When abreast of the "Royal Sovereign" lightship the wind veered a point or two until it was fairly abeam. The monitor now commenced to roll horribly, at one moment thrusting her bulging sides deeply into the sea, at another rearing until she showed her weather bilge-keel.
Had there been occasion to use her two 14-in. guns, it would have been impossible to train them with any degree of accuracy. Suitable for fair weather and in sheltered waters, the "Anzac," like the rest of her class, proved herself a mean substitute for the super-Dreadnoughts, whose bulk and draught rendered them admirably steady gun-platforms.
"Give me something with plenty of draught," thought Tressidar, as the "Anzac" gave an extra heavy roll. "A craft that will grip the water. If it gets much worse, she'll either have to cut and run for it, or else stand a good chance of going to Davy Jones."
"She'll take it quietly under the lee of the Belgian coast," remarked the navigating lieutenant, who had read his comrade's thoughts. "Especially if the wind veers a few points more."
Early next morning the "Anzac" dropped anchor within the Admiralty breakwater at Dover. Here a flotilla was assembling for the impending operations off the Flanders coast. One of the periodical visits to the German works at Zeebrugge was to be made on an imposing scale.
With the enormous sea-power at their disposal the British Admiralty could with little exertion drive the Huns away from the Belgian coast; but this for strategic reasons was undesirable. The Allied left wing rested on the sea. From the sea it could be fed and supplied with ammunition, and there was no danger of the flank being turned. On the other hand the Germans, not having command of the sea, were under obvious disadvantages. They were constantly open to the fire of British monitors. Thousands of troops had to hold their right flank without being able to fire a shot at the Belgian and British trenches, which terminated thirty or forty miles short of the Dutch frontier. Fears of an invasion under the guns of the British fleet compelled the Huns to hold the useless coast. Zeebrugge, on which they fixed their hopes as a base for their submarines, was no longer tenable. Its mole had been destroyed, its docks and canal basins rendered useless by the British guns. Without attempting to board a single soldier, the British kept a couple of German Army Corps literally on thorns.
At daybreak the monitors, accompanied by a number of destroyers and patrol craft, were within seven miles of the Belgian coast. The British tars made their preparations with grim earnestness and without undue haste.
Amongst the many services to be performed before the huge guns began to hurl their enormous projectiles at the foe, the buoyage of the adjacent neutral waters of Holland had to be made.
For this task a number of picquet-boats were detailed, each under the charge of a sub-lieutenant, who in turn were under the orders of a senior lieutenant. Skill in taking bearings was essential, since there was no desire to err even a cable's length on the neutral side.
Amongst the subs. detailed was Ronald Tressidar, who had to proceed to a point exactly on the three-mile limit, the position being "checked" by independent observations.