Page:Barbour--For the freedom from the seas.djvu/270

 thought Nelson hopefully to provide some lively times if the enemy was sighted. He climbed into his hammock at midnight, however, with curiosity still unappeased, and the next day was quite uneventful. One might have thought that the American and British ships had made an appointment at Christiansand merely to enjoy an uninterrupted palaver. The northern sunlight made gay with fluttering bunting, small boats crossed from ship to ship and the harbor had a most holiday appearance. On shore, Limie "gobs" and American tars fraternized and swapped yarns and rode on the tram cars or in carriages and saw the sights very happily. Not until late in the day was the disappointing truth made known. Then from eastward, probably out of Christiania, lumbered fourteen Norwegian cargo boats, each well down in the water and each fairly shrieking its nationality in great white letters along its hull. And this was what the Gyandotte and all the destroyers. had come hundreds of miles for! To escort a lot of freighters across the North Sea! It was fairly disgusting!

The cargo boats, which ranged from big to little, passed on down the Rack, exchanging signals with the flagship, and went out of sight in the early darkness, and for awhile Nelson hoped against 245