JACK TARS' PRESENCE OF MIND.
A serious disaster was narrowly averted at Dover in connection with a treat given to six hundred schoolgirls on the battleship Albion.
The children were being taken out to the battleship in boats in a rather heavy sea. A steam pinnace, towing two whaleboats, each containing about eighty girls, was rounding the Prince of Wales Pier, when the Government tug Adder unexpectedly came round from the opposite side of the pier, bearing right down on them.
There was great excitement, as a disaster seemed certain; but the
Naval men in charge quickly cut the second boat adrift, and the tug
passed between the two crowded boatloads. The boat drifted towards the
Admiralty Pier until it was picked up and got safely in tow again.
That is the kind of "presence of mind" which every Scout should have.
* * * * *
HOW VAN TROMP'S BROOM WAS RAISED—AND LOWERED.
In "sea scouting," it will, of course, be necessary to know a lot of small as well as big things about our ships which the ordinary fellow does not know. Here is one. A man-of-war on duty always flies a pennant at her masthead—that is, a very long, very thin flag, which makes the mast look like a whip with a lash on the end of it. Here is the story of it.
In the old days, 250 years ago, Britain and Holland were both powerful nations at sea and rivals in commerce, but as we had command of the British Channel we made all foreign ships salute our men-of-war when passing them.
One day, May 19th, 1652, a Dutch fleet of forty-five ships; under their great admiral Van Tromp, came sailing up the Channel, and passed a British Fleet of twenty-three ships under Admiral Blake. Seeing how strong he was, the Dutch admiral declined to salute us. So our flagship fired a shot across his bows, as a signal to remind him of his duty; but Van Tromp promptly replied with a broadside into the stern of Admiral Blake's ship.