The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-20
II PRINCES OF THE FLEET
A ROvIN'"
Rudyard Kipling Writes of
EngIand's Trawler Dogs.
War on High Seas Has
Changed but Little.
BRUTAL AGE BACK AGAIN
Plungers SuppIant Privateers;
Davy Jones Gets Prisoners.
Noted Author Describes the
British Auxiliary Fleet.
BRUTAL AGE BACK AGAIN
(By Rudyard KiplingO
fnft q hnaf WAS laid

4
CBy Rudyard Kipling)
In Lowestoft a boat was laid,
Mark well what do say,
But she has gone arovtn, arov1n, arovln
The Lord knows where!
They gave her Government coal to burn
And sent her out arovin,,. arovin', arovin'.
Her skipper was made of bucko snip
So he he is used to rovfn'. arovin', aroxin''.
Her mate was skipper of chapel in Wales,
And so he fights in topper a and tails in1,n,
Her engineer is fifty eight.
So he's prepared to meet his fate
| Her leading stokers seventeen,
So he don't know what the judgments
Unless he cops 'em rovin', arovin,' arovin':
Her cook, he strayed from the Lost Dogs
Mark well what I do say
And I'm sorry for Fritz when they al come
Round the North Sea rovin',
| The Lord knows where!
The navy is very old and very wise.
Much of her wisdom is on record and
available for reference; but more of
it works in the unconscious blood of
those who serve her. She has a thou
sand years of experience and can find
a precedent for any situation that the
force of the weather or the malice of
the kings enemies may bring about.
The main principles of seawarfare
held good throughout all ages, and as
far as the navy has been allowed to
put out her strength. These principles
have been applied over all the seas Of
all the world. In matters of detail
| the navy to whom all days are alike
has simply returned to the practice
and resurrected the spirit of old days.
In French Wars.
In the last French wars, mer-
chant sailing out of a channel port
| might in a few hours find himself
laid by the heels and under way for
French prison. His majesty's ships
| of the line, and even the big frigates,
| took very little part in policing the
| waters for him, unless he were in con-
voy The sloops, cutters, gun briggs
and local crafts of all kinds were sup
posed to look after that, while the
line was busy elsewhere.
So the merchants passed resolutions
against the inadequate protection af-
forded to the trade, and the narrow
seas were full of single ship actions;
mail packets, west country briggs and
fat East India men fighting for their
own hu1ls and cargo anything that the
watchful French ports sent against
them, while the sloops and cutters
bore a hand If they happened TO De
within reach
1t was a brutal age, ministered to
by rough-handed men; and we had
put it hundred decent years behind
us when-it all comes back again!
All Back Again.
Today there are no prisons for the
crews of merchantmen, but they can
go to the bottom by mine and torpedo
even more quickly than their ancestors
were run into LIE Havre. The subma-
rine takes the place of the pr1vateer;
the line as in the old days, is occu-
pied, bombarding and blockading else
where, but the sea-borne tra1tlc nuss
continue, and that is being looked
after by the 1ineal descendants or the
crews of the long extinct cutters ana
sloops and gun-brigs. me hour
struck and they reappeared to the
tune of fifty thousand men in more
than two thousand ships, OF whlcn
have seen few hundred
Words of command may have
changed a little; the tools are GER
tainly more complex, but the spirit
of the new men who come to the old
Job Is utterly unchanged. 1t is the
same fierce, hard-living, heavy-hand-
ed. very cunning service out of which
the navy as we know it today was
born.
1t is called indifferently the trawler
or auxiliary feet. 1t is chiefly COM
posed of fishermen, but 1T takes every
one, who may have maritime tastes
from retired admiralS to the son OF a
seacook. 1t exists for the benefit of
the traffic and the annoyance of the
enemy Its doings are recorded by
flags stuck into charts; it's casualties
are buried in obscure corners of the
newspapers.
Traffic's Savior.
The grand fleet knows 1t slightly;
the restless light cruisers who chap
eron it are more intimate; the destroy
ers, working off unHghted coasts over
unmarked shoals come, as you might
say, in direct contact with it; the sub
marine alternately praises and-s1nce
one periscope is very like another
curses it's activities, but the steady
procession of traffic in home waters,
liner and tramp, six every sixty min
utes, blesses it altogether.
Since this most Christian war in
cludes laying mines in the fairways of
traffic, and since these mines may be
laid at any time by German subma-
rines especially built for the work, or
by neutral ships, all fairways must be
swept continuously day and night.
When a nest of mines is reported, |
traffic must be hung up or deviated
till they are all cleared out. When |
traffic comes up channel it must be
examined for contraband and-other
things; and the examining tugs lie out i
in a blaze of lights to remind ships of I
this.
Months ago, when the war was /
young, the tugs did not know what I
to look for specially. Now they do F
All this mine searching and reporting 4
and sweeping, plus the direction and (
examination of the traffic, plus the /
laying of our own ever shifting mine [
fields, is part of the trawler fleets /