The German submarines, defeated and surrendered, have come streaming in through the guardships, up past the slipways, their crews on deck, and the white ensign flying above them, and are lying rusting and rotting, huddled together, in "Submarine Trot" off Parkeston, in Harwich harbour.
New and better flying-boats than we used have been built. And Old '61, her day done, has been dismantled and broken up. But glance down the bare bones of her career.
| Hours of patrol work | 300 |
| Total flying time | 368 |
Also the men of the War Flight are mostly back in civilian life.
They were nearly all 1914 and 1915 men, competent "tradesmen," cheerfully working overtime at their trades for a small wage, while men outside, absolutely free from discipline, were making big money for similar work. Not that the men were working for the money in it. They worked to down the Hun. But the point is mentioned because the high cost of living hit many of these service men very hard.
The officers are now scattered to the four corners of the earth, such as are still alive, in South Africa, Ceylon, Canada, South America, and the United States. There are few of them remaining in the new service. As required by the nature of the work, they were nearly all a bit older than the usual run of aeroplane pilots, and a peace time service made no appeal.
For "them as likes figures" the work they did in twelve months may be boiled down to—
| 8 | average number of boats a month: |
| 190 | flying days. |
| 605 | patrols carried out. |
| 105,397 | nautical miles flown. |
| 47 | enemy submarines sighted. |
| 25 | enemy submarines bombed. |
| 1 | Zeppelin destroyed. |