THE WATCH CHANGED AT noon, and Olsen, after the usual exchange of reports and requests through the voicepipe, continued his binocular search of the shrouded horizon. He heard the lookouts changing over behind him, and the new men climbing up onto the standards; the ones going off watch reported to the back of his head, ‘Lookout relieved, Sir,’ and he muttered, ‘Very good’ without taking the glasses from his eyes or pausing even for a second in the pure concentration of visual effort.
One of the things they taught you, in the training course, was that when you were on watch you should constantly think of the many possible emergencies: the sighting of an enemy ship, a periscope or the track of a torpedo: think of each thing in turn and decide in your own mind what action you’d take, what or
