The Alaska daily empire., 1916-01-25
Village on the English Coast Is
 Transformed Into Vast Rendezvous
 --Graphic Account Given to World
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LONDON. Jan. 8. - Under escort of officers assigned by the Admiralty, 9 party of foreign correspondents was given the first opportunity to wis 1t one Of the great naval bases on the coast where cruisers, destroyers, and submarines are assembled for their watch over the North Sea and from which point big. ocean-going submar nes are sent on forages to the Baltic md the Dardanelles.
 It was an impressive sight of con. ,entrated power and alert readiness with long lines of battle-scarrcd cruis. ITS stretching seaward and headed by
 he famous Arethusa, back of them z gast Gotilla of destroyers, then a countless number of the submarines ,f the latest D and E~types, which recently have performed such bril- lant work in the Dardanelles and to
 he Bosphorus and throughout the Bal tic.
 The day was typical of the rigors he British fleet is now experiencing n the North Sea, with rain pelting he sailors in oilslsins, north wind :utting the sea Into foam, and sea yulls everywhere.
 Changed Into Rendezvous
 The little fishing village on the coast had been transformed by the war into a vast naval rendezvous, with storehouses stretching half nile. prepared to re-equip an armada md send 1t back to sea within two hours of its arrival
 Here were also the mother" ships. -anged in long lines along the quay,
 eady to receive their fighting chil. lren each time they came from a -ald or a battle.
 The huge establishment was yibrat- 'ng with energy, and in the harbor nine sweepers were coming back af
 CT their work; hydro-atroplanes were naneouvering from the dock of their ,raft, and black smoke from the fun ,els of the cruisers and destroyers old of their readiness to dash out to iea after an enemy craft.
 The Arethusa and the light cruiser ;quadron had just returned from jcouting along the German coast in ;earch of a German fleet which was aid to have ventured out from the liel canal. Nothing had been seen ,f the German ships and the British ,fficers-the same who had received heir stars In the famous fights under Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty-were ierlsiye of the idea that the Germans would venture forth
 Tells How Tubes Work
 One of the officers was in command ,f tho torpedo tube when the fired ] he deadly misslves which struck the ! German cruiser Bleucher and sent her ceiling to the bottom in the great fight last January. He pointed out .hese self-same tubes and told how hey had worked.
 First we let go that one" he said and then this one. It was this one hat hit the Bleucher amidshIps. She was lying off there about 1,5OO yards The thing that impressed me after we nit her was the deadly stiffness. It was terribly still until the big ship threw up her bow. turned over and disappeared.
 "Yes. and this is the one that did t." and he patted the terrible death lealing engine affectionately, as if 1t were his child, as, In truth, 1t has been since he laid the Bleucher low.
 Scars of battle were all over the lhip, which the officers pointed out with the pride that a Heidelberg stu lent displays when he exhibits his A deck galley amidships had been entirely shot away, melan- te shell having exploded in 1t. This las been rebuilt One dent in the side lrmor was pointed out, as big as a washbowl. The upper works were lit srally peppered with shrapnel, but the icars were now neatly bandaged with iteel plates with two-inch riyets. so hat the saucy Arethusa was again IS good as ever.
 The party then went aboard the lat .st type of big destroyers, which are . lere ranged in great battlions, with team up. They are very fast, some # them making S7 or SS knots, and ven touching 42 knots on measur- d mile. while all of them regularly 10 S5 knots on regular service. Lying outside of them were the sub { marines of the r. and D type, the lat sr being seagoing craft of great rad ls, which are now making distant ndersea voyages to the Baltic and he Dardanelles. The smaller D craft ave the trim outlines of an eight arded racing shell, but the big new q