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Now they call the second division "The Services of Supplies." All the men who are not in the actual fighting belong to "The Services of Supplies." "How many men does it take to keep one pilot in the machine flying out over those waters to guard the transports in?" I asked the young ensign in charge of a seaplane station. "Twenty-eight," he replied.
She had sown her last crop of mines, 110 in number, off the approaches to Singapore before she proceeded to the Indian Ocean to lie in wait for the Hitachi. Altogether she had sown five hundred mines. During her stay in the Maldives the Wolf sent up her seaplane or, as the Germans said, "the bird" every morning about six, and she returned about eight.
They were still too weak to walk any distance and had to be carried in roughly-constructed "dhoolies" by the Haussas. Their relief on learning that the seaplane was safely alongside the river was great, especially when they were promised that the work of repairing the floats would be put in hand forthwith. "Your C.O. evidently wants to get rid of us," declared the pilot smiling.
The seaplane did not, of course, take off from the Wolf's deck, which was far too crowded. She was lowered over the side by means of the winch, and towed a little distance by the motor launch before rising. On her return she was taken in tow again by the launch and then lifted aboard to her quarters. She made some beautiful flights.
That ship is to receive the message or whatever is brought by the seaplane, which in the event of calm weather lands on the water and sometimes sends off one of her officers to talk to those aboard the vessel protected by the ring of speeding grey warcraft.
Expansion in naval shipbuilding plans was paralleled by the construction of giant docks; by camps sufficient for the training of two hundred thousand men; and by a naval aircraft factory from which a seaplane was turned out seven months after work on the factory was begun.
The seaplane had hovered over her, dropped messages on her deck ordering her to follow the plane to a concealed harbour near, failing which bombs would be dropped to explode the ship. Needless to say, the ship followed these instructions. "There was no panic, and the women were splendid." How often one has read that in these days of atrocity at sea!
The prospect was far from displeasing to Perk he felt positive that it would be the first time on record when one of Uncle Sam's Secret Service men fought it out with a taxiing seaplane on the subtropical waters of the great gulf.
"What's that matter to you?" he finally yelled testily, so that Perk began to suspect he must have touched up the other with one of the bullets that struck the seaplane. "Oh! nothin' much," sang out the complaisant Perk, cheerfully, "on'y I wanted to let you know I was over there in the same line and had the good luck to send down a few o' you Hun pilots in a blazin' coffin.
There will be a twenty-minutes' bombardment by the mountain battery in conjunction with an attack by the seaplane. At four forty-five the Waffs will advance in three lines to the assault. That's all, Mr. Wilmshurst." The subaltern saluted and withdrew. It was now three o'clock and an hour and three-quarters were to elapse before the battalion went into action.
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