Even destroyers were attacked and torpedoed.
One day a German destroyer off Dunkirk suddenly found itself surrounded
by scooters which came in so close that a British officer had his cap
blown off by the blast from a German gun. He and his scooter, however,
both escaped and his torpedo sank the Hun.
Fourthly, come the submarines, those sneaky vipers of the sea that seem
made on purpose for the underhand tricks of ruthless Germans. Deadly
against unarmed merchantmen, and very dangerous in some other ways, the
submarine is slow under water, no match for even a destroyer on the
surface, and "tender" to attack by gunfire, to bombs dropped from
aircraft, to "sea-quaking" depth charges, and, of course, to ramming.
We shall presently hear more about these inventions of the devil.
[Illustration: Seaplane Returning after flight.]
Fifthly, come the seaplanes, that is, aircraft which can light on the
water as well as fly. We began the war with a fair number of
comparatively small planes and ended it with a great number of large
ones, a few of which could drop a ton-weight bomb fit to sink most
battleships if the shot went home.
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