raight, O w
strong, a go
laugh at
e and whirlw
gfel
his white head bowed a little by weight of years, but almost with my first glance I seemed to recognise him instin
uniform of a naval captain, and we looked, all th
tain. "She's all speed and gra
y-odd years and we never launched
me I wa
d sides sweeping up in noble curves, a Super-Dreadnought complete from trucks to keelson. Yacht-like she sat the water all buoyant grace
y-big, is she?" enqui
red; the Master
nodded. "Wh
e size of a ship from the
ed the Captai
After luncheon you shall measure her if yo
seaplanes, with stories of battle and sudden death, tales of risk and hardship, of noble courag
igure of the Master Builder, in whose company I spent a never-to-be-forgotten afternoon. W
be fast?"
Dreadnought!" s
ve to speak of," added the veteran. "Se
will be enormous!
who stood, chin in hand, lost in
bigger than you thoug
is head, sighed, and took
moke!"
ps for sixty years?" I asked of
r built ships hereabouts so long ago a
," said I, "great seamen all, who fought great sh
old and wise in ships, wander up and over the mighty fabric before us. "Yes," he n
iends rather thought we had degener
quietly, "they know bet
d I, and a
singly; "but the nation that can match
kness, of guns of stupendous calibre, of new methods of defence against sneaking submarine and torpedo attack, and of devices new and strange; but of these I may neither write nor speak, because
eupon she snorted and fell suddenly a-quiver as she nosed out
f voice, free of gesture; the other, his silver hair agleam in the setting sun, a man wise with years, gentle and calm-eyed, my
for many different purposes. Here are great cargo boats growing hour by hour with liners great and small; here I saw mile on mile of battleships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines of strange design with torpedo boats of uncanny shape; tramp steam
ng, others, just begun, were only a ske
re ships, a long perspective; ships by the million ton
shall never forget, a sight I shall always associate with the stalwart figure of the Captain and