The Man who Missed the War Read Online Free PDF Page B

United States and Northern Ireland. The pull they would exert should also be just sufficient to keep the lines of rafts strung out and prevent their fouling one another.’
    ‘In calm weather perhaps, but not in a storm.’
    ‘No. In a storm any attempt to influence the direction of the raft convoy would be hopeless. The towing cables would snap, and these big rafts would become a serious danger to the tugs, particularly in a following sea. In the event of bad weather, thetugs would cast off and cruise at a safe distance from the rafts, then pick them up again as soon as the storm had abated.’
    ‘If the storm lasted for two or three days, the tugs might easily lose touch with your raft convoy. In the course of one rough, pitch-black night it might be swept scores of miles away from them.’
    ‘I’ve provided against that. Every fourth raft will have a small automatic beacon in the centre. The captains of the tugs ought to be able to keep in view a group of twenty-five lights spread out over an area of four square miles, even in the roughest sea.’
    ‘Will your convoy cover as much space as that?’ asked the Canon in some surprise.
    ‘Yes. Each raft would be a hundred feet square. That gives a diagonal from corner to corner of a hundred and forty feet. Then I think we should allow a thousand feet interval between each raft and its neighbours, to lessen the chance of their fouling one another in rough weather. Though, actually, I don’t see why they should, because, provided the load of each is equal in weight and distribution to the others, the stress of tide and wind should be exactly the same on them all. So, theoretically at least, they should keep station automatically. Anyhow, as I was saying, the frontage of the raft convoy when it was fully extended would be just under two miles, and, of course, it would be the same in depth.’
    ‘Have you any idea how long it would take to cross the Atlantic?’
    ‘The speed of the Gulf Stream varies from four knots at the mouth of the Amazon to two knots off the coast of Scotland. Allowing for diversions from course, due to cross-winds, it would not be unfair to take the lowest speed of two knots as an average. It is roughly three thousand miles from Long Island to Northern Ireland, so that would take fifteen hundred hours—say, sixty-three days—about three calendar months. But I think there is a way by which we could reduce the crossing to somewhere near half that time.’
    ‘How do you plan to do that?’
    ‘By fitting each raft with a long, low sail. It would be only two feet high but a hundred and forty feet in length, erected diagonally from corner to corner of the raft, immediately above itscargo, on eight short masts. And under pressure of a fair wind two hundred and eighty square feet of canvas ought to prove pretty useful.’
    ‘Then you propose that each raft should have its own crew?’
    ‘Oh no. That would be impracticable. Apart from the loss of cargo space and the big additional expense of having to fit each raft up with living accommodation and a galley, one could hardly leave two or three hundred poor devils marooned on the rafts during a storm, and on most occasions between the first warning of bad weather and the breaking of the storm there wouldn’t be anything like the time to collect two or three men from each of a hundred rafts. Besides, for ninety-five per cent of their time they’d have nothing whatsoever to do, so it would be a most appalling waste of manpower.’
    ‘True,’ agreed the Canon. ‘But sails don’t set or furl themselves; and if you left them permanently set they would be blown to ribbons before your rafts were a hundred miles out into the Atlantic.’
    ‘I don’t think you’re right about that. Of course they would if they were ten or twelve feet high, and that’s the very reason why I’ve made them only two feet. I believe that long, low sails stretched on a stout framework will stand a lot of