CHANNEL PORTS— AND SOME OTHERS 



41 



:ept as a barracks. Plymouth's defenses 

 ire a great ring of forts at her back and 

 :he dull-gray fleet in the Hamoaze. 

 ■ This may consist of only a few old 

 Doats, kept as shining examples of what 

 should not be in naval architecture, or it 

 nay be a huge fleet, ranging from dread- 

 loughts to submarines. The boats come 

 md go constantly in summer weather for 

 practice cruises, speed tests, target prac- 

 :ice ; but occasionally there are maneuvers 

 :hat bring them all together here, when 

 )ne dwells with some amusement on the 

 [50 ships which waited here 300 years 

 igo for the ill-fated Armada. 



There is a fearfully old Plymouth back 

 )f the modern, the Elizabethan port. 

 iVojans and giants wrestled upon the 

 Eioe, prehistoric man dug his rude cave 

 dwellings in the cliff; but it is impossible 

 :o consider all this believingly today. 

 File name of Plymouth brings the bang 

 )f big guns, the crash of military music, 

 ;he rush of swift boats, the fluttering of 

 pennants, and the overwhelming natural 

 oveliness of a favored port. 



IN A PEA-SOUP FOG 



It must be at once stated, lest I hear a 

 ioubtful whistle, that Plymouth in a wili- 

 er sea — worse yet, Plymouth in a chan- 

 lel fog — is neither favored nor favor- 

 able. She is not alone in suffering from 

 hose "pea-soup" fogs that make naviga- 

 :ion in the channel perilous, but it was 

 tearfully exasperating to hear by wire- 

 ess from Southampton, "Beautiful sun- 

 shine," while we fumbled outside of Ply- 

 mouth in a fog too thick to breathe. 



We had seen the fog ahead of us like 

 1 curtain as we steamed up the channel ; 

 lad slipped into it slowly, our bow dis- 

 appearing before our eyes like a con- 

 jurer's trick, and in that wet whiteness, 

 like cool steam, we crept onward for 

 iiours. There is always speculation if, 

 in a fog like that, the tender will come to 

 .meet the boat ; but in our case it did, and 

 no sooner were our passengers and the 

 mail bags on it than we were crawling 

 DUt again toward Cherbourg. The rest 

 3f the story belongs there, but the tender 

 bungled about the sound all night before 

 it landed its wet, tired, sleepy passengers 



at Mill Bay, which it usually reaches in 

 20 minutes. 



But as Southampton does not always 

 have the sunshine nor Plymouth the fog, 

 there need be no jealousies. The coast is 

 dotted with picturesque but tiny ports ; 

 after one has seen Plymouth these seem 

 insignificant. And Southampton, while a 

 great port, is not a rival ; for while Ply- 

 mouth makes no bid for great merchant- 

 men, Southampton invites them, leaving 

 the care of naval vessels to her neighbor, 

 Portsmouth, the chief naval station in 

 England. 



Both are protected from the channel's 

 rougher moods by the Isle of Wight, 

 which lays, bluntly diamond-shaped, be- 

 fore them. Spithead, the roadstead be- 

 tween Portsmouth and Ryde, one of the 

 chief ports of the island, is left largely 

 to the naval fleet, while the merchantmen 

 come and go through the Solent to 

 Southampton, 



where the tides meet 



It is at the mouth of the Solent that 

 one passes the famous Needles, three 

 white, jagged chalk rocks off the western 

 end of the isle — picturesque enough in 

 summer weather, but dangerous in storm. 

 The tides sweep in upon both sides of 

 the Isle of Wight, that from the North 

 Sea, that from the ocean, and prolong 

 high water for two hours (see page 47). 



To this as well as to its sheltered posi- 

 tion Southampton owes its importance. 

 The town lays upon a point between two- 

 rivers, the Itchen and the Test, the whole 

 lower end of this point being devoted to 

 wharves, docks, and basins accommodat- 

 ing the largest vessels. More than 3,000 

 vessels enter the port yearly, many of 

 them huge ocean liners, but since the be- 

 ginning of the war Southampton has 

 been entirely closed to shipping. Its 

 present defenselessness may be in part 

 responsible, for while once a fortified 

 place, the remnants of its walls and gates 

 are now preserved merely for their 

 picturesque or historic values ; but its 

 proximity to Portsmouth is the stronger 

 reason. 



Portsmouth is strongly fortified and 

 is an important garrison town as well as 



