Accordingly the destroyer returned to the rendezvous off The Start. From there she sent a wireless announcing certain engine-room defects, that might well have stood over to a more convenient time, and requested permission to put into Brixham, where the work could be carried out.
Back came the reply: "Concur. Make good defects on relief by 'Radimus'."
At ten p.m. the destroyer "Radimus" came up, and exchanged signals with the "Livingstone," which at once steamed for Brixham.
There was just enough water for the destroyer to enter the outer harbour and tie up alongside the wall. An hour later she was aground; a little later she was high and dry in the tidal harbour.
Both the captain of the "Livingstone" and Lieutenant Gilroy had ample private means, and they did not hesitate to spend money for the good of the country and the Navy in particular. So within forty minutes of the destroyer entering Brixham Harbour, the two officers, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, had concluded a bargain with a local owner for the hire of three of the weatherly trawlers for which that Devonshire port is so greatly celebrated.
At two in the morning, when Brixham slept, the crew of the "Livingstone" were hard at work, transporting stores and munitions to the three hired trawlers. By dint of great exertion one four-inch gun with its mountings was transferred to each of the trawlers and set in position just abaft the mainmast.
Directly the tide rose sufficiently, the trawlers, each containing a third of the "Livingstone's" crew, in addition to the regular hands, warped out into the Roads, hoisted sail, and with a fresh easterly breeze "reached off" towards The Start.
Thus Terence Aubyn found himself, for the first time in his career, senior executive officer of an armed vessel—the ketch "Asphodel," with a sturdy Brixham fisherman as his sailing master, and twenty bluejackets lying upon the deck.
The three trawlers maintained a "line ahead" formation, the captain of the "Livingstone" leading in the "Myrtle," Lieutenant Gilroy second in the "Cinema," and Terence as the rear-guard. To all outward appearance the unofficial flotilla was off to the fishing-grounds.
Five miles S.S.E. of the Devon promontory known as The Start, the destroyer "Radimus" crossed the bows of the trawlers, bound for Portland Bill, the eastern limit of her patrolling ground. Unsuspecting, her officer of the watch brought his glasses to bear upon the three peaceful ketches, and proceeded on his way.