Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X DURAZZO After Gallipoli we made one trip on patrol on barrage and then returned to our base. We had been there but one day when word was received to stand by to get under way. Rumors began to fly thick and fast as to where we might go. Every derail that might have a bearing on our movements was carefully noted. The French fleet was getting up steam in the harbor, a thing not seen before, and then we learned that Captain Nelson, Lieutenant-Commander Bastedo, and Doctor Clemmer were to be in on the party. There was a pharmacist's mate detailed to each chaser, and it certainly began to look as though something big were to be pulled off. A message was signaled from the Leonidas, very urgent indeed, requesting information as to the whereabouts of Captain Nelson's wicker chair. Special gangs of machinists were sent aboard to see that all was in readiness in that department. After the customary four hours of standing by, that always precedes 68 an important order to get under way in the navy, twelve of us steamed out of the harbor in column. It was now nine o'clock at night and ordinarily the nets would be closed to passage at such an hour. None of us except Captain Nelson and perhaps Mr. Bastedo, neither of whom were communicative, knew where we were bound. We followed the Albanian coast to Strata Bianca and then set our course generally northwest. The first intimation most of us had of our destination was the instructions on formations on entering the port of Brindisi, Italy. Why we went there, what we had come for, or how long our stay might be was still a mystery. As we made our way through the outer harbor at about four o'clock in the afternoon of September 30th, we saw a great number of Italian battleships and British destroyers...