forth from the anchorage at 1 A.M. (or at any old time at dead of night), the sudden forcing of steam the palpitating pursuit in darkness-the abortive ending when, off Anaga Point (the northern end of the island), certainty was established, and we recognised that we had been chasing, not the Telde, but the authentic Spanish steamer "on its lawful occasion"!

But the Telde didn't sail out of Santa Cruz, at least not voluntarily; and, later on, she fell into our hands in the following manner.

After eighteen months of watching-namely, in May 1916-there came an unexpected, fierce, squally N.-W. wind which blew down the steep arid slopes of Teneriffe with such vehemence that it carried away the Telde, body and bones, anchor, cable and all, away out to sea, until, presently, she was outside territorial waters. This happened late at night, and the Germans ashore, in frantic haste, char. tered a tug to rush to the soene. But "Mañana por la Mañana" is the admirable law of Spain, and it was daylight before she actually got away. She reached the Telde, how ever, got her safely in tow, and started to steam, for dear life, back to Santa Cruz and safety. Too late, though! While they were still on the high seas there descended on them, out of the blue, H.M.S. Essex. The tow was transferred, and the tug returned to her island home, sad and lonely.

Long before this event all

the German commerce-destroyers had gone to Davy Jones's Looker, and our watch over their supply-ships had therefore lost much of its acuteness

and intensity. Visits were made periodically, however, to "count heads"; and on the night of the involuntary flight of the Telde it ohanced that the Essex was away on such an expedition, at the time that intelligence of the drifting Hun reached the Admiral. That "bird of the air," wireless, then "earried the message" to the Essex, with the aboverecounted satisfactory result.

Let us get back again now to the autumn of 1914, and to the earlier days and deeds of the Canaries patrol.

First among these was the sinking by H.M.S. Highflyer, on August 28, of the German armed merchant oruiser Friedrich der Grosse.

The great liner had started forth from her home port before war with England had actually been declared, fully equipped, and commissioned to sink, burn, and destroy. She began off Iceland with some fishing vessels of ours, which she sank, capturing the orews. With them on board she sailed southward to the more interesting and mere prolific trade-route from Cape Town. The unfortunate North Sea fishermen, fully accoutred in their thick "lamby" suits and immense thigh-boots,-their all,

began to melt inside them, in rapidly increasing rivers of perspiration, as the mild warmth of the Channel gradually deepened to temperatures

day."

It must, in fairness, be recorded of the captain of the Friedrich der Grosse, however, that he behaved with humanity, and even chivalry, towards his captives. He released, practically unconditionally, one steamer that he had captured, saying that he had no wish to inconvenience the lady passengers. And when, eventually, he was overtaken at the Rio de Oro, on the African coast (where he had gone for coal and repairs), and the unequal action between his ship and the Highflyer began, he sent away at once all his prisoners by the Spanish steamers, from which he had been coaling, together with all the non-fighting members of his crewstewards and so forth to get them out of the way of the shells. When he was called on by the Highflyer to surrender, he signalled back "A German ship never surrenders." After an hour and a quarter's respite given him for "reconsideration," the Highflyer opened the ball, and he replied-helpless at anchor as he was with a broadside. Thereafter he stuck to it, with hopeless tenacity, until at last the great hull

and

When we visited the scene, three months later, the enormous rusty bilge of the Friedrich der Grosse still hove up its bulk out of the water, bearing so plausible a resemblance to a smooth, rounded, sandy islet, with sloping ends, that at first it was thought to be one. As we got nearer, a propeller blade just showing above the water, and a large dark cleft down the centre of the supposed islet tragio witness to the vessel's "broken back"-made us realise that it was indeed the mortal remains of the commerce-raider that confronted us. As her beam dimension was about 75 feet, and she was resting on her port-side on the sandy bottom in ten fathoms of water, 15 feet of her must then have been visible above it.

Behind her, at about a mile distant from where she was lying, was the low and completely desert shore of Africa, quivering in the heat. Its monotonous outline is, at this point, broken into by the shallow and swiftly-narrowing indentation named Rio de Oro. It is not any longer a river, whatever it may have been in far-back geologic ages. The fourteenth-century navi.

Some of the crew were seen swimming away, and were picked up by the two colliers which had watched the action (one of which was the Berwind, before mentioned).

When the action began, the Carmania intercepted a wireless message, en clair, from her opponent, made to her (not distant) supporting cruiser, "I am in action with a halforuiser." Later on, there went out "Action over. I am giving up." On which the oruiser unkindly inquired, "Why are you giving up?" But answer there came none! At that moment the Cap Trafalgar was cooling her red-hot sides, as she eddied down into the 3000-fathom abysses of that part of the Atlantic. It was our Trafalgar again, name, and all!

Just as the last wireless message was intercepted, there was seen by the Carmania, on the horizon, the smoke of the German cruiser-not a "halbkreuzer "-steaming for all she was worth to the rescuetoo late!

Our armed merchantman was no match for her, at any time; and now, with 304 holes in her hull, the result of hav

ing been struck by 79 projectiles in that short, fierce, close-ranged action, there was nothing to do but to clear out, with all the 16 knots of which she was still capable. Luckily, she was not overhauled, and got safely away.

This conclusion to the action made it quite obvious to every one that "half-cruisers" must in future never move about unless supported by the Real Article. Had the German oruiser been actually with her merchant cruiser when the Carmania appeared on the scene, there must have been a quite different ending to the affair. On the other hand, if the Carmania had been supported by a real fighting ship, she need not have cleared out in that undignified fashion, but could have stayed to watch the German cruiser being bagged,

and perhaps herself put in a word or two as well. Accordingly, the order went forth at once; the banns were called; and presently each armed merchant lady of our squadron found herself wedded, for better, for worse, to a fighting mate. We were thankful, indeed!

The holding up of ocean traffic for search was the most ostensible of our duties. It is axiomatic that oruiser work cannot be effective without Intelligence and until this branch of our service became organised, our position could

II.

best be compared with that of a policeman who had been given "London" as an address for the apprehension of a criminal. Only the ocean is a bit wider, and more vague.

At first, whatever Intelligence agencies existed