The vessel may be steered either to the right or the left by
means of a large vertical helm, some 80 square feet in area,
which is hinged at the rear end to a fixed vertical plane of 200
square feet area.

An upward or downward inclination is, as we have seen, effected
by the ballonets, but in cases of emergency these compensators
cannot be deflated or inflated sufficiently rapidly, and a large
movable weight is employed for altering the balance of the
vessel.

In this country the authorities have hitherto favoured the
non-rigid air-ship for military and naval use. The Astra-Torres
belongs to this type of vessel, which can be rapidly deflated and
transported, and so, too, the air-ship built by Mr. Willows.



CHAPTER XIII
The Zeppelin and Gotha Raids

In the House of Commons recently Mr. Bonar Law announced that
since the commencement of the war 14,250 lives had been lost as
the result of enemy action by submarines and air-craft. A large
percentage of these figures represents women, children, and
defenceless citizens.

One had become almost hardened to the German method of making war
on the civil population--that system of striving to act upon
civilian "nerves" by calculated brutality which is summed up in