Explore "The Navy Eternal" by Bartimeus on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Through all the monotony of its unending vigil, the Spirit of the Fleet remains unchanged. " -- _Daily Paper._
A flotilla of mine-sweeping sloops entered harbour with the last of the light and secured to their buoys; they were weary sea-battered little ships, and for a while they remained as silent as a stable-full of costermongers' donkeys at the close of a hard day's work. The ebb tide strengthened and they swung to their moorings in an invisible "rip" that swept round a curve of the adjoining island. One by one the cables tautened and the line straightened.