. They did but how they do not tell. THE ANGLIA TRAGEDY. The other story concerns the mining cf the hospital ship Anglia. It was a different sort of day, flat, calm, and foggy. Tho " movies" out on day duty were flagged by a passing destroyer to hurry to the scene and away they went. They found a boat. "I have never seen a boat so fuil of people," said the lieutenant. "They were all wounded men and the sight was simply ghastly. Details would not bear telling." Forty wounded men, with slipped bandage-; and broken splints, forty warbattered wrecks of humanity, crowded into a craft which normally carries half that number! Chat for a wh'le to a group o* the? R.N.V.R. officer*, and you will find that their war experience ranges a'J round the British coast. One man talks of Lowestoft, another of Larue. Another recalls an adventure in the Orkneys, and so you are switched off to a tale of Harwich. Th«iv Jhave a great lo%> for "tlieir queer funnelless craft. One man told mo with justifiable pride that for 14 long months no had kept his ship at work without :i dockyard overhaul. Ask an amateur niutor-boatman if he could do that in peace time at pleasure-cruis-ing, and he would laugh at you. The "movie" men can do it. It is their contribution to sea power. •The result* show hew deeply sea adaptability is ingrained in the seafaring race, of these islands." said Admirai liacon in one of j.is despatches on the work of the Dover Patrol. If the "movie" men want a motto, it is there in that one word, " Adaptability."