Metropolis weekly gazette. (Metropolis, Ill.) 1???-19??, 1918-08-09
FROM ALL SOURCES
Britain Gathered Small Boats for
Tigris Service.
Even Small Excursion Vessels That
Were a Feature OF Outings on
the Thames Were Made Use
OF in Mesopotamia.

River boats for the Tigris We're an
absolute, primary necessity. They
could not be built in Mesopotamia or
anywhere else in time TO relieve the
desperate situation. They could not
be materialized by The wave of any
magician's wand. Well, what then?
Then they would have 10 come out of
other rivers otherwhere aud make
their various ways somehow-no mat
Ter how ,--acroSs the seas and M
through the Persian gulf, writes FL
eanor Franklin Egan in Saturday
Evening Post.
They were requistioned from the
Gauges and lie Indus and the Ira
Wadi. from the Nile and the rivers Of
Africa. and even from the Sibiane,
the 1ang-tSe and me HWauglo.
From everywhere they have come, Il
has been oue of The braves and
strongest achievements OF the war,
and one hears with q feeling of espe.
eially chill regret that more than
eighty ri the ships have failed to AZ
rive. \ few from everywhere hive
gone-aloug with the high hopes Of
British sailors. and usaally win the
sailors. TOTO the bottom Of the
SEES they were never made 10 ven
ture on.
But the Thames penny ssteamers?
Where is it you 20 on the Thames
penny steamefSY To Richmond? To
Putney? To Henley? To queer little
landings here and there round Lon
don where crowds Of people gather
on gala days and where happy sum
mer memories are made? Yes. 10
places like that. There Is holiday
sound in the very name-Thames
penny steamer. And ] wonder II
there are many Englishmen with no
memories TO make that sound music
In their ears?
But the Thames penny steamers,
too, were needed on the Tigris TO help
meet the tremendous emergency. So
brayely they set ont. Eleven of them
started. but only five of them achieved
the impossible Five of them got 10
the TigIis and are now listed by num-
Der in the great fleet under a class
initial. though ! think ! ought 20 add
that by British officers and men they
are especially identified and espe-
ciaily loved.
As ! watched the curious. fiat-bot-
toned. high funneled. double decked,
paddle wheeled little craft ehurning
briSkly downstream with her two
crowded barges in tow | was seeing
visions Of the kind Of heroism that
makes one prayerful. ! saw first the
matter Of fact, n0nchalant British
sailors on her frail decks preparing
for such a voyage as was never be
fore undertaken; then / saw her-her
sides boarded up and her one-time
Spick and Spamess begrimed with
the coal that had 20 lie slowed In ey-
cry possible space-moYing out Of the
snug security of the busy. bustline.
city bounded Thames into the open,
high rolling Atlantic. / followed her
course across the perilouS Bay Of Bis.
cry and saw her creep down tie long
coasts of Portugal and Spain and
through the strait past Gibraltar.
After Gibraltar would come n hope
ful, careful, long crawl across the
mine strewn and submarine infested
Mediterranean. PORT said In safety.
Then the Suez canal-contrihnting a
brief period OF relaxaton-the Red
sea, the Arabian sea, the Persian
gulf. and finally-wifh what a sigh
of relief-the broad current of the
Shat-el-Arab and the almost ripple
less serenity OF the blessed Tigris
/ don't know what happened TO the
six that failed. bur one hears that
their backs were broken by the high
seas" That was the chief danger they
all had to face; they and the hun
dreds of others from other faraway
rivers, too. Eighty of the others went
down and six Of the Thames boats.
Elghty-siXl They should be honor
ably counted among England's honor
able losses at sea, and they never
have been.