Page:Can Germany Invade England?.djvu/122

110 each vessel, or group of vessels, has put to sea as soon as its equipment was complete, leaving its place at the quay to be taken by another, or others; for, outside the harbour, no hostile fleet has been waiting to capture it, and however many thousand miles of water lay between it and the coast for which it was bound, wind and weather were the only foes it had to fear.

Contrast this leisurely, care-free state of things with that which will prevail under conditions that demand that 139 ships shall be got ready simultaneously and steam out of port together. Only a small proportion of those 1 39 could be loaded from the wharves; to the majority, men, horses, guns, ammunition, stores, transport of all kinds, must be conveyed in lighters and troop-boats, out of which the horses must be slung on board,