We suddenly found ourselves within 1000 yards of two
or three big Hun cruisers. They switched on their
searchlights and started firing like nothing on earth.
Then they put their searchlights on us, but for some
extraordinary reason did not fire on us. As, of
course, we were going full speed we lost them in a
moment, but I must say, that I, and I think everybody
else, thought that that was the end, but one does
not feel afraid or panicky. I think I felt rather
cooler then than at any other time. I asked lots
of people afterwards what they felt like, and they
all said the same thing. It all happens in a few
seconds; one hasn’t time to think; but never
in all my life have I been so thankful to see daylight
again—and I don’t think I ever want
to see another night like that—it’s
such an awful strain. One does not notice it
at the time, but it’s the reaction afterwards.
“I never noticed I was tired till I got back
to harbour, and then we all turned in and absolutely
slept like logs. We were seventy-two hours with
little or no sleep. The skipper was perfectly
wonderful. He never left the bridge for a minute
for twenty-four hours, and was on the bridge or in
the chart-house the whole time we were out (the chart-house
is an airy dog-kennel that opens off the bridge) and
I’ve never seen anybody so cool and unruffled.
He stood there smoking his pipe as if nothing out
of the ordinary were happening.
“One quite forgot all about time. I was
relieved at 4 A.M., and on looking at my watch found
I had been up there nearly twelve hours, and then
discovered I was rather hungry. The skipper and
I had some cheese and biscuits, ham sandwiches, and
water on the bridge, and then I went down and brewed
some cocoa and ship’s biscuit.”
Not in the thick of the fight,
Not in the press
of the odds,
Do the heroes come to their
height
Or we know the
demi-gods.
That stands over till peace.
We can only perceive
Men returned from the seas,
Very grateful
for leave.
They grant us sudden days
Snatched from
their business of war.
We are too close to appraise
What manner of
men they are.
And whether their names go
down
With age-kept
victories,
Or whether they battle and
drown
Unreckoned is
hid from our eyes.
They are too near to be great,
But our children
shall understand
When and how our fate
Was changed, and
by whose hand.
Our children shall measure
their worth.
We are content
to be blind,
For we know that we walk on
a new-born earth
With the saviours
of mankind.
THE MINDS OF MEN
