other destroyers, who, too, may have heard that unmistakable sound,
she goes to bed below in the chill dark till it is time to turn
homewards. When she rose she met storm from the north and logged it
accordingly. "Spray froze as it struck, and bridge became a mass of
ice. Experienced considerable difficulty in keeping the conning-tower
hatch free from ice. Found it necessary to keep a man continuously
employed on this work. Bridge screen immovable, ice six inches thick
on it. Telegraphs frozen." In this state she forges ahead till
midnight, and any one who pleases can imagine the thoughts of the
continuous employee scraping and hammering round the hatch, as well as
the delight of his friends below when the ice-slush spattered down the
conning-tower. At last she considered it "advisable to free the boat
of ice, so went below."


"AS REQUISITE"

In the Senior Service the two words "as requisite" cover everything
that need not be talked about. E9 next day "proceeded as requisite"
through a series of snowstorms and recurring deposits of ice on the
bridge till she got in touch with her friend the ice-breaker; and in
her company ploughed and rooted her way back to the work we know.
There is nothing to show that it was a near thing for E9, but somehow
one has the idea that the ice-breaker did not arrive any too soon for
E9's comfort and progress. (But what happens in the Baltic when the
ice-breaker does not arrive?)

That was in winter. In summer quite the other way, E9 had to go to bed
by day very often under the long-lasting northern light when the
Baltic is as smooth as a carpet, and one cannot get within a mile and