He found other
military barges similarly employed, and it was only as the day wore on
and the immediate appeals for aid were satisfied that he thought of food
and drink for his men, and what course he had better pursue. They had a
little cheese, but no water. 'Orders,' that mysterious direction, had at
last altogether disappeared. He perceived he had now to act upon his own
responsibility.
'One's sense was of a destruction so far-reaching and of a world so
altered that it seemed foolish to go in any direction and expect to find
things as they had been before the war began. I sat on the quarter-deck
with Mylius my engineer and Kemp and two others of the non-commissioned
officers, and we consulted upon our line of action. We were foodless and
aimless. We agreed that our fighting value was extremely small, and that
our first duty was to get ourselves in touch with food and instructions
again. Whatever plan of campaign had directed our movements was
manifestly smashed to bits. Mylius was of opinion that we could take
a line westward and get back to England across the North Sea. He
calculated that with such a motor barge as ours it would be possible to
reach the Yorkshire coast within four-and-twenty hours. But this idea
I overruled because of the shortness of our provisions, and more
particularly because of our urgent need of water.
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