It was a business both of embarkation and disembarkation, on both sides of the Channel, and special provision was required for the wounded and sick. The Naval Transport and Embarkation Officers have had a very exhausting and anxious time in taking up, fitting, coaling, and otherwise preparing vessels for sea, and in giving orders for the movements of ships at the ports on arrival and departure, as well as in providing for the safety and expedition of all embarkations of men, horses, and stores, and arranging for docking and like matters. They merit the gratitude of the country and the Allies. It may be said that in all the naval and commercial ports of the United Kingdom, and in the French ports as well, work of this or like kind has been in progress uninterruptedly since the beginning of the war. It is strictly naval work, and was set on an excellent and satisfactory footing by the Admiralty; but, as the war progressed, and the pressure grew greater, imposing additional duties on the Transport Department, some matters dealt with by certain of its branches, and concerned with ship construction, modification, and repair, were placed in charge of competent civilians.
Heard the Heavens fill with shouting, and there rain’d a ghastly dew From the nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue.
From an account of the work of the British Navy in the war there must not be omitted some exposition of the gallant doings of the men of the Royal Naval Air Service. They have made their mark in the war, in every theatre of it, and no one can tell what part they will play before the struggle is at an end. Of some of their work very little is known. They render “silent” service, like that of the Navy to which they belong. They do not always carry on their duty alone. On occasions they participate in that of the Royal Flying Corps of the Army. They have been associated with the gallant French airmen, and the Americans come with a new burst of energy. The Germans know British naval airmen at Zeebrugge and Ostend, and in all the country behind those places; at sea also, when the German raiders return from their exploits; and on the West front of the Army, too, where they go at times far behind the line, spying out the land, taking number and note of the enemy, dropping bombs on his store and ammunition dumps, disturbing all his rearward services, and stirring up his aerodromes and the nursing places, where his fledglings, whom they call “quirks,” are taking to themselves wings and learning to fly.