Scout ship

“ Lors flattened the ship out in a shallow dive and pushed the throttle control until it stopped. The needle on the airspeed indicator leaped violently. 24,000 m.p.h. The ice rose against the windshield swiftly. One of the scout ships closed and fired a rocket.
He kicked at the rudder pedal and threw the ship to the left. The scout ship responded like a nervous horse and fluttered away as the rocket burned and arced beneath the underbelly. ”

“ The armament consists of five torpedo-tubes, five 4-inch and six machine guns. In England the Scout, the prototype of this class, is a twin-screw torpedo-cruiser, 220 feet in length, 34 feet 3 inches in beam, and with 14 feet draught displaces 1450 tons. Like the Condor she is subdivided into water-tight compartments and has a steel deck; on her trial she developed with forced draft 17.6 knots and 3350 horse-power. Her armament consists of eleven torpedo-tubes, four 5-inch rifles on central pivots, and eight Nordenfeldt guns.
The Fearless is a sister ship to the Scout. ”

“ Also, a scout should be able to manage a boat, to bring it properly alongside the ship or pier, that is, either by rowing it or steering it in a wide circle so that it comes up alongside with its head pointing the same way as the bow of the ship or towards the current. ”

“ Then my wand would be drained for a space. But what can you do within their hold, save be meat for their taking?"
"There can not be too many of them left there. That's a small ship. They lost five at the citadel, and the Rovers have three prisoners. No sign of the scout ship we know they have—so more of them must be gone in it. I won't be facing an army. And what they have in the way of weapons may be powered by installations in the ship. ”

“ The scout ship that he calls will come up to investigate. They will bring apparatus and attractors to bear to liberate the prisoner, and the dummies will try to fight. They will be blown up or burned to cinders almost instantly, and our little playmate will put on his space suit and be taken across to the capturing vessel. ”

“ Sometimes, when you get real excited, you almost talk the way I feel.”
Suddenly they sat up, as did the four or five others in the large room. Other pilots began to pile into the room followed by most of the big-shot officers on the ship.
“Oh-oh—here it comes!” Scoot said. “Now we’ll find out. It looks like a briefing.”
There were fighter pilots, the pilots, gunners and observers of torpedo and scout dive bombers, and the squadron leaders of each group, accompanied by the particular vice-admiral in command of the force now racing across the Pacific. ”

“ But here at sea the English sailors evidently can see tracks ahead of them, otherwise they would not know which way to send the ship, and yet we, who are so good at seeing on shore, cannot see any sign of a track or mark on the water."
When getting on to very fresh spoor of man or beast, the old scout will generally avoid following it closely because the hunted animal will frequently look back to see if it is being followed. ”

“ The scout bay is no more than a great oversized airlock with a dozen small ships squatting over their tubes, but it was the last of the Ship that I might ever see, so I took a long final look from the top of the ramp.
There were sixteen of us girls and thirteen boys. We took our places in the seats in the center of the scout. Riggy Allen made a joke that nobody bothered to laugh at, and then we were all silent. I was feeling lost and just beginning to enjoy it when Jimmy Dentremont came over to me. He's red-headed and has a face that makes him look about ten. An intelligent runt like me. ”

“ They had placed a battery of cannon of a size never before mounted on shipboard upon [Pg 57] her deck, close to the water-line; they had built over the battery a framework of stout timbers, covered with armor rolled from rails, and they had put a cast-iron bow upon this marine marvel. A wooden ship was a mere toy to her.
The next morning came—it was March 8, 1862—and the "Merrimac" came. As she emerged from distance and mist, our scout-boats came racing to the "Cumberland" with news of the danger that was fast nearing her. The news was a tonic to officers and to men. ”

“ The fleet needs to have a means of knowing where the enemy is, how many ships he has, what is their character, the direction in which they are steaming, and their speed. To accomplish this purpose, "scouts" are needed—fast ships, that can steam far in all kinds of weather and send wireless messages across great distances. So far as their scout duties go, such vessels need no guns whatever, and no torpedoes; but because the enemy will see the scout as soon as the scout sees the enemy, and because the enemy will try to drive away the scout by gun and torpedo fire, the scouts must be armed. ”

“ The boat drifted towards the
Admiralty Pier until it was picked up and got safely in tow again.
That is the kind of "presence of mind" which every Scout should have.
* * * * *
HOW VAN TROMP'S BROOM WAS RAISED—AND LOWERED. In "sea scouting," it will, of course, be necessary to know a lot of small as well as big things about our ships which the ordinary fellow does not know. Here is one. A man-of-war on duty always flies a pennant at her masthead—that is, a very long, very thin flag, which makes the mast look like a whip with a lash on the end of it. ”

“ Even on ordinary water, no one but a tenderfoot would sail a small boat with the "sheets" made fast; the men sailing the boat hold these in their hands ready to ease them up at any moment should a squall strike them. But the danger is much greater on a lake among mountains.
So you see a Scout needs to know something about sea scouting if he wants to get about successfully in a country where he has to make use of boats or canoes. ”

“ The Bright Wing is not a yacht, and we are not here just to enjoy ourselves, although we probably shall have a much better time than if we were. We are here to learn to apply the spirit of the scout law to the art of seamanship. I do not want to keep you long now, but I [48] want to point out to you at the outset the fact that you have a real responsibility as the crew of this vessel.
“Men who are in the habit of facing danger look it squarely in the face and do not pretend that it does not exist. ”

“ Kennedy slowed down his engine as we approached the floating wreckage, for there was not only the danger of our own frail little craft hitting something and losing rudder or propeller, but we could not tell what moment we might run across some of those on the yacht, if any had survived.
Other boats had followed us by this time, and we bent all our energies to the search, for pursuit of the scout cruiser was useless. There was not a craft in the harbor capable of overtaking one of her type, even in daylight. At night she was doubly safe from pursuit. ”

“ It did not take the captain long to get the scouts down to steady work. As the holidays were now on they often met during the afternoons, when the captain drilled them in marching, instructed them about the flag, and taught them how to tie a number of knots. It was necessary for them to know such things before they could obtain the tenderfoot badges. They had to learn the Scout Law as well. It was not all work, however, for the captain often took the boys for delightful spins upon the river in the Roaring Bess, and soon all the scouts were able to handle the yacht in a creditable manner. ”

“ The tug had a full crew, scant accommodations, and a hard-hearted captain, who decreed that Scotty should be put aboard [293] the first craft that would take him. This happened to be a three-skysail-yard American ship—the Baltimore—two days out from New York for Shanghai, whose skipper backed his yard in answer to the tug-captain's offer to give him a sailor, and whose third-mate received Scotty—not with open arms, but clinched fists, as he dropped, swearing, to the deck in a bosun's chair. ”

“ When it was all over, and half the Jap force lay at the bottom of the sea while the rest ran for cover, pursued by American planes, the men on the Plymouth wearily surveyed the damage done to their ship. It was plenty, but a month in port would fix her up again. As they headed slowly for Pearl Harbor for repairs, Scoot and March got the big surprise of their lives. They had no thought of making heroes of themselves, and they never could figure out how, in the heat of battle, any officer could have seen just what they did. ”

“ But a wrecking tug was sent for, by signals to the shore when the fog lifted, and in time one arrived, with a lifeboat in tow—which was a lucky forethought of some one, for the rising wind and sea had developed into a storm that was breaking the ship in pieces. Anchored well out, and steaming with full power into the teeth of the gale, the tug slacked down the lifeboat, and one by one the crew sprang into the sea and was pulled in. Six trips in and out completed the rescue, and Scotty came out on the last, with the frantic captain, who never ceased his bitter self-reproach. ”

“ Upon this the Allied scout cruisers and destroyers veered to the north. Zigzagging, disappearing behind smoke screens and fitfully reappearing, these scouts presented a maddeningly difficult target for the battle cruisers. With the speed presumably at their disposal they might have drawn away and escaped, but instead they zigzagged and kept reappearing so near that the battle cruisers would open fire on them, only to lose sight of them again in the smoke and haze before the range-finders, spotters, and trainers could get in the necessary work for hitting the elusive targets. ”

“ Alone and unaided, Pilot Travers copes with the invisible foes who have struck down America's great engine of war.
The muffled, helmeted figure of a pilot climbed down the spider ladder, nestled into the foremost scout's cockpit and pressed the starting button. The motor spat out a wisp of smoke, then burst into its full-throated roar: the automatic clamp above loosened: the scout dropped plummet-like, bobbed to the flagship below, straightened out and zoomed six thousand feet up into the morning blue, where it hovered for a few moments like an eagle on taut wings. ”

“ Another thing to look out for on these mountain lakes is that a bit of wind very quickly makes quite fair-sized waves, which, with a heavily loaded boat, may lop in over the side, if your helmsman is not very careful, and swamp the boat. So it is foolishness for any Scout to go on this sort of expedition unless he can swim.
In fact, every Scout ought to be able to swim; he is no use till he can, and he will always find it useful to know something of sea scouting. ”

“ The fast pursuit was diving on the seaplane’s tail. Scoot heard the staccato rattling of the ship’s machine guns.
“Good!” he cried. “Firing while he’s still too far away, like all of them! Too anxious!”
But then Scoot’s plane wobbled, tipped over, and went spiraling down to the sea in a slow spin. The pursuit plane circled above and watched. About fifty feet above the water, the seaplane lurched a little, seemed to come out of its spin. The pursuit plane pilot looked puzzled, but he smiled again as he saw the plane stall, slip back and hit the sea, tail first.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ATTACK! ”

“ Mounting the forecastle deck—where he had a right to be—he watched and waited until the three crafts astern were as one in the wake; then, shedding his oilskins and boots, he sprang overboard. He heard the shouts of a shipmate, and as he came to the surface, saw men on the rail, looking and waving. He saw the second mate heave over a life-buoy, but it fell short, and he did not swim for it. The ship went on, for a square-rigged craft may not round to in a gale.
Scotty swam shoreward at first, for he knew that the steamer and tow would make leeway. ”

“ Your Scoutmaster tells me that you have only an old ship's boat. You deserve something better. I am giving you a yacht—no, not the Ocean Bride," he said hurriedly, as more than one pair of eyes turned in the direction of the yacht lying alongside. "The one I'm handing over to you is the Spindrift, which is a little more than half the size of the Ocean Bride."
"Thanks awfully much, sir," replied the Sea Scouts in chorus; then in their excitement they volleyed a string of questions: "Where is she, sir? What is she like? When can we have her?"
"Steady!" protested Mr. Collinson smilingly. ”

“ As Admiral Knight has observed, battleships alone do not make a fleet, much less a navy. Our fleet is greatly weakened by our lack of destroyers. A fleet should always be accompanied by a large number of these vessels to support the scouts, and also to do scout duty themselves. They stiffen the screen about the battleships, and, when an opening is present, they are ready to dash against the enemy.
In the Civil War and in the Spanish War we were able largely to employ improvised merchant vessels for fuel-ships and scouts ”

“ Beyond that there was nothing that could possibly be taken for the Spindrift.
"We'll soon find out where she is," rejoined Mr. Graham. "Here's the office of the yacht yard."
One of the partners of the firm received the arrivals with cordiality.
"Yes, she's lying well up the canal," he replied, in answer to the Scoutmaster's question. "All the gear is on board, and we've filled the tanks with fresh water. You have merely to provision your ship and start away as soon as the tide serves. Oh, no: there is nothing to pay. Mr. Collinson instructed us that the account was to be sent on to him. ”

“ The scene was remarkable when Lord Charles Beresford stood in the stern of his launch and addressed the Sea Scouts, who clustered round in about fifty boats.
"I am very proud to be here, as Chief Sea Scout, to inspect you, to appreciate you, and to give you a few of the views which I hold with regard to the excellent institution which you have taken up," said Lord Charles. They must remember, he went on, that the inclination of all British people was towards the sea. The sea was our frontier, and we came from a race of sailors. ”