130 Book of Steamships 



to damage on the slightest blow. In the 

 two craft of which I am speaking, the bows 

 were crumpled up for all the world like 

 a broken concertina, or, as one sailor put 

 it to me, like a salmon tin on which an 

 elephant had trodden. 



Apart from some quick-firers of small 

 dimensions, the destroyer's only means of 

 attack lies in her torpedo-tubes. As many 

 of you know, destroyers were the real 

 handy-men of the war, and in various seas 

 and in various ways they paid a terrible 

 penalty. Not only did they take their 

 share in the larger engagements when 

 really only battleships and similar craft 

 should have been employed, but they kept 

 open our lines of communication, con- 

 voyed our food ships and transports, and 

 proved the most relentless antagonist the 

 German submarine had to encounter. 



Often the writer watched the brave 

 little craft darting hither and thither in 

 search of the hidden foe, and often has he 

 seen them mothering huge ships across 



