READERS of W. W. Jacobs will remember the memorable occasion on which the engineer of a steam tug was impelled, under the influence of liquor, to take a dip in the river, leaving the tug to steam madly round and round in circles, to the extreme and articulate embarrassment of the rest of the shipping on the river. For the Thames substitute a filthy night on the Baltic ; for the shipping, two columns of battleships, and for the tug a hapless destroyer with its signal-lights gone and its steering gear jammed, and you will realize that the longest moment in Commander Villiers' life might easily have been also the last.