Mines were also laid by British submarines and by
daring fast surface mine-layers round Heligoland and other places off
the German coast. In this way the waters in which submarines could
work were made narrower and narrower and were better and better guarded.
But more and more submarines were launched, and they still sneaked out
to sea along the Dutch and Norwegian coasts where the Navy could not
stop them because they used to slink through "territorial waters," that
is, within three miles of the coast, where the sea belonged to the
nearest country, just the same as the land. The Navy, however, had
lines of patrols always on the watch from the Orkneys to the Shetlands,
on to Iceland, over to Norway, and north to the Arctic ice. The narrow
waters of the English Channel were watched by the famous Dover Patrol
under Sir Roger Keyes. From Folkestone to Cap Griz Nez in France there
was an unbroken line of the strongest searchlights on vessels anchored
to ride out the biggest gales. Seven miles west was another line.
Between were hundreds of patrol boats always ready, night or day, to
fire at anything on the surface or to drop depth charges on anything
that dived.
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