"HUSH BOATS"

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1917, Page 2

"HUSH BOATS"

NAVY'S TRC'MP CARD. A lot of mystery lias been spun about what Bome writers have called the "Hush Boat" (lays a writer in the Belfast News). There is moro than one; in fact, there is a class of them. But what part have they played in this war, the publie may well ask. The ordinary plain business man. who is doing his own little bit .to foot the gigantic war bill reads about these, ships of mystery; he has, perhaps, never looked upon more than a single man-o'-war, perhaps never had thn luck to see even one, and therefore he may wonder what'is "the great Navy doing, and what ie the use of those ships. It need not be emphasised that each giant as it comes from the shipworkers' hands makes surer, and ever more sure, that the German Fleet will continue to cling the closer to the shelter of the German shore batteries, but the day-may come —and the Navy firmly believes 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 the gambler's hand in that hour the "Hush Boats" will be the overwhelming trump in our game.

But meanwhile, while that possibility is calmly awaited, they are, like the rest of the Meet, constantly and for ever engaged on our guard. I can remember the afternoon that the word passed like lighting through a little village that the Germans had by some miracle got something "big" through our blockade—one of the deadliest anil most rapid and dramatic of peaceful commerce destroyers—a big raider. In that particular village you will sometimea meet of an evening move 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 not far out. Soon she swung clear of her moorings, and, by heavens, she went on the prowl at knots and knots more than any Clyde engineer believed a ship could thresh through the water, That she did her work all right, we knew in time, for one morning, when the grey Scottish mists lifted, there she lay again, silent, brooding, the secret of the deeds she had done sitting lightly on her massive size, but as linpcnetrabable as the secrets she contains. And it was a "Hush Boat" that carried Mr. Balfour across the Atlantic, She is the pride of the Navy, the greatest ship of the Fleet, and out and home she did the trip in something under six days—how much I won't saw