Page:Barbour--For the freedom from the seas.djvu/260



HE Gyandotte steamed out of Queenstown one October twilight in company with four destroyers and headed southeast, a departure from the usual proceeding that excited comment and conjecture from one end of the ship to the other. The bulletin was eagerly searched, but the Old Man had nothing to say as yet as regarded destination or duty. It was not until morning and the Gyandotte, still in company with the destroyers, was seen to be off the southern coast of Cornwall that the unprecedented was known to have happened. So far the Gyandotte had never dipped her nose into the waters of the English Channel. Few of the American patrol boats had, either, for their sphere of activity was principally to the south and west. Naturally the rumor that they were to rendezvous with the British Grand Fleet somewhere in the North Sea for an attack in force on a German naval base became current, mainly because that was the thing that 235