"And they"ve struck a medal in commemoration," said I.
"Medal!" said he, and blew his nose louder than before. "I fancy they"ll wish they could swallow that d.a.m.n medal, one day. Poor old _Lusitania_! You lose any one aboard?"
"I had some American friends aboard, but they escaped, thank G.o.d--others weren"t so fortunate."
"No," he answered, turning away, "but America got quite angry--wrote a note, remember? Over there"s one of the latest submarines. Germany can"t touch her for speed and size, and better than that, she"s got rat-tat--"
"I beg pardon?" I wailed, for the hammers were riotous again, "what has she?"
"She"s got rat-tat forward and rat-tat aft, surface speed rat-tat-tat knots, submerged rat-tat-tat, and then best of all she"s rattle-tattle-tattle. Yes, hammers are a bit noisy! This way. A destroyer yonder--new cla.s.s--rat-tat feet longer than ordinary. We expect her to do rat-tat-tat knots and she"ll mount rat-tat guns.
There are two of them in the basin yonder having their engines fitted, turbines to give rat-tat-tat horse power. But come on, we"d better be going or we shall lose the others of your party."
"I should like to stay here a week," said I, tripping over a steel hawser.
"Say a month," he added, steadying me deftly. "You might begin to see all we"ve been doing in a month. We"ve built twenty-nine ships of different cla.s.ses since the war began in this one yard, and we"re going on building till the war"s over--and after that too. And this place is only one of many. Which reminds me you"re to go to another yard this afternoon--we"d better hurry after the rest of your party or they"ll be waiting for you."
"I"m afraid they generally are!" I sighed, as I turned and followed my conductor through yawning doorways (built to admit a giant, it seemed) into vast workshops whose lofty roofs were lost in haze. Here I saw huge turbines and engines of monstrous shape in course of construction; I beheld mighty propellers, with boilers and furnaces big as houses, whose proportions were eloquent of the colossal ships that were to be. But here indeed, all things were on a gigantic scale; ponderous lathes were turning, mighty planing machines swung unceasing back and forth, while other monsters bored and cut through steel plate as it had been so much cardboard.
"Good machines, these!" said my companion, patting one of these monsters with familiar hand, "all made in Britain!"
"Like the men!" I suggested.
"The men," said he. "Humph! They haven"t been giving much trouble lately--touch wood!"
"Perhaps they know Britain just now needs every man that is a man," I suggested, "and some one has said that a man can fight as hard at home here with a hammer as in France with a rifle."
"Well, there"s a lot of fighting going on here," nodded my companion, "we"re fighting night and day and we"re fighting d.a.m.ned hard. And now we"d better hurry; your party will be cursing you in chorus."
"I"m afraid it has before now!" said I.
So we hurried on, past shops whence came the roar of machinery, past great basins wherein floated destroyers and torpedo boats, past craft of many kinds and fashions, ships built and building; on I hastened, tripping over more cables, dodging from the buffers of snorting engines and deafened again by the fearsome din of the riveting-hammers, until I found my travelling companions a.s.sembled and ready to depart. Scrambling hastily into the nearest motor car I shook hands with this shortish, broad-shouldered, square-jawed man and bared my head, for, so far as these great works were concerned, he was in very truth a superman. Thus I left him to oversee the building of these mighty ships, which have been and will ever be the might of these small islands.
But, even as I went speeding through dark streets, in my ears, rising high above the hum of our engine was the unceasing din, the remorseless ring and clash of the riveting-hammers.
V
SHIPS IN MAKING
Build me straight, O worthy Master!
Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel, That shall laugh at all disaster And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!
--_Longfellow._
He was an old man with that indefinable courtliness of bearing that is of a past generation; tall and spare he was, his white head bowed a little by weight of years, but almost with my first glance I seemed to recognise him instinctively for that "worthy Master Builder of goodly vessels staunch and strong!" So the Master Builder I will call him.
He stood beside me at the window with one in the uniform of a naval captain, and we looked, all three of us, at that which few might behold unmoved.
"She"s a beauty!" said the Captain. "She"s all speed and grace from cut.w.a.ter to sternpost."
"I"ve been building ships for sixty-odd years and we never launched a better!" said the Master Builder.
As for me I was dumb.
She lay within a stone"s throw, a mighty vessel, huge of beam and length, her superstructure towering proudly aloft, her ma.s.sive armoured sides sweeping up in n.o.ble curves, a Super-Dreadnought complete from trucks to keelson. Yacht-like she sat the water all buoyant grace from lofty prow to tapering counter, and to me there was something sublime in the grim and latent power, the strength and beauty of her.
"But she"s not so very--big, is she?" enquired a voice behind me.
The Captain stared; the Master Builder smiled.
"Fairly!" he nodded. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, I usually reckon the size of a ship from the number of her funnels, and--"
"Ha!" exclaimed the Captain explosively.
"Humph!" said the Master Builder gently. "After luncheon you shall measure her if you like, but now I think we will go and eat."
During a most excellent luncheon the talk ranged from ships and books and guns to submarines and seaplanes, with stories of battle and sudden death, tales of risk and hardship, of n.o.ble courage and heroic deeds, so that I almost forgot to eat and was sorry when at last we rose from table.
Once outside I had the good fortune to find myself between the Captain and the venerable figure of the Master Builder, in whose company I spent a never-to-be-forgotten afternoon. With them I stood alongside this n.o.ble ship which, seen thus near, seemed mightier than ever.
"Will she be fast?" I enquired.
"Very fast--for a Dreadnought!" said the Captain.
"And at top speed she"ll show no bow wave to speak of," added the veteran. "See how fine her lines are fore and aft."
"And her gun power will be enormous!" said the Captain.
Hard by I espied a solitary being, who stood, chin in hand, lost in contemplation of this large vessel.
"Funnels or not, she"s bigger than you thought?" I enquired of him.
He glanced at me, shook his head, sighed, and took himself by the chin again.
"Holy smoke!" said he.
"And you have been building ships for sixty years?" I asked of the venerable figure beside me.
"And more!" he answered; "and my father built ships hereabouts so long ago as 1820, and his grandfather before him."
"Back to the times of Nelson and Rodney and Anson," said I, "great seamen all, who fought great ships! What would they think of this one, I wonder?"
"That she was a worthy successor," replied the Master Builder, letting his eyes, so old and wise in ships, wander up and over the mighty fabric before us. "Yes," he nodded decisively, "she"s worthy--like the men who will fight her one of these days."
"But our enemies and some of our friends rather thought we had degenerated these latter days," I suggested.