intensified. The utmost the training school could do was to teach the new officers to operate a balloon; their knowledge of the sea had to be acquired when they reached the Fleet. Consequently the officers at the balloon bases would scan the lists of expected arrivals with some anxiety.

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Sometimes it was the most unlikely persons who provided the surprise. One windy morning, for instance, there arrived at North Queensferry a gentleman who, in reply to the C.O.'s inquiry, gave his profession as that of shirt-maker. The C.O., with an inward groan, immediately directed him to proceed on board a destroyer and take a balloon to the coast Norway. It seemed an arduous duty for a man who had not been in the station half an hour, but the newly organised destroyer patrol was demanding balloons, and as no other officer was available, the shirtmaker had to go. He seemed less perturbed than his superior, and was looking quite cheerful when he went on board. But the Commanding Officer was not sanguine. Every day it blew big guns, and knowing something of destroyer patrols, he had practically abandoned all hope of seeing either the balloon or the shirt-maker again -when the patrol returned. Almost doubting his senses, he noted that the balloon was still there, and hurried off to meet the destroyer's skipper and hear the news. He found the skipper beaming.

"A shirt-maker," said the O.C. Balloons.

"Sailmaker, you mean," said the skipper; "he's proper bit of salt horse."

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"I said shirt-maker," returned the O.C. Balloons. 'A man who makes shirts."

The skipper said something which meant that he found it rather difficult to believe this, and it was not till the shirtmaker himself had confirmed it, that he was at all convinced. The O.C. Balloons was perfectly correct. The newly arrived officer did make shirts, and had so reported his profession on recruitment. What he had omitted to mention was that before making shirts he had served ten years before the mast in a wind-jammer. This explained why the skipper had found him so useful. The destroyer was taking it all ways on the Norway patrol, and he had been almost the only man who was firmly planted on his legs; but for his help it would have been difficult to run the ship. The skipper swore he would never buy shirts from any one else.

Many ticklish duties fell to the lot of the senior balloon officers, not the least of them being to superintend the installation of the special winches on board the warships. These winches were beautiful pieces of machinery, built with the accuracy of clocks, and driven by water, steam, or

electricity, according to the power available. There was a diplomatic as well as a technical side to the operation of fitting them. However much the ships' officers might admire the winches themselves, it seemed strange to them that they should be delivered and fixed by the Air Service, which, presumably, knew knew little of matters marine. Moreover, they had their own ideas as to the most suitable positions for installing them, and as this was a matter of the first importance for the working of the balloon, clashes of opinion were by no means infrequent. One commander in particular proved difficult to please, and with poetic injustice was the victim of a regrettable incident.

He

had insisted, not without discussion, that the very best place for the winch was at a point near his cabin; and when all was complete, a balloon was brought from shore, and for trial purposes flown from the winch at a height of a thousand feet. Everything worked well, and when night set in the commander retired to his bunk, feeling, perhaps, not illdisposed towards his new piece of equipment. But during the hours of darkness it came on to blow. The balloon rode aloft, invisible in the blackness, send ing down eerie sounds as the wind howled through its rigging. Presently from the deck came the noise of a gentle bumping. The commander was asleep in his cabin, but after a while the bumping, which gradually in

creased in volume, disturbed his dreams. He sat up, listened, and detecting something irregular, prepared to sally out and inspect. The bumping was, as a matter of fact, caused by the cable, which, pulling ever more strongly as the wind increased, proved too much for the holding-down bolts of the winch, and bobbed the latter up and down on its insulated feet, in the fashion of a rude but noisy dance. As time went on, the dance became more vehement, and a sudden sforzando produced by the fracture of one of the feet, brought the halfclad commander flying from his cabin. It was nothing but sheer bad luck that the hydraulic pipe should choose that very moment to break. Only those who have tried conclusions with a fire-hose can really appreciate the commander's feelings. The pressure in a ship's hydraulic "ring" is very great, and the jet met him full in the face as he came skidding round the bulkhead. Though a fair-minded man, he was never really enthusiastic about kite balloons afterwards, but in speaking of them always gave the impression of holding something back.

However, incidents such as this, though regrettable in themselves, no longer had a serious effect on the development of balloons. By now they had proved their ability to tow from the fastest ships, to keep the air for days at a time, and also to work from small and confined deck spaces.

Every type of ship was fitted to carry them, even down to a submarine. This last combination was distinctly novel; so novel, in fact, that a drifter, seeing an apparently unattended balloon going round the bay, pursued it vigorously under the impression that it had broken adrift. It would not be discreet to particularise the possibilities, but there were not wanting officers who saw and wished to exploit them, which they might have been allowed to do if the war had continued another year. As it was, attention was concentrated rather on spotting and scouting for the Fleet, and on anti-submarine measures. Stations were established at many important bases, both at home and in the Mediterranean; and ships of the American Navy operating in our waters were also supplied and fitted with winches and taught to manipulate balloons. The parent ships were concentrated at Scapa Flow, where, with the assistance of hangars on shore, no fewer than thirty-two balloons could be kept in the air simultaneously. Normally the balloons were flown from the battleships, and sent in for overhaul and refit after a certain number of days, so that when the Fleet was ordered to sea, there was no delay over getting them on board.

This is not to say that all difficulties were at an end. With the terrific pressure of towing into a head wind, there were still times when the cables

parted, and the balloons were whirled away into the mist. In this way occurred the only casualty that was sustained throughout the whole period, the pilot of a balloon losing his life by drowning, though the naval officer with him in the basket was picked up.

The senior balloon officers were at some pains to demonstrate that a free run in a kite balloon is not necessarily fraught with danger, and with this object in view, obtained a few days' leave, and organised an intentional "breakaway from a suitable point inland. Owing to its excess of "lift a kite balloon will rise to a great height after breaking free. The aeronauts were prepared for this, and were mildly enjoying themselves at their thin cold altitude when one of their number, who had been busy with a pencil and a piece of paper in a corner of the basket, suddenly claimed their attention by observing

"I can't make it out at all."

Caught by the concern in his tone, they demanded what he meant. He read through his figures again, and asked what was the height. They told him : ten thousand feet.

He sucked his pencil, frowning. "I thought so," he said ominously; there's something wrong."

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"Wrong?" The others looked anxiously round the rigging. It is unpleasant to be told there is something wrong at ten thousand feet. "What d'you mean, wrong?"

did nothing at all beyond removing themselves to a respectful distance when there was thunder about; but fortunately, before any fatality occurred, the solution came, in the invention of a very ingenious system of "discharger bands," which gave a protection so complete that a balloon thus fitted rode undamaged through the heart of a severe thunderstorm, while an old one, not so protected, perished in the first two minutes.

With this hindrance removed, the summer months became very favourable for working with balloons, and encouraged by the immunity enjoyed by the convoys which they accompanied, more aggressive tactics were tried. Destroyers, four at a time, and each carrying a balloon, would proceed to sea, and steaming several miles apart would cover an immense area of vision. If a submarine broke surface it was quickly picked up, and once seen, had but poor chance of escape, owing to the long hours of daylight, and the fact that even when submerged its track was noticeable from a great height. The first "catch" was made by a patrol led by the Strongbow. It was one of those pearly grey mornings off the coast of Norway, and though the visibility was no

than moderate, the four balloons were aloft and watching vigilantly. Watching is such a long and fatiguing business that one is apt to be quite startled when what one is looking for actually appears.

Strongbow's observer was certainly startled when something cracked the mirror of the sea. He was so startled that he rubbed his glasses and looked again, and even then he had to have another look before he sang the good news through the telephone. Once apprised, Strongbow wasted no time. Signals flickered through space as she called her consorts, and directed by the observer, the destroyer wheeled and charged. Fritz saw his peril, and made forthwith for the bottom; but too late, for the observer had marked him down exactly. Acting on a prearranged plan, Strongbow rushed across his hiding-place and dropped in succession a depth charge, a buoy, and another depth charge. At right angles to her course, and with the buoy to guide her, another destroyer snored over the spot; a third followed suit, and then the last; and the first ships turning on their course, the four were brought together; and steaming in circles, shook the foundations of the sea.

High aloft the balloons bounced like corks with the concussions, and the area of torn water soon became stained with oil. Good, but not enough. Other submarines had escaped by releasing oil, and the ruse was well known. A clearer death certificate was demanded, and the destroyers continued their remorseless pounding till the sea threw it up. It came at last, fragment by fragment. Wooden fittings, bits of grating, odd things that floated, and finally a homely object of