THE NORTH SEA IN WINTER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 208, 10 February 1915, Page 6

THE NORTH SEA IN WINTER.

<£»_- • WHAT OUR NAVY IS FACIiXCJ. It is only those who have hail experience of the Xorth Sea in the winter time who realise tiie conditions which exist there when the wind blows from cast and north. it b'ows acton the tumbling waste 01' the Xorth Sea winged with iey fog. The landsmen jits beside a good coal lire in his house, barricaded with stout brick walls against the weather. But out 011 the Xorth Sea and in the Channel the sailors guarding the British isles face the sharp wind and freezing fog and coid sea by day and by night; officers and men upon tlie bridge and upon the deck, by day and by night, in destroyer and cruiser and battleship. There is no room in destroyer and cruiser for a man to walk up and down, ana so keep his blood briskly moving, lie is caged upon a few yard's of moving deck, iiour by hour, staring upon tlie waste of waters, watching for the dark body rolling among the waves that may be a mine, watcliinjr for the tiny horizontal wisp of foam that signals the periscope of a submarine, or the sudden heaving up of the submarine's dripping turret, watching for the plume of smoke on the far 'horizon which may he the sign of an enemy ship. On the bridge a canvas screen is rigged breast high, and this is the only protection, Cose by is the tiny (/harthouse, fitted with a bench and mat-trcs-i, iipo.'i which an officer may get an hour or two of sleep Vhen he is relieved. In roiiffh weather the destroyer fakes (lie sea green over her bows, and the spray flies thick over tile bridge, and the frail vessel is tossed about lik > a cork an:l even the most seasoned f-ailor i« often sick. In the daytime in wintr r there are few places more desolate tlnn the Xorth Sea. Its waters are a Tirtgrey-green, the sullen sky sags low, and sea and sky merge into a null hnzn. 'At ni'.'lil the coir] .sharpens, and all ovcept the foam oiling awav from th" "lows end the white tops of the near waves is lost in the black ioid. SARDINE'.? AX'D IWIHSKY. in heavy wcat'ncr it becomes impossible to serve a mull, and it wouiu lie impossible to eat it if it was served, so Violent is the motion of the boat. Sardines mil whisky or cocoa are the diet, t'*e eat' r iraccd again.-,!, a bulkhead. Down below, the stove beats the cabin to a glow and the atmosphere is thick y.jth the mixed odours of i'ne ship; and in the <sWinging; stokeholds and t'lie engine-room it is hot enough, so hot that au engine-room hand or stoker ccming on deck may be stricken with a t'eadlv .chill. In a destroyer such m life CMinot be end'ired for more than a week at a tiiii '. 'i heii t 'e; destrover is relit ved; she comes into port and ties up, the men who have suffered accidents, a bioken arm or a leg, go to hospital; and evcryon; else falls into a deep sleep for n any hours. 'Then the destioyer mint take in eoal. or oil. and supplies, and put to sea again. And so on.

In the batfles'hip or big cruiser tit? conditions arc easier, became there is more room and more shelter. Th> hardship is tile same in liind. but less in decree, lint there is added a combinations of monotony and suspense, which is much more seven' that it is 011 a small cruiser or a destroyer. The caplain of a battleship is responsible for a thousand ■men and two and a-half million pounds' worth of national property. J'li'.l he is exposed to dangers which he cannot see, and again'.;! which he raimot guard. So. each in his degree, i' every officer responsible. And there is 110 relief, for there is 110 leave given.

The details of naval warfare are not understood by all; hut all can understand what is the nature of the sacrifice made by officers and men. and in a pause of events it is well to think of it.